{"id":33461,"date":"2014-03-16T12:23:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T17:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=33461"},"modified":"2014-03-16T12:23:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T17:23:09","slug":"ncaa-hoops-sec-championship-kentucky-wildcats-vs-1-florida-gators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-hoops-sec-championship-kentucky-wildcats-vs-1-florida-gators-33461\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Hoops SEC Championship: Kentucky Wildcats vs. (1) Florida Gators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scottie<\/a>Kentucky vs. (1) Florida<\/strong>
\n Time: 3:15 PM ET, Mar 16, 2014<\/strong>
\nTV: \u00a0ESPN<\/strong>
\n Spread: FLA -7<\/strong>
\n M\/L: FLA -330; KY +265<\/strong>
\n Total: 130<\/strong><\/p>\n

Betting odds courtesy of Bovada<\/p>\n

The No. 1 ranked Florida Gators haven’t won an SEC title in seven years, but that could all change with a victory over the Kentucky Wildcats today. College basketball oddsmakers are favoring the Gators by 7 points in the SEC championship game.<\/p>\n

The Gators (31-2) received a good scare from Tennessee on Saturday (Mar 15), as the team trailed by double digits before outscoring the Volunteers 28-14 in the second half. Gators coach Billy Donovan said his team had “a resiliency and a competitiveness,” further commenting on how impressed he was that his group has continued to compete. The Gators have won 25 straight games, and also defeated Kentucky 84-65 on Mar 8 in Gainesville and also 69-59 on Feb 15.<\/p>\n

Wildcats coach John Calipari has been impressed by Florida, commenting on what a great coaching job and adding that “it’s almost an honor to play a team like that.” The Wildcats have its own tradition to uphold as the team has won three of the past five SEC championships.<\/p>\n

Kentucky began the season as the No. 1 team in the nation, but the group hasn’t quite jelled as Calipari hoped. The potentiality of so many UK players being one-and-dones furthers the notion that chemistry may be elusive for teams built on one-year college players. The Cats ended the season by losing four of its final seven games, before blowing out LSU on Friday and winning 70-58 over Georgia in Saturday’s semi.<\/p>\n

Kentucky’s Julius Randle, who is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2014 NBA draft, said “I feel like our chemistry is getting better. We’re becoming a better team, getting better every game.” If Randle truly believes this, Kentucky couldn’t pick a better time to start clicking. But the Wildcats finished the season 1-5 against ranked opponents, and that doesn’t bode well for its prospects in the upcoming NCAA tournament. Moreover, the Gators have won 30 straight against unranked teams.<\/p>\n

KY Trends: UNDER 8-1 in last 9 Sunday games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FLA Trends: UNDER 20-8-1 in last 29 vs SEC; UNDER 10-4 in last 14 Sunday games; UNDER 29-12-1 in last 42 overall.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Head-to-head: UNDER 6-2 in last 8 meetings.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kentucky vs. (1) Florida Time: 3:15 PM ET, Mar 16, 2014 TV: \u00a0ESPN Spread: FLA -7 M\/L: FLA -330; KY +265 Total: 130 Betting odds courtesy of Bovada The No. 1 ranked Florida Gators haven’t won an SEC title in seven years, but that could all change with a victory over the Kentucky Wildcats today. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":25960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[8038,7155,499,876,5664,4054],"class_list":["post-33461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-college-basketball-live-lines","tag-college-basketball-oddsmakers","tag-florida-gators","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-ncaa-basketball-picks","tag-sec-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33461","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33462,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33461\/revisions\/33462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}