As Florida bullied LSU in Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday, Texas A&M’s Elston Turner was putting on a show against Kentucky in Rupp Arena.
In the Aggies’ 83-71 upset win against the Wildcats in Lexington, Ky., Turner scored a career-best 40 points on 14-of-19 shooting. The 6-foot-5 senior guard drilled 6 of 10 three-pointers, grabbed six rebounds and notched four assists.
The home conference loss was Kentucky coach John Calipari’s first in his four years with the Wildcats.
“I’m surprised that the guy went for 40 (points) against Kentucky,” junior center Patric Young said. “You wouldn’t think anyone could do that at Rupp Arena.”
After watching Turner gain national attention, No. 10 Florida (12-2, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) will look to contain him when it travels to Reed Arena in College Station, Texas, to face Texas A&M tonight at 7.
Turner leads the Aggies (12-3, 2-0 SEC) with 17.1 points on 13 field goal attempts per game. He shoots 46.9 percent from the field, 44.2 percent from three-point range and 79.5 percent from the charity stripe.
“He can do it a lot of different ways,” coach Billy Donovan said.
“The thing that was so impressive to me about him scoring in the game against Kentucky was when you see a guy score 40 points, the first thing I look immediately — the shot attempts. A guy takes 30 shots and scores 40 points, that is really not a big deal.
“When you give a good scorer enough attempts at the basket, they are going to score points. The thing that was impressive to me was his number of shots didn’t even equal the amount of points he scored. He scored 40 points on 19 shots. To me, that is a sign of a very efficient offensive player.”
According to KenPom.com, Texas A&M has an adjusted offensive efficiency of 108.1, which is good enough for 47th in the country.
But Florida’s adjusted efficiencies of 121.2 on offense and 83.2 on defense each rank second in the NCAA.
When Florida defeated Texas A&M 84-64 on Dec. 17, 2011, at the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Sunrise, Turner scored 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and made 3 of 5 attempts behind the arc.
“There will be some things from that game that we can look at in terms of philosophy, but their personnel has changed some, just like our personnel has changed some,” Donovan said.
No opposing player has scored more than 20 points against the Gators in 14 games this season.
Florida held Georgia’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting and Florida State’s Michael Snaer to 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting.
Turner will be the next target on UF’s list.
“We’ll be focused on him,” freshman guard Michael Frazier II said.
“Obviously, he’s a big-time scorer for them. When we key on him, we have to force him to take tough twos and not get any open looks.”
Redshirt senior guard Mike Rosario (left ankle), junior forward Will Yeguete (knee tendinitis) and senior forward Erik Murphy (fractured rib) are all expected to play tonight against Texas A&M.
Junior forward Casey Prather (high left ankle sprain) will miss tonight’s contest and Saturday’s home matchup against No. 17 Missouri.
Junior guard Scottie Wilbekin defends Georgia’s Charles Mann during Florida’s 77-44 win on Jan. 9 in the O’Connell Center.
