Before the sold-out crowd cried out, before the Kentucky defender regained his balance, before the ball went in the basket, UF point guard Kasey Hill was already drifting back on defense.
He knew it was going in.
His crossover into a midrange jumper gifted the Gators a nine-point lead that they never gave up.
“Kasey Hill is not known as a jump shooter,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “He made five straight shots.”
“That happens against us. Guys, they have beer muscles. All of a sudden they’re better than they are.”
No. 24 Florida flexed those beer muscles Saturday night in the O’Connell Center, beating No. 8 Kentucky, 88-66. The Gators became the first team to hold the Wildcats to just 66 points along with a season-low 37.7 shooting percentage.
UK’s offense came into the O’Connell Center scoring more than 90 points per game on better than 48 percent shooting from the field.
“We were very, very good defensively against one of the best offensive teams in the country,” UF coach Mike White said.
It was quite a different tone than the one White carried two Saturdays ago, when UF dropped its first home game to Vanderbilt.
After Vanderbilt, White said the Gators were at a “fork in the road.”
They had just lost their second straight SEC game with a disheveled defense and an offense averaging under 60 points per game during that slide.
Now the Gators have rattled off a three-game streak of 30-point wins and knocked off the SEC’s perennial top dog by more than 20 points.
White credits the transformation to a team meeting the players held after the loss to Vanderbilt.
For about two hours, UF’s players hashed out their issues.
"People called each other out, but it wasn't personal. We said we weren't going to be mad about anything anyone said," junior forward Devin Robinson told FloridaGators.com. "We took it all on the chest. Everybody was humble and humbled in there. No egos.”
White said the meeting was largely about the players recommitting to each other on defense, holding each other accountable.
Four games later, the Gators are playing their best basketball of the year, as evidenced by their first win over a ranked team on Saturday.
“Hey beating Kentucky is great. They’re one of the best teams in the country,” White said. “But we’re 8-2. We’re halfway through league play. We’ve got a ways to go.”
UF’s first stop is Athens, Georgia, for part two of the Bulldogs-Gators season series. In January, it took overtime for UF to pull out a come-from-behind 80-76 win.
With that on his mind, White said the Gators can celebrate the Kentucky win for all of an hour before shifting their focus.
“I’m gonna go home and hug my kids and have a big pizza with my wife and feel good about it,” White said.
“And then we’re on to Georgia. That’s it.”
Contact Matt Brannon at mbrannon@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @MattB_727.
UF guard Kasey Hill dribbles the basketball during Florida's 88-66 win over Kentucky on Feb. 5, 2017, in the O'Connell Center.
