Florida’s best chance of upsetting Kentucky lies not with Kenny Boynton, Brad Beal or even Patric Young, but with one of the Wildcats.
His name is Marquis Teague, and he isn’t your average John Calipari point guard. Of course, that’s partly because the average Calipari point guard is otherworldly.
Teague is following in the footsteps of Brandon Knight, John Wall, Tyreke Evans and Derrick Rose, but at this point in his career, he has nothing on those NBA talents.
In fact, he’ll be the worst starter on the floor Tuesday night.
The best way for Florida to fell the mighty beast that is Kentucky is to hack off its head, and that means pressuring the turnover-prone Teague into mistakes.
UF proved how important turnovers were in Saturday’s win against Vanderbilt, when 17 takeaways sparked numerous Gators runs and took the Commodores out of rhythm.
That’s a model UF desperately needs to follow against Kentucky, a team that will hold almost every conceivable advantage.
The Wildcats have won 48 in a row at fabled Rupp Arena, where 23,500 fans will try to make life miserable for the Gators.
Kentucky will have a decided edge in athleticism, including six players who entered as five-star recruits.
The Wildcats figure to control the paint, as the team leads the nation in block percentage and two-point field-goal-percentage defense thanks to monsters like Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones.
Their seventh man, Kyle Wiltjer, would have a legitimate chance to start at Florida.
But if UK has a weakness — a legitimate “if” for the No. 1 team in the nation — it’s turnovers. And Teague is the main culprit.
The dominant Wildcats haven’t lost since Dec. 10, but the closest they came was a three-point win against Tennessee on Jan. 14, when Teague turned it over five times.
His turnover rate for the season is 25.6 percent, more than five percentage points higher than anyone else who will play in Tuesday’s game.
UF coach Billy Donovan is usually hesitant to go to full-court pressure on the road, given the lack of crowd support and officials’ tendencies to give the home team preferential treatment.
But on Tuesday, Donovan has to throw caution to, and run like, the wind.
On the surface, it seems like a bad idea to speed up a Kentucky team with so many athletes. But during the course of the year, the Wildcats’ offense has actually been worse in games with a higher tempo.
The most possessions UK played in a game was 78 against fast-paced Louisville when the Wildcats scored a season-worst 0.88 points per possession.
And given Kentucky’s propensity to pound it inside, this game could very easily be one where Young and Erik Murphy get into foul trouble. That scenario would mean greater minutes for Will Yeguete and Casey Prather, two players best suited to bring the heat at the top of a press.
Pushing the tempo gives Teague and the Wildcats more chances to make a mistake, something UF will desperately need if it hopes to knock off heavily favored Kentucky.
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org.
