Kentucky vs. Florida ranking: Wildcats bounce back from slack begin to year for third straight SEC steal

Kentucky’s first two SEC victories came by slim margins against groups that are anticipated to build within the league’s bottom half of. They are going to be pushed apart as insignificant by these looking out for to imagine the Wildcats are destined for disaster following a 1-6 originate. Nevertheless what Kentucky did on Saturday might begin to commerce the yarn surrounding what these Wildcats are in a position to inviting in after their spoiled originate.

With sophomore forward Keion Brooks within the lineup for the precious time this season after missing the precious 9 video games with a calf injury, the Wildcats throttled Florida 76-58 on the toll road and improved to a pair-0 in conference play. Kentucky entered the day at No. 129 within the NET rankings and aloof faces an uphill climb to invent the NCAA Match with an overall sage of ethical 4-6. Nevertheless Brooks’ return ignited the team’s most impressive showing of the season, as the 6-7 sophomore regarded admire the spark the Wildcats had been missing at some stage in their historically unhealthy originate.

A five-star prospect who played a bench role for closing year’s 25-6 team, Brooks accomplished with 12 factors on 6-of-8 shooting and contributed six rebounds and 4 assists in 24 minutes against the Gators. He is the suitable participant on this year’s Kentucky roster who used to be piece of closing year’s rotation, and coach John Calipari has lamented his absence at situations this season.

Kentucky’s steal sets up a enormous conference showdown on Tuesday with Alabama, which improved to 4-0 in SEC play with a steal at Auburn on Saturday. The Wildcats, Crimson Tide and South Carolina are the suitable final groups unbeaten in SEC play. Nevertheless the Gamecocks maintain played finest one league game due to COVID-19 factors.