{"id":21554,"date":"2012-02-07T11:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21554"},"modified":"2012-02-07T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-07T16:12:00","slug":"college-basketball-picks-florida-gators-vs-kentucky-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-basketball-picks-florida-gators-vs-kentucky-wildcats-21554\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Picks: Florida Gators vs. Kentucky Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 7 Florida Gators at No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats
\nTuesday, 2\/7\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kentucky -10
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Kentucky -9
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 142
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 142
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Florida Gators lead the country in 3-pointers made heading into tonight's game against the Kentucky Wildcats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Florida is certainly going to have its hands full when taking on the Kentucky Wildcats inside Rupp Arena, posting a 3-12 record on the road in this series under the direction of current head coach Billy Donovan.\u00a0 The Gators are still confident in being able to compete in having five players averaging in double figures.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s no pressure on us, going into Rupp, just playing our game,\u201d commented Gators guard Kenny Boynton.\u00a0 He leads the team in scoring 17.6 points per game.\u00a0 Florida is 15-9 ATS on the road the past two-plus seasons, while the \u201cover\u201d is 13-11 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Gators lead the Southeastern Conference and rank ninth nationally in scoring 80.1 points per game, while leading all schools in hitting 241 3-point shots.\u00a0 Florida\u2019s offense is directed by point guard Erving Walker, who leads the SEC with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio and 5.1 assists per game.\u00a0 Boynton and Walker have combined for 52 assists and 18 turnovers during the team\u2019s current seven-game win streak.<\/p>\n

Kentucky also has five players averaging double-figures in scoring and comes off a dominating 86-52 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks as 11.5-point road favorites.\u00a0 The Wildcats are led by the play of freshman center Anthony Davis, who is scoring 13.9 points per game, while leading the country in blocking 4.8 shots a contest.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s great at it,\u201d commented Donovan of Davis\u2019 shot-blocking ability.\u00a0 The program is off to its best start in conference play since the 2005 squad won its first 10 SEC affairs.\u00a0 Kentucky is 9-14 ATS on the year and the \u201cunder\u201d is 15-7 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats have faced the Gators seven times as the top-ranked team, winning each of those contests, with the last one coming in 1996.\u00a0 Kentucky is a dominating 65-2 when playing at home when labeled the No. 1 team in the country.\u00a0 Defense has been the name of the game recently, holding its last four opponents to 52 points or fewer, which has resulted in leading the SEC in scoring defense.\u00a0 The Wildcat own the nation\u2019s longest home-winning streak at 48 games.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Gators due to their 8-1 ATS mark on the road after playing three or more consecutive home games, while the Wildcats are 4-9-1 ATS in the last 14 meetings.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 7 Florida Gators at No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats Tuesday, 2\/7\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kentucky -10 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Kentucky -9 Opening Total:\u00a0 142 Current Total:\u00a0 142 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Florida is certainly going to have its hands full when taking on the Kentucky Wildcats inside Rupp Arena, posting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[5659,6068,499,5741,876,4116,739,3875],"class_list":["post-21554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-anthony-davis","tag-erving-walker","tag-florida-gators","tag-kenny-boynton","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-rupp-arena","tag-sec","tag-southeastern-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21556,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21554\/revisions\/21556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}