Florida Gators projected to upset No. 6 Kentucky by ESPN's BPI
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The highlight of Todd Golden’s inaugural season at Florida was a 67-54 upset over No. 2 Tennessee, matching UF’s highest-ranked home victory in program history. In their conference opener this weekend, Golden and the Gators could get another signature win against a top-ranked rival.
UF (10-3), winners of six straight in December, opens SEC play on Saturday vs. No. 6 Kentucky (10-2) at 12:30 p.m. There will be a sellout crowd in the O’Dome, and fans could be on hand for an upset.
ESPN is projecting Florida to beat the Wildcats at home. According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI), the Gators are a 3.6-point favorite against Kentucky and have a win probability of 61.9 percent.
It would mark Florida’s win over UK in Gainesville since 2018.
The BPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. Despite the Wildcats being No. 6 in both polls and Florida receiving no votes, they are ranked 22nd in the country with a 10.9 BPI and UF is just six spots behind them with a 9.8 rating (No. 28).
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The Gators went undefeated last month after a 4-3 start to the season, matching the team’s longest winning streak since opening the 2021-22 campaign with six straight victories.
“I know they are excited for conference play to start,” Golden said. “We got a full week to prepare for Kentucky, which is great, but we’re about as ready as we can be. I think we did a good job of navigating this non-conference schedule … and we gutted out some tough games in December. First time undefeated month since 2021, and that’s the only other time since the 2014 team that rallied 30 in a row or something like that. So, big time for us to kind of hit that milestone and our guys are coming together.
“We came back (from the break) and we had really, really good practices the last three days. As a coach that gives you confidence that you can go out and perform well. But that’s the next step for this team; to make sure when we’re out there practicing and competing at a high level, that we understand that’s what’s going to prepare us for the games. We’re not going to be able to just show up and go out and hoop against Kentucky. We got to make sure we have a great week of practice that can prepare us to be ready to go against those guys.”
