Todd Golden explains how Kentucky saved its season: 'Injuries have helped them.'

Wait, what? Yes, you read that correctly. Injuries saved Kentucky‘s season, according to Florida head coach Todd Golden.

Well, I’m taking some liberties there with correlation vs. causation, but the point he’s making is that the Wildcats are better now than they were when Mark Pope was trying to mix and match the rotation with too many moving parts. It’s unfortunate that Jaland Lowe (shoulder) went down for the season while Kam Williams (foot) and Jayden Quaintance (knee) shouldn’t be counted on the rest of the way — even if Pope isn’t willing to rule them out quite yet.

Tightening things up allowed Kentucky to find its identity and establish some much-needed continuity.

“I think sometimes things happen that you can’t control, and at times you think they might be negatives, but they turn into positives. And I think that’s something that’s happened with them,” Golden said when previewing Saturday’s matchup against the Wildcats. “I think the injuries have helped them a lot in terms of figuring out rotations and role allocation and guys getting comfortable. They were trying to play a lot of guys. They were not playing very many consistent lineups. And I think it led to them being inconsistent.

“With Quaintance, Lowe and Williams all out of the way, they’re playing nine now, and they all know their role. They all know how much they’re playing. And I think it’s kind of calmed them and made all those guys play a lot more comfortably.”

He doesn’t want to minimize what those three players bring to the table individually, but there is something to be said about too much of a good thing. Take Otega Oweh, for instance, who is playing the best basketball of his career since the start of conference play, right back in the conversation for SEC Player of the Year. Denzel Aberdeen — whom Golden knows well, as we’re all aware — has been a game-changer in his own right after spending much of the nonconference schedule as arguably the most criticized player on the team.

Do they take those steps forward if Lowe is still out there? Golden doesn’t think so.

“I think it’s helped Otega. I mean, don’t want to — Jaland Lowe’s a good player, but they’ve been able to kind of get Otega in the ball screen, get him downhill a lot more, play him on the ball more. I don’t know if that was necessarily why they weren’t able to do it before or why it wasn’t happening very often, but playing with Zel and with Otega as the primary playmakers and ball handlers has definitely been a benefit for them. And Jasper (Johnson) is coming in off the bench, trying to make plays. 

“But those two guys are their main high-usage guys in the starting lineup. And both those guys are playing really, really well right now.”

Kentucky is one of the hottest teams in the SEC, but as the Gators continue to prove, so is Florida. The crowd is going to be electric and high-level basketball will be played in the O’Dome for the No. 1 spot in the SEC. What more could you ask for, whether you’re a fan of the home or visiting team?

Golden expects the Wildcats’ best shot on Saturday.

“They’re a very good team. They’ve done well. They’ve won eight out of the last nine,” he said. “… I anticipate them getting their best players good shots and trying to put them in situations that they think they’ll be successful. … Obviously, Mark’s a very good coach. They’ve had a little extra time to prepare for us, so I think they’ll have some things up their sleeve that they’re gonna try to execute against us. And I think we have some things that we’re excited to do (Saturday), as well. 

“It should be an awesome game.”