One of the teams on the floor at Rupp Arena tonight looked destined to win a national title in April. It wasn't Florida.

The Gators were thoroughly outclassed by Kentucky on Tuesday, falling 78-58 on the road to a Wildcats squad that looked more athletic, more poised, and more ready to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

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Florida vs Kentucky: Tonight, February 7, at 7 p.m., on ESPN. Be there or, I dunno, tweet square.

PF/C Anthony Davis

It's not fair to Davis to call him anything but the best player who will see the floor for either team on Tuesday night. At 6'10" and 220, he's built more like a mantis than a manchild, but he's got superb instincts on the defensive end and doesn't try to do too much on the offense, sticking with a repertoire of deep low post moves and dunks that has made him the nation's most efficient offensive player. He doesn't turn the ball over, passes acceptably, and hits almost 70 percent of his free throws, too, meaning his only glaring weakness is his inability to look at himself in mirrors. Good luck with that, Patric.

G Kenny Boynton

Kenny Boynton's cooled off considerably from the white-hot shooting that marked the first 15 or so games of his year, when he was making nearly half of his threes, but is still shooting a fantastic 43.8 percent on his threes, and plays admirable defense on all manner of wing players despite giving up a few inches to virtually every one of his assignments. Boynton also drives better than any other Florida player and typically avoids turnovers. If he has a big game, the Gators could well pull the upset on the Wildcats.

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The Florida Gators are now on an eight-game win streak, courtesy of their 73-65 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores. Bradley Beal, Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker led the way for the Gators, while Mike Rosario and Will Yeguete also came up big throughout the game. Boynton had a team-high 18 points, including two late free throws and a late three-pointer to seal the victory.

The victory is also the Gators' 19th consecutive win at home, which is the seventh longest streak in the country.

Coming into the game both teams ranked in the top 10 nationally in effective field goal percentage. As is seemingly common in those situations, both teams struggled shooting the ball. The Gators, who were fourth in the country, shot 37 percent from the field, while Vanderbilt, ranked eighth, shot 41 percent.

Beal filled up the score sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, finishing as the Gators' second leading scorer on the day. Walker chipped in with 11 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Rosario -- whose defense played a big part in the victory -- had 10 points, two rebounds and two assists off the bench to finish up the four Gators who scored in double figures.

Patric Young, who got his first start since coming off the bench the last five games, was largely ineffective due to foul trouble. Young played only 14 minutes and had just two points and four rebounds while picking up the four personal fouls that kept him on the bench for large portions of the game.

The Gators as a whole shot 16 of 17 from the free throw line, which, according to CBS RapidReports, is their best performance in a victory this season. The Gators also out-rebounded the Commodores, 31 to 29; considering that Young and Erik Murphy were in foul trouble for stretches, that is quite an accomplishment.

Jeffery Taylor led the Commodores with 25 points, while star players Festus Ezeli and John Jenkins were held in check by the Gators defense, scoring 11 and 15 points, respectively.

Florida next plays at Kentucky on Tuesday night.

South Carolina led for just 20 seconds of Florida's 74-66 win over the Gamecocks at the O'Dome on Thursday night, got outrebounded 39-28, and allowed Kenny Boynton to score 24 points. So why did it feel like the Gators were always on the verge of collapse and the Gamecocks on the brink of a huge comeback?

I think it's because Florida fans were familiar with the script.

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Apologies for getting this up late, but there were some technical difficulties that were out of our control. Thank you for your patience.

The Florida Gators are attempting a regular season sweep of the South Carolina Gamecocks. Yes, that's only two games, but hey, we'll take it right?

Tipoff Time

9:00 p.m. Eastern

TV, Radio and Streaming Information

The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. You can also watch it streaming online through Watch ESPN. The radio broadcast will also be available on the Gator Radio Network or on Sirius 91 and XM 91.

What to Watch For

The Gators' perimeter shooting. South Carolina is very good defensively within 15-feet from the hoop, so the Gators will be looking to exploit on the outside. Also, hopefully Kenny Boynton can solve whatever it is that is causing his shooting slump and correct it.

Game Thread Guidelines

Try to remember that, despite how emotional watching a Gators game can be, there's no reason to be abusive. Rant, curse, or exult if you must, but keep the personal attacks to a minimum.

Furthermore, and I will stress this until I am blue in the face or until FlaGators admits that I'm right, comments with both a subject line and text are much easier to read when scrolling through a thread. Try to keep that in mind.

Florida knocked off 16th-ranked Mississippi State 69-57, improving its home winning streak to 17 games.

It was a balanced scoring attack for the Gators. Brad Beal led all scorers with 19 points, Erik Murphy chipped in 14 points, Erving Walker finished with 10 points and four assists, and Patric Young put up 12 points and six rebounds off the bench.

The most impressive thing about this win was the Gators having to adapt to a style of play they’re not entirely comfortable with. Mississippi State was running its half-court offense and using a lot of clock, then feeding Arnett Moultrie and Renardo Sidney late in the shot clock. That allowed the Bulldogs to hang around and keep Florida out of its transition offense.

It was a close game until the second half when Florida really tightened up on defense. Will Yeguete, Young and even Mike Rosario all drew charges, getting the team fired up and the crowd into it. (By the way, it was probably the best crowd so far this season.)

Moultrie was far less effective guarding Young in the second half. Young struggled on offense early, as Moultrie made things difficult inside. No worries, though. Young’s patience paid off, and in the second half he exploded for dunk after dunk. You know, the I-hope-there-weren’t-any-kids-in-the-front-row-because-that-dunk-was-violent type of dunks.

Moutrie fouled out with 2:04 left in the game, and at that point the Bulldogs had no chance at making a comeback.

The Gators didn’t get the offensive production from Walker and Kenny Boynton that they’re used to seeing, but the two guards combined for nine assists and only one turnover. Mississippi State out-rebounded Florida 30-25, but with Florida playing near mistake-free basketball with only five turnovers, it really didn’t matter.

It looked bad for Florida at the Tad Pad The Gators were down 20-4 minutes into their visit to Mississippi, 38-28 at the half, 52-50 with just under six minutes to go. Things kept going right for Mississippi, with Nick Williams and the rest of the Rebels draining threes in the first half and Reginald Buckner finishing a wild second-half sequence with a thunderous follow dunk.

But the Gators just kept playing, and just kept chipping away at an Ole Miss lead that seemed like a preface to another disappointing road loss. And, instead, they got a 64-60 comeback win, the first one of the year that makes me think these Gators might be able to survive and advance in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

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Florida's status as a Nike school, and one of the athletic titan's biggest college partners, means that the Gators get to wear a lot of the shiny new duds that the Swoosh churns out. Florida's basketball team having recent national championship and being good this season means that the Gators will be donning the new Nike Hyper Elite Platinum jersey you see in this photo at home against Tennessee on February 11.

I don't really know how to react to these: they're sharp, I suppose, and there are some technological benefits to the Elite Hyper Platinum jerseys — they're lighter, and there are "laser perforations" in the shorts for enhanced breathability, making them an upgrade on previous Hyper Elite togs — but Florida wearing Platinum/gray, when the Gators haven't ever worn gray, to my knowledge, is sort of weird.

I'm betting these will grow on me, much as Florida's new uniforms for 2011-12 have (even the orange one!), but I think the slate of photos of the Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms show that they work best for a school like UConn that wears gray as is. (The UConn women's jersey looks the best to me, but what do I know?)

I turn things over to you now: Do you like Florida's new Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms? Would you have rather had Nike Hyper Elite Obsidian or Sapphire uniforms? Do you wish Nike would stop with all the new-fangled clothing and stuff, Abe Simpson? Let me know in the comments, and check out more photos via SB Nation's Sean Keeley after the jump. (Only Gators has a few other photos, too.)

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