Mark Pope won't let Ansley Almonor's performance vs. Florida go unnoticed: 'He made a huge difference.'

Of the nine Wildcats who saw the floor during Kentucky’s thrilling 106-100 win over Florida on Saturday, only one failed to score a single point. But that individual’s impact on the outcome can’t go unnoticed.

Mark Pope won’t allow it.

Senior wing Ansley Almonor finished with a goose egg in the scoring column against the Gators. The 6-foot-7 transfer from Fairleigh Dickinson fired up a trio of three-pointers during his 12 minutes of action, but none went through the bottom of the net. Pope isn’t concerned about the misses though. In fact, he went out of his way to praise Almonor in his postgame radio segment.

Why? Because Almonnor influenced the win in other ways.

“Let me tell you about Ansley Almonor,” Pope said. “So Ansley had zero points tonight. He played, I don’t know, 10 minutes give or take a minute, and he was a plus 20. So while he was on the court, he was actually a higher plus/minus than any other player on our team.

“And you might not pay a lot of attention to Ansley right now because he didn’t score, but my goodness he made a huge difference for us on the court. He was super impressive tonight. And that’s what’s beautiful about this team, we’re getting contributions from every single guy. It’s awesome.”

Relive the last 10 points of Kentucky's 16-0 run vs. Florida with the volume up 🔊

Otega Oweh scored the most points here, but the MVP of this run is Ansley Almonor. He had an assist, a steal, and a HUGE defensive rebound during this stretch. DAWG 💪 pic.twitter.com/1sWTdOA4hU

— WT – Lamont Enthusiast (@WildcatsTongue) January 6, 2025

Along with his +20 mark in the plus/minus column, Almonor’s final stat line included three rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Most importantly, he was on the floor during the biggest run of the entire game too: Kentucky’s 16-0 stretch in the first half turned a double-digit deficit into a five-point lead that the ‘Cats would not relinquish.

Almonor checked into the game with Kentucky down 20-11 at the 12:50 mark of the first half. He was subbed out with the ‘Cats ahead 31-26 with 7:15 until halftime. During that roughly five-minute span, he added two rebounds (one offensive), a steal, and an assist.

His assist went to Koby Brea for a three-pointer. His boxout on a Florida big man was huge at a time when Kentucky was struggling to keep the Gators off the glass. That rebound ultimately led to an Otega Oweh triple. His attention on defense helped prevent Florida from finding easy shots.

Even Almonor’s misses ended up as positives. He clanked a three-pointer during the run mentioned above, but the ball bounced perfectly off the rim to Oweh for a building-shaking dunk.

Almonor’s role this season has been limited and extended playing time comes in spurts. He went from averaging 16.4 points per game last season at Fairleigh Dickinson to just 4.8 points per game so far this season. He’s appeared in all 14 games for Pope but for only 12.2 minutes per outing. But as he’s said before, playing at Kentucky isn’t something he ever envisioned. Almonor seems perfectly content with doing whatever his coaches and teammates need of him to win ball games.

And for that, he deserves praise for how he played against Florida on the national stage.