Florida Gators
Kentucky
Kentucky's Defense, Free Throws Too Much For Gators in SEC Tournament Ouster
Friday, March 13, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Florida plan, like it was just six days earlier, was to attack Kentucky's strength. That, of course, would be the UK enormous front court, an edge the Wildcats have done a masterful job exploiting this season -- and one the Gators managed to challenge for about a half, like they did just six days earlier, but ultimately proved too big.
And too good.
Thus, Kentucky's “pursuit for perfection” continues.
What it means for the Gators' pursuit for the postseason (as in the National Invitational Tournament), is a question that must wait until Sunday night after they watche the unveiling of the first Florida-less NCAA Tournament bracket since 2009.
Forward Karl-Anthony Towns, the 6-foot-11 freshman and NBA lottery-pick-in-waiting, scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, keying top-ranked and unbeaten UK's cordoning off of the basket in a 64-49 victory Friday in quarterfinal play of the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Flanked by 7-1 junior Willie Cauley-Stein (9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks) and 6-11 freshman Trey Lyles (7 points, 6 rebounds), the Wildcats (32-0) beat the Gators (16-17) for a third time this season by holding UF to its fewest points since scoring 45 in a road win at Auburn on Jan. 20, 2011.
“Same thing as the other times,” said junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who began the day with three double-doubles over his previous five games, but went just 2-for-10 from the floor for four points. “We know what they're going to do. We know their offense. But their length and size? They're so big. And they're aggressive on the offensive glass.”
Half of Towns' rebounds were on the offensive end, as the Wildcats grabbed 16 offensive boards and used their size to post and bang and get to the free-throw line.
Boy, did they get to the free-throw line.
Kentucky shot 23 free throws, compared to just five for Florida, despite the attacking nature of the Gators on offense. As Finney-Smith said, that was pretty much the same deal as the previous meetings, with the Wildcats shooting 66 free throws in those games compared to only 22 -- or three times more -- than the Gators.
“Just about every stat was pretty even,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “But the huge, drastic difference was the free-throw line. That was ultimately the margin in the game.”
To Donovan's point, Kentucky shot 39 percent to Florida's 37.5 overall, with neither team very good from 3-point range (UF 2-for-11, UK 3-for-10); the Wildcats won the rebound battle 39-33, but the points in the paint were a 28-28 standoff. The Gators did turn the ball over 12 times, leading to 15 Kentucky points, compared to just seven giveaways by the home team.
Florida's big men tried to neutralize Kentucky's decisive size advantage, starting with 7-foot-1 center Willie Cauley-Stein, guarded above by senior Jon Horford.
Senior center Jon Horford scored 15 points in his best offensive output since tallying 17 the second game of the season against Miami. He was 7-for-10 from the floor in 27 minutes, scoring all his points on field goals; none on free throws. Freshman forward Devin Robinson was lone UF front court player that got to line.
“It's tough sometimes to score over guys with such great length,” Horford said. “At times we did it well and then at other times we didn't. It just comes down to execution.”
For a while -- just like last week at Lexington -- the Gators were doing enough to stay in the game and make an arena that was 99-percent Big Blue a tad uneasy.
But only a tad.
“It was a good win,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “I wasn't happy with how we started the game, but the kids fought and the guys played and did the stuff they had to do.” 
Florida stuck around behind 45-percent shooting in the first half -- with just one free-throw attempt -- and trailed 31-27 at the break. Baskets by junior Eli Carter (11 points, 3 assists, 3 steals) and another by Horford (pictured right) had the Gators within a two three minutes into the period, but then came one of those rapid-fire Kentucky runs that takes teams out of games quickly.
First came two free throws by guard Tyler Ulis, then a post-up and bankshot from Lyles and two more free-throws by Aaron Harrison (13 points). That took the UK lead to eight. On UF's next possession, Finney-Smith made a wild drive to the basket and took a wicked spill, tumbling to the floor. Down went Gators center Chris Walker with him, as the Wildcats sped off with a 5-on-3 break that Harrison finished with a transition 3-pointer.
The lead was quickly 11 and the crowd went bonkers.
The Gators actually managed to the margin back down to five, with 7:40 remaining, but a 3-point play (the old-fashion kind) from Towns kicked in a 9-2 Kentucky blitz, with seven of those points coming from the free-throw line.
And away the Cats went.
But where, if anywhere, will the Gators go?
“We'd like to keep playing, but that's not up to us,” freshman guard Chris Chiozza said. “If the NIT takes us, we'll be excited and play it as if it's an NCAA Tournament game.”
The NIT has never selected a sub-.500 team for its event that dates to 1938. But it also no longer has a rule that prevents it from doing so.
“You never want your playing days to be over,” senior forward Jake Kurtz said. “Yes, I'm hoping for another opportunity.”
Hoping and waiting.
