Ice-cold shooting barely phased red-hot Florida vs. Kentucky; is a Gators repeat national title inevitable?

NASHVILLE -- Florida profiled as a top-100 team in 3-point percentage (35.6%) as it rode the perimeter marksmanship of Walter Clayton Jr. -- among other things -- to a national title last season.

This year, the Gators are a sub-300 3-point shooting team (30.8%) and still every bit as dominant as the squad that won it all.

Case in point: Friday's 71-63 SEC Tournament quarterfinal victory over Kentucky.

Hiding in the scrum of a whistle-plagued 2.5-hour display of horrific perimeter shooting from both teams was the trait that legitimizes the Gators' full-tilt pursuit of a national title repeat.

"I mean, everybody goes to the glass," Florida guard Urban Klavzar told CBS Sports, "and even if we miss, they get the rebound. So it's awesome to have that."

Florida hit 3 of 20 attempts from beyond the arc and missed its first eight of the second half while tying a season-low for 3-point makes and setting a season-low in 3-point percentage.

But the Gators were never in any grave danger against the Wildcats. Why? Because last year's great rebounding team has developed into an absolutely lethal rebounding team.

For the Gators, every 3-point miss is an opportunity. Those 17 rim-clangers hoisted from beyond the arc against UK turned into 16 second-chance points as Florida dominated UK 18-8 in offensive rebounds and 50-29 overall on the glass.

All but five of Florida's second-chance points came after missed 3-pointers.

"I think it's obviously a big part of what we do and how we play," Florida coach Todd Golden told CBS Sports. "We don't necessarily separate the 3-point attempts as opposed to the 2-point attempts. But when we get good shots from the perimeter, it's going to be really good offense for us because of the second chances that we're able to provide."

What should be terrifying for the rest of college basketball is that Florida is actually improving from beyond the arc, too. Prior to Friday's clunker, the Gators were firing at a 37.6% clip from deep over an 11-game winning streak that has now grown to 12.

Last year's title-winning team, known primarily for its guard play, made 36.6% of its 3-pointers over its final 11 regular-season games.

Amid the focus on what Florida lost with its top four guards from last year's team, either exhausting their eligibility or transferring, is what it kept.

What was already perhaps the nation's best frontcourt returned fully intact, and it's only been bolstered by the improvement of Rueben Chinyelu into one of the nation's top rebounders. The junior finished with 10 rebounds against Kentucky for his 22nd double-digit rebounding performance of the season.

Klavzar called Chinyelu the "best rebounding big in the States" and "just an animal" on the boards before quickly rattling off the names of fellow Florida towers Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Micah Handlogten as similarly impactful. With Haugh now flexing down to play small forward, the Gators also have more rebounding on the floor for longer stretches.

"All of the bigs have improved from last year," Klavzar told CBS Sports. "And then I feel like for the past month and a half, we've been shooting way better than the way we started the year. So when we combine those, when we shoot the ball well, and these guys are just dominant in the paint, it's really tough to stop us."

The result is the profile of a potential March wagon. Not many teams can survive their worst 3-point shooting performance of the season and beat an NCAA Tournament-caliber team on a neutral floor.

Florida did it somewhat convincingly on Friday in the latest bit of evidence that the Gators mean business in their pursuit of a repeat. Shots not falling? Not a problem, as it would be for most others. Florida will keep firing, knowing that even missed shots are a legitimate form of offense.

"It gives me a lot more confidence as a coach," Golden said, "that even if we're not playing our best or shooting efficiently, that we can still win."