Todd Golden knows adversity is coming for Florida: "I don't want it to be Saturday, but maybe it is"

Florida breezed through the non-conference schedule, bringing a 13-0 record and No. 6 AP Poll ranking into SEC play. The Gators are one of three undefeated teams left in the country (Oklahoma and Tennessee are the other two) but haven’t exactly faced stiff competition yet. Their best win is over North Carolina in a neutral-site matchup in mid-December, which seemed mildly impressive until the Tar Heels lost to Louisville by 13 Wednesday night to fall to 8-6. Only three more of Florida’s opponents have been ranked in the KenPom Top 100 so far: Arizona State (No. 62), Florida State (No. 70), and Wake Forest (No. 92).

Saturday’s game vs. No. 10 Kentucky at Rupp Arena (11 a.m., ESPN) will be by far the biggest test the Gators have faced so far. Head coach Todd Golden said as much when he previewed the matchup with reporters.

“Yeah, I mean, listen, we’ve had some good wins, you know? I think [North] Carolina was a really good win for us. We took care of the schedule in front of us. I think we played really well for the majority of nonconference play, you know.

“Now it gets to the point of, you know, at some point this team will have to deal with some adversity, right? I would love to go 31-0 in the regular season. I think it’s challenging this year in the SEC. So, at some point — and I don’t want it to be Saturday, but maybe it is. Maybe we get off to a bad start, you know, and that’s not something that we’ve had to deal with a lot this year, but they’re just raising the stakes.”

Saturday will also be a measuring stick game for Kentucky, which rebounded from a bad loss to Ohio State with a 34-point win vs. Brown on Tuesday. The Gators and the Cats are both top ten in offensive efficiency in KenPom. Golden said he’s giving his players two objectives on the defensive end: knowing Kentucky’s personnel and guarding them appropriately.

“They’re very good offensively,” Golden said of Kentucky. “Knowing exactly what each of these guys is trying to do offensively is incredibly important, as well as executing our coverages. I think there are certain games where that isn’t as important, and being able to keep somebody in front and guarding your yard is really important. I think for Kentucky, it’s going to be really important for us to execute guarding them the way we want to guard.

“And if we can do those two things for 40 minutes, we’ll be in good shape. But they are hard to guard, and they do some good things offensively, and they play through their bigs on the perimeter. They’re more four and five out.”

Speaking of the perimeter, Florida ranks No. 5 in the country in three-point defense, holding opponents to 26.6% from beyond the arc. After a very hot start to the season, Kentucky’s three-point shooting has cooled considerably, down to 35.5%. The Cats answered Mark Pope’s challenge of more three-point attempts vs. Brown, going 10-28. Golden said the Gators will do their best to clamp down on the perimeter, mentioning Koby Brea, Jaxson Robinson, and Lamont Butler specifically.

“I want to continue to do a good job limiting the attempts, and then the ones that we do give up making them hard for the opponent. This game, obviously they have two guys specifically in [Koby] Brea and Jaxson Robinson that can really, really shoot it. And obviously, Lamont Butler had a game against Louisville where he was 6-6 from three, so we got to do a really good job in their gym of limiting those guys’ opportunities.”

“If we’re sitting there after the game and we’ve allowed Koby Brea to shoot eight threes, it’s probably not a good recipe for success,” Golden quipped.