Kentucky is up to sixteen wins in the 2022-23 season, after they took care of business in Lexington this evening. Tonight, they got the win over the Florida Gators, 72-67, backed by a twenty-point game from future first-round pick, Cason Wallace.
The Cats improve their series lead over Florida to 108-41 all-time, and to 55-11 in Lexington. If you'd like me to keep going, Kentucky now has a two-game winning streak over the Gators and John Calipari moves to 23-9 over the program. They still have a trip to Gainesville left on the schedule, so hopefully they'll advance this streak to three games.
A few things that you notice from this stat sheet is that Daimion Collins got some game time - something that he hasn't gotten very much of in quite a while. He managed to get three points, a rebound, and a steal in his returning moment. Also, you might notice that Oscar Tshiebwe had arguably the worst offensive game of his Kentucky career, totaling just 4 points on 2/14 shooting, but fortunately that was backed by 15 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. It was not really his night, but the Cats found a way to deal with it. Finally, CJ Fredrick got back into the scoring column at a decent rate. He scored 12 points, reaching double-figures for the first time since at Vanderbilt three games prior. Kentucky needs him with at least 10 on a nightly basis and, if not, they will likely struggle because of it. He has to be a piece of this offense at all times.
Kentucky has just four more home games remaining on their schedule: Arkansas on February 7, Tennessee on February 18, followed by Auburn on February 25 and Vanderbilt to end things on March 1. Outside of those four home games, there are four road games sprinkled in there, as well. That leaves eight games that they need to win 6-7 of at a minimum, to have things the way they would prefer them to be, heading into the postseason.