Five things you need to know from No. 10 Kentucky’s 106-100 win over No. 6 Florida

Five things you need to know from No. 10 Kentucky’s scintillating 106-100 win over No. 6 Florida in the men’s SEC basketball opener:

1. Mark Pope hits an early “triple.” With UK’s victory, it has taken Mark Pope 14 games as Kentucky head coach to amass three wins over top-10 foes.

The victory against the No. 6 Gators followed earlier Wildcats wins over then-No. 6 Duke and then-No. 7 Gonzaga.

Going back to Joe B. Hall in 1972-73, Pope is only the second UK coach to notch as many as three wins over teams rated in the top 10 of the AP men’s college basketball poll in his first season.

The other to do so was Tubby Smith, whose national-title winning Kentucky head coaching debut included wins against No. 6 Purdue, No. 3 Duke, No. 10 Stanford and No. 7 Utah, the latter trio of victories being the final three games of the “Comeback Cats” national championship journey.

Given the ample strength of the Southeastern Conference, Pope figures to have multiple chances to get additional top-10 wins in 2024-25.

2. Kentucky puts its super power on display. The knock on UK in 2024-25 is that the Wildcats lack a singular star capable of being a reliable go-to guy.

Yet what is a collection of good players is also Kentucky’s strength.

The Wildcats put their balance on vivid display against Florida.

UK’s top six players all scored between 14 and 23 points.

Kentucky’s balance — Koby Brea with 23 points, Lamont Butler 19, Otega Oweh 16, Amari Wiliams 15 and Jaxson Robinson and Andrew Carr 14 each — overcame the star turns produced by Florida guards Walter Clayton Jr. (33 points) and Alijah Martin (26).

3. Cats strong in SEC lid-lifters. Kentucky’s victory made the Wildcats 42-11 in SEC season openers since the start of the 1972-73 season.

Among UK head men since 1972-73, Joe B. Hall went 9-4 in SEC openers, Eddie Sutton went 3-1, Rick Pitino 7-1, Tubby Smith 8-2, Billy Gillispie 2-0, John Calipari 12-3, and Mark Pope is 1-0.

4. Pope vs. Golden. Before they each made it to the SEC, Kentucky’s Mark Pope and Florida’s Todd Golden were coaching rivals in the West Coast Conference. When Pope at BYU and Golden at San Francisco overlapped from 2019 through 2022, they had a hotly contested series of games.

That certainly carried over Saturday in Rupp Arena.

With UK’s victory Saturday, Pope is now 5-3 head-to-head against teams coached by Golden.

5. An NCAA Tournament omen? Just in case you have wondered, of the eight University of Kentucky teams that have gone on to win the NCAA men’s hoops championship, not one of them lost the first SEC game of their season.

Koby Brea gets hot, and Kentucky wins a big one. Cats beat No. 6 Florida in SEC opener.

Box score from No. 10 Kentucky basketball’s 106-100 SEC-opening win over No. 6 Florida

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