Kentucky maintains ownership of Florida's O'Dome with a sixth-straight win

Kentucky Basketball still owns property in Gainesville. It is a 15,000-seat arena called the O’Connell Center located on the north side of the University of Florida’s campus. The Gators play 15 games a year there because it is nearby, but when the Wildcats come to town, the “O’Dome” is BBN-owned and Kentucky Proud.

Today, Kentucky stopped by its winter residence in Florida to add another win to its streak against its SEC rival. The Gators tried to reclaim the territory with an eight-point halftime lead in this season’s conference opener, hitting eight three-pointers in the first half. Still, Kentucky proved to be the best basketball team in the end, winning its SIXTH IN A ROW in Gainesville.

Poor Billy Donovan. Florida is 0-5 in the series since the O’Dome’s court took on Donovan’s name in December 2019. The Wildcats have won 10 of 11 overall in the rivalry, if we can still call it one.

In this latest win, Florida pulled out all of the stops to reverse the outcome. There was an Orange Out with free t-shirts for a sold-out, rowdy crowd. Some of that crowd cheered for Kentucky, though. Those Go-Big-Blue! chants were loud and clear on television.

After the game, John Calipari said, “We had a lot of blue down here,” noting Big Blue Nation’s attendance. “It’s crazy.”

Celebrate six straight with video recaps of each one, courtesy of UK Sports Video:

2024: Kentucky 87, Florida 85

2023: Kentucky 82, Florida 74

2022: #7 Kentucky 71, Florida 63

2021: Kentucky 76, Florida 58

2020: #6 Kentucky 71, Florida 70

2019: #7 Kentucky 65, Florida 54