2025-26 has been a rocky season for Kentucky basketball, as Mark Pope and company have dealt with constant injuries and inconsistency up and down the roster. Despite that, the Wildcats snuck into the top 25 this week and had a chance to make a big statement coming into a game against Florida.
Unfortunately for Kentucky, Florida has been one of the hottest teams in all of college basketball during conference play, and that continued on Saturday as the Gators got a 92-83 win at home to confirm their position at the top of the SEC.
While Florida's defense is what has made it so formidable in recent weeks, it was the offense for Todd Golden and company that was nearly unstoppable in this one. When reflecting on that postgame, Pope revealed one regret about the way he prepared his team for this one, via Wyatt Huff of Sports Illustrated.
“I probably made a mistake on matchups,” Pope said. “I probably should have re-thought that a little bit.”
Kentucky struggled to match those guards, specifically Xaivian Lee and sixth man Urban Klavzar, all afternoon long. Lee finished with a game-high 22 points and Klavzar added 19 off the bench to help lift Florida to the win. Unsurprisingly, Pope highlighted that as the main difference in the loss.
“I thought the difference in the game, probably for them today, was their guard play was, was, was better,” Pope said. ” I thought that gave him a real boost, especially earlier, the emotions coming into this game, the build up and just what you see.”
Kentucky is still comfortably a tournament team, but it is now 17-8 on the season and without arguably its two best players in Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance. There is no time to rest for Pope and company, as they will take on a pair of ranked teams in Georgia and Auburn in the upcoming week as they look to steady the ship.
On the other side, Florida is at the top of the SEC, with just two losses in conference play thus far. The Gators will stay home and host South Carolina on Tuesday night.
