Watch the Tape: Florida Gators

BRamseyKSR

On3 image — Photo by Jeff Moreland | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

It is safe to say that the Florida Gators are back on the hit list for many members of Big Blue Nation. Between a non-foul call that resulted in a TyTy Washington lower-leg injury and a non-technical foul call when a Florida player pushed Lance Ware, Rupp Arena had plenty to yell about. In the end, Kentucky came away with a convincing 78-57 victory to snap the Gators four-game winning streak. The Wildcats have now won six straight of their own heading into a very tough finish to the regular season.

Saturday night was an emotional one in Lexington. However, all that really matters is that the Kentucky Wildcats moved to 21-4 overall and 10-2 in the Southeastern Conference. The early word is that TyTy Washington avoided a major injury and should be able to return to the floor in a couple of weeks. That is the best news coming out of Lexington this weekend. Now, the ‘Cats move forward and look to make their claim to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

In today’s edition of Watch the Tape, we have a lot to cover as to why Kentucky was able to dominate the Florida Gators. We will take a look at some of the elite defensive plays, see how the Wildcats adjusted to attack the Gators zone defense, and finish with some Lance Ware appreciation. Let’s step inside the film room and look at what led to Saturday night’s big win.

Elite Defensive Plays

This Kentucky Wildcats team gets a lot of praise for their offensive prowess. However, you don’t end up as the KenPom #12 rated defense by accident. This team is really, really good on the defensive end of the floor. The ‘Cats have settled into some elite team defensive traits that allow them to force turnovers and put opponents in bad situations. Against Florida, they consistently made “non-shooters,” according to the Scouting Report, shoot 3-point attempts over and over again. Kentucky deserves to be mentioned as an elite defensive team.

Watching this Kentucky team play defense is a thing of beauty. On this possession, we start with Davion Mintz successfully fighting over a ballscreen. Then, we get a good TyTy Washington stunt followed by a Kellan Grady closeout. Finally, Washington gets two hands on the ball in the gap and Oscar Tshiebwe gets a deflection that sends the ball the other way.

As stated on Twitter, this type of defensive play will get me up out of my chair during film sessions. A major key for Kentucky defensively was taking away Colin Castleton on the roll. Here, Keion Brooks makes an incredibly athletic play on the ball to swat a lob attempt away and it leads to a layup on the other end. It is great seeing Brooks help so aggressively off a non-shooter to knock the ball away on the roll!

This Kentucky Wildcats team has gotten to be very aggressive off of the ball. It paid dividends against the Florida Gators on Saturday night. This possession is a perfect example. TyTy Washington was guarding a non-shooter and left him to go steal the ball from a driver. That aggressive play led to an alley-oop dunk on the other end that gave the ‘Cats a 16 point lead. These types of plays are becoming commonplace for Kentucky.

Finding Success Against the Florida Zone

When the Florida Gators initially switched to a zone defense it threw the Wildcats off for a while. The wide, long zone slowed things down in the halfcourt and really cut out the Kentucky penetration. However, as you would expect with a Hall of Fame coach on the sidelines, adjustments were made and the ‘Cats were able to exploit some of the soft spots in the zone. Let’s take a look at the film.

One of the keys against a zone that is as high and wide as Florida’s is getting beneath the top two defenders. If you can attack from the wings below those top guys it can present a numbers mismatch for the offense inside. You see that here as TyTy Washington attacks the middle of the floor from the wing. The weak side Florida defender tightens up to Davion Mintz and the middle defender slid over to match up with Lance Ware. Those decisions left Oscar Tshiebwe wide open for a dunk. When you get below the top two defenders you essentially take them out of the play and you can attack 5-on-3.

Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning

By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.

Here is another look of TyTy Washington getting below the top defenders on the wing. This time the guard actually comes down to take him which really puts the Gators in scramble mode. When the ball gets swung to Sahvir Wheeler one of the bottom row defenders has to close out at a bad angle, leaving the left-hand drive wide open for Wheeler.

As the game went on, Florida started to match up out of their zone more and more. That really just led to more mismatches for the Wildcats. Wheeler got one of the Gator defenders to come all the way out to the perimeter to match with him. When the ball came back to Wheeler, Oscar Tshiebwe ducked his man in for an easy drop step over his left shoulder. Great ball movement on the perimeter and recognition by Tshiebwe on the duck-in.

Lance Ware Appreciation

Kentucky fans have grown to really love and appreciate Lance Ware this season. He has improved by leaps and bounds from a year ago. However, most importantly, he brings infectious energy and toughness every time he steps onto the court. Ware excels in his role but also truly loves his role. 2.1 points and 2.1 rebounds in just over seven minutes per game are hardly most valuable player type of numbers, but every championship team has a Lance Ware type of guy. The ‘Cats are lucky to have him and he played maybe his best game yet against the Florida Gators.

There is zero chance Lance Ware would have finished this last season. He has gotten stronger, more confident, and is simply more skilled now than he was before. Kentucky doesn’t need a ton from their backup 5-man. However, when Ware can simply finish at the rim, which he is doing at a 75% clip, it really helps to reduce the drop-off when Oscar Tshiebwe is out of the game.

Ware makes a lot of high IQ basketball plays that wouldn’t even get noticed by a lot of people. As Sahvir Wheeler rejects the ballscreen to attack downhill to his left, Ware is over on the right side starting to seal Davion Mintz’s man in to open up the drift pass. That subtle move ended up putting him in perfect position for the putback dunk on Wheeler’s miss.

Some of the offensive developments are nice, but Lance Ware still is mostly out there for defensive purposes. He has been a consistently good interior defender this season. Ware did a great job stunting at #0 Jones at the top of the key as Kellan Grady chased him to deter the 3-point attempt. Then, he made an aggressive play to go steal the ball from Colin Castleton on the spin. We talked in the scouting report about going to take it off of Castleton. Great execution by Ware.