Kentucky's Chandler Goes Cold Against Florida

0:00On March 8th, Kentucky's top three-point shooter, Colin Chandler, had a rough outing against Florida on Saturday. Coming in hot at 47.2% from deep in conference play, he managed just two points on six shots total, going 0 for 3 from. Beyond the arc in 35 minutes, Florida made shedding him down a top priority after he torched them earlier. That earlier matchup on Valentine's Day in Gainesville saw Chandler drain five threes on seven tries, keeping Kentucky alive. This time in Reparina, the gators stuck with him from the start, using Xavier and Lee to hound him and limit his looks. In March, Chandler's lowest scoring game since early January, Kentucky coach Mark Poe pointed to his team's sloppy offense as a big factor, saying they failed to create early space for Chandler to run into. Florida's Todd Gold impraised his players for executing the plan perfectly. Both squads hit eight threes overall, but the Wildcats never found a rhythm. Chandler has been reliable most of the season, hitting multiple threes in 11 of 17 SEC games before this.

1:03He lit up Vanderbilt with six makes just a week ago, but cooled off with one for five against Texas A&M, then his dud. With the postseason looming, this cold streak hits at a bad time for Kentucky's best perimeter threat, who takes nearly 70% of his shots from deep. Teams know to sag off him inside, so finding ways to attack will be key moving forward.