In our rec room downstairs, we have a big blackboard showing the standings in the SEC. As I have updated it week by week, Number3Son has gotten increasingly excited about the possibility that Kentucky could go 16-0 in conference for the first time since 2003. But I kept telling him that the schedule-makers had saved the hardest game for last. The folks in Florida don't really care that much about basketball, but they do enjoy coming out once a year to shake their pom-poms and embarrass UK on national television. And they've generally been successful. Look at these scores since Billy Donovan got going down there (home team listed first):
02/04/1999: Florida 75 - 68 Kentucky
02/08/2000: Florida 90 -73 Kentucky (Florida plays in the national championship game)
03/04/2001: Florida 94 - 86 Kentucky
01/29/2002: Florida 67 - 70 Kentucky
03/08/2003: Florida 67 - 69 Kentucky
02/03/2004: Florida 65 - 68 Kentucky
03/06/2005: Florida 53 - 52 Kentucky
02/04/2006: Florida 95 - 80 Kentucky (Florida wins the national championship)
03/04/2007: Florida 85 - 72 Kentucky (Florida wins the national championship)
01/19/2008: Florida 81 - 70 Kentucky (OT)
03/07/2009: Florida 60 - 53 Kentucky (say good-bye to Coach Gillispie)
01/12/2010: Florida 77 - 89 Kentucky
02/05/2011: Florida 70 - 68 Kentucky
Putting it all together, the Gators had a 9-4 record in the last 13 match-ups, and were 4-1 in season-ending games in Gainesville (like this one). Plus the Gators were playing to hold off Tennessee and finish second in the SEC -- a result that could have huge implications for their NCAA seed. Plus they were trying to avoid losing their third straight game. Plus we were playing at noon Eastern, which meant that most of our western Kentucky fans would still be in church. Even Pomeroy gave Florida a 32 percent chance of pulling the upset, although he liked UK by the score of 75-69. On the whole, I was prepared for a difficult afternoon.
And then Kentucky played the best basketball they've played all year. They smothered Florida's three-point shooters, and shredded Florida's defense by sending Terrence Jones to the hoop time after time against Erik Murphy. With 5 minutes left in the first half, UK was up 38-22.
But Billy Donovan is a great coach -- no matter what some Kentucky fans say -- and Florida is a solid team. The Gators closed the half on a 10-2 run, making the score 40-32 at intermission. And then the Gators opened the second half with a 12-6 run. Suddenly, with 16:30 left, UK led by only 46-44. Calipari called time-out.
Calipari explained in the post-game show that Florida's run was caused, in large part, by the fact that he was slow to recognize what Donovan was doing. According to Calipari, Donovan had pulled out an old-fashioned tactic of sending only four guys to the defensive boards and having the fifth guy break for Kentucky's basket. Since the Cats weren't getting back to guard that guy, Florida got a whole series of easy shots. But Calipari made the appropriate adjustment, and that flow of points dried up for the Gators. Instead, they were forced to run their half-court offense. With their guards under constant pressure from the UK defense (UF went only 6-22 from three-point range), the Gators struggled to score for the remainder of the game.
Meanwhile, UK slowly pulled away. On one possession after another, the Cats ran their offense as if they were in a textbook. They didn't always score, but they almost always ended up with good shots. A jumper from Miller made the score 48-44. Kidd-Gilchrist hit another jumper to make it 50-44. MKG hit one of two free throws: 51-44. Then Davis hit his second three-pointer of the year (!) and the Cats were up 54-44. Florida fought back one more time, making the score 59-55 with 9 minutes to go, but then the Cats put them away:
8:38 left: Davis makes a layup (61-55)
7:42 left: Jones makes a three-pointer (64-55)
6:57 left: Teague makes two free throws (66-55)
6:07 left: Davis makes a layup (68-55)
Notice that those four plays took over two-and-a half minutes. Time after time, the Wildcats would hold the ball deep into the shot clock, and then score with less than 10 seconds on the clock. Such possessions were doubly harmful to the Gators, who needed time almost as much as they needed points. Even when UK didn't score -- and the Cats scored only six points in the last six minutes of the game -- they used up a lot of time, thus killing any chance for Florida to make another run.
Finally, with 50 seconds left, I called upstairs to Number3Son (he was eating Sunday dinner) and he came running down. He looked at the score, and the time remaining, and then he said (with a huge grin on his face): "Well, it looks as though we will do something that has not been done since 2003."
And he was right. The Cats finish 16-0 in SEC play for the first time since 2003. They are also 30-1 -- the first time UK has ever won 30 games in the regular season. Davis had his usual spectacular game: 9-13 from the field, 22 points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks. Jones played one of his best games of the year: 9-13 from the field, 19 points, 4 rebounds. Teague had 12 points, four assists, and only one turnover. It was just an outstanding team performance -- Calipari said it was the team's best game of the year.
Three other notes:
First, the shooting. The Cats went 5-12 from three-point range (41.7 percent), and 7-11 from the line (63.6 percent). The three-point shooting percentage is excellent for a road game, and I think they would have done better at the line if they'd had more chances.
Second, the road wins. This year, there were 96 basketball games played in the SEC. Only 29 of those games were won by the visiting team, a winning percent of just over 30 percent. Eight of those 29 road wins belong to Kentucky.
Third, after the game Tom Leach asked Coach Calipari what he thought of the fact that ESPN has been showing Indiana's last-second shot to beat UK over and over throughout the season (they are now even using it in a commercial for their mobile application). Calipari said he was glad they kept showing it, because it gives the team an incentive to improve. So he doesn't sound like a guy who's satisfied.
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