Florida 54 - 70 Kentucky (Final) (SEC Tournament) (Number 2,048)

This is why we watch.

This is why you sit through those boring games against mid-major teams in December. This is why you sit in a hotel room, listening to an SEC road game on your phone. This is why you think about differing substitution patterns, or how to cover Florida's three-point shooters, or which UK players should be coming off the bench.

This is why you agonize over the close losses, why you yell at the bad officiating, why you plead with the guys to get better.

We fans -- especially we older fans -- know how hard it is to win these things. I've seen great UK teams get upset in the SEC Tournament. I've seen great UK teams lose to even better Florida teams. I've seen the ball bounce the wrong way time and time again. But I knew that this team could come together and win this thing. I knew it at the beginning of the year, and I even knew it when they were 5-5 in conference. (I doubted it after they lost to Arkansas, but I wasn't at my best just then.)

And they really did it. This was, by far, the best game they've played all year -- even better than the game they played against Alabama. Make no mistake: Florida is a dangerous and savvy team, as they have shown time after time in recent weeks. But Coach Calipari didn't always have 5-star talent to coach. For a very long time, he was figuring out ways to win games at UMass against teams with better players. And today, his team -- despite its youth -- was just as smart, just as clever, just as disciplined -- as Florida's older squad. Their plays were sharper, they attacked the boards harder, and they did a great job of forcing Florida's guys into shooting the ball just a few feet from where they wanted to be. It was a brilliant and heady performance -- and one that really highlighted the strengths of this team.

Without Enes Kanter, UK has been small all year. And they have no depth. But this is one of the smartest teams we have ever had. They rarely turn the ball over. They shoot much better than most UK teams. And they usually do a great job of playing good defense without committing fouls. (I didn't think they could possibly hold Florida below 70 points -- but they held the Gators to less than 60 points). I thought Florida was a particularly difficult challenge because they are themselves a crafty squad. But UK outsmarted them with a beautiful array of old-fashioned give-and-go plays, back-door cuts, and fundamentally sound defense.

I also want to give particular credit to Miller, Liggins, and Harrellson -- the "other guys" -- the ones who weren't McDonald's All-Americans, the ones who were Billy Gillespie's old leftovers when Coach Cal came here. These guys have struggled to keep up with the talent and pace of the new recruits. And at times we have all despaired of their ever catching up. But they have been getting better and better, and today they were fantastic. For some reason, no one in the press remembers how good Calipari was at coaching guys like this when he was at UMass. But he still knows how to do it. And these kids deserve all the fame they will get for sticking with it and coming through when we needed them.

I know that everyone is upset about the draw we got in the NCAAs, and I certainly believe that we were treated unfairly. But there will be a lot of time to complain about that. Now I just want to celebrate a great, great win.