UK completes rare men’s basketball/football sweep of Florida Gators

With Saturday’s road win over the Florida Gators, the Kentucky Wildcats did something that’s rarely happened in the school’s history.

Thanks to that 71-63 win on Florida’s Senior Day, UK achieved a rare sweep of the Gators in both men’s basketball and football.

The last time it happened was 2018, when we saw the Benny Snell/Josh Allen-led football Cats win in Gainesville, ending a 31-year losing streak to the Gators.

That was followed by the PJ Washington/Tyler Herro-led men’s basketball team sweeping the two-game regular-season series with Gators. It marked the first time since 1979-80 in which a football/basketball sweep took place, a gap of nearly four decades.

I asked UK Athletics stat extraordinaire Corey Price about how often Kentucky has beaten Florida in both sports at least once. According to his research, in addition to 2018-19 and 2021-22, there were 10 other occurrences, though only three of them featured the basketball team winning two games vs. the Gators instead of just one.

Corey Price

So if you’re keeping track, that’s 12 seasons in which a football/basketball sweep took place, five of which featuring the basketball team beating Florida twice that same season.

If you’re looking for a good sign for this UK basketball team, three of the program’s eight national championships came when a football/basketball sweep of Florida occurred, the last being in 1977-78.

Ironically, the last time this happened in 2018, those football Cats finished with the same 10-3 record as this season’s football team. Both also included Citrus Bowl victories over top-15 Big Ten teams.

Hopefully, we’ll see this year’s basketball team make it further than the 2018-19 team’s Elite Eight run.

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