By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
It doesn’t get any bigger with one week remaining in the regular season.
Southeastern Conference co-leaders No. 11 Kentucky and 13th-ranked Florida meet Saturday in a highly-anticipated showdown that will likely determine the league champion and the top seed for the upcoming conference tournament.
“This is, this is what you play for – this kind of game where both teams have something to lose,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said Friday. “Every team we play has house money. They’ve got house money. Well, we all (have house money now). When we went to Alabama and Tennessee, we both had something to lose. Now, this game, we both have something to lose.”
Although the stakes are high for both teams, Calipari says a second loss to Florida this season won’t derail his team’s mission for the remainder of the season. The Wildcats host Vanderbilt for senior night Tuesday, followed by the regular-season finale art Texas A&M on March 4 at College Station.
“It’s a huge game if you win,” the Kentucky coach said. “If you don’t, then it’s the next game and we march on. It’s not the end of the season. We have to play on. I’m trying to get these guys focused on what we have to do. They looked great yesterday. I thought the guys were really focused and locked in, and that’s the best that we can ask go from there.”
Kentucky freshman guard Malik Monk agreed with his coach and said the rematch is “another opportunity” for the Wildcats to add a signature win to the team’s NCAA tournament resume. Kentucky is 3-4 against ranked opponents this season.
“We’re just fighting for the NCAA Tournament,” Monk said. “If we lose, we care about it, but we gotta move to the next game and the next game is going to be there.”
The Gators (23-5, 13-2) handed the Wildcats (23-5, 13-2) a lopsided 88-62 setback on Feb. 4 in Gainesville. The loss was remains Kentucky’s only double-digit defeat of the season. Monk said the defeat was pinned more on the Wildcats than the Gators.
“We didn’t really get beat like that,” Monk said. “We watched film and we were down six, we were down four sometimes, we were down eight and then we just let little mistakes slip up on us. We did that to ourselves.”
Kentucky freshman forward Bam Adebayo said a slow start contributed to the team’s downfall in Gainesville.
“We just came out sloppy and they came out with intensity,” Adebayo said.
To avoid a second straight loss to coach Mike White’s squad, Monk said the Wildcats can’t duplicate the performance they had against the Gators three weeks ago.
“We gotta come out with energy and we gotta be way more physical than they were,” Monk said. “They were more physical than us down there.”
Although the winner will take all in the conference race, Adebayo said the bottom line is simply winning.
“Winning is everything, so we just want to win,” Adebayo said. “Losing doesn’t feel good, so I’d like to be on the winning side.”
Fox update
Calipari said freshman guard De’Aaron Fox has a knee bruise and will be a “game-time decision.” Fox dinged his knee in a mishap with teammate Wenyen Gabriel while going for a rebound in a 72-72 win at Missouri earlier this week.
“It’s not sprained or anything,” Calipari said. “I think it was a (knee) bruise.”
Gametracker: Florida at Kentucky, Saturday, 2 p.m. TV/Radio: CBS (Channel 27), 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter