GAINESVILLE, Fla. – One of these days, Todd Golden and the Florida Gators are going to break that NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) glass ceiling and start stringing together some Quadrant-1 victories; the kind of wins that build postseason resumes. The coaches know it. The players know it. The program is trending in too good a direction for it not to happen.
But Saturday was not that day.
Kentucky freshman forward Aaron Bradshaw, with just three 3-point attempts on the season, buried a go-ahead trey with 1:23 to play and classmate Reed Sheppard, the guard with deep Big Blue lineage, hit six consecutive free throws in the final 19.3 seconds, as the Wildcats completed a second-half comeback and burst the orange-out bubble inside sold-out Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center with an 87-85 victory that left the home team – still – frustrated by another close defeat, this one in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. The loss snapped the Gators' six-game winning streak, the program's longest in seven seasons.
"One shot here, one turnover there, that's the tough thing," Golden said. "One possession could have changed the direction of the game."
If any possession did, it was the one that ended with Bradshaw's 3 from the top of the key. To that point, the Gators (10-4, 0-1) had led for 28 minutes, 35 seconds, compared to the Wildcats (11-2, 1-0) out in front just over four minutes. Bradshaw's bomb broke a tie at 76-all and Sheppard, an 87-percent free-throw shooter and son of Kentucky icon and two-time NCAA champion Jeff Sheppard, dashed any hopes of a home-team comeback.
"It's tough losing like that and not protecting our home floor," junior UF guard Walter Clayton said.
UF has now played 19 Quadrant-1 games, per the NET, the last two seasons and have a 2-17 mark to show for it, including 0-4 this season (losses to Virginia and Baylor on neutral floors, at Wake Forest, now home against Kentucky). The silver lining? A lot more Q-1 opportunities are on the horizon, starting Wednesday night at Ole Miss, which began the day as one of just three unbeaten teams in Division I.
Forward Antonio Reeves, the SEC's No. 2 scorer coming in, led five Cats into double figures with 19 points, while Sheppard finished with 14, going 9-for-11 from the free-throw line. Grad-transfer forward Tre Mitchell posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard D.J. Wagner had 14 points and Bradshaw tallied 10 points and seven rebounds.
Florida was led by Clayton and grad-transfer point guard Zyon Pullin, both of whom totaled a game-high 23 points and combined to make 16 of their team's 29 field goals. Sophomore guard Riley Kugel, in his second game in a reserve role, had 15 points and four rebounds, but also three turnovers. Micah Handlogten, the 7-foot-1 center, had six points and a game-high 12 boards, plus three turnovers. UF only turned the ball over 11 times, but UK cashed them in for 15 points.
Gators sophomore guardRiley Kugel (2) had 15 points, including a pair of 3s after missing 18 straight, off the bench Saturday, his highest scoring output in eight games.
The Gators shot 42.6 percent for the game, but missed 10 of 11 attempts from the 3-point arc in the second half and knee-capped themselves by going 18-for-29 from the free-throw line (62.1 percent). What's more, two of their top offensive threats, forward Tyrese Samuel (3 points, 7 rebounds) and guard Will Richard (2 points, 0-for-8 from the floor), combined to make just one of 14 field-goal tries and go 0-for-8 from the 3-point, with seven of those misses from distance by Richard, who'd averaged 17.4 points over his previous five games.
"We had a lot of good looks on shots we usually make," Pullin said.
The Wildcats, the No. 3-rated offense in the country and No. 2 team from the 3-point line at 41.6 percent coming in, made just one of 10 from deep in the first half, and trailed by eight at the break.
UK, however, started the second half with a 14-4 run to take its first lead since the first five minutes of the game. The Gators got the lead right back on an old-fashion 3-point play by Clayton and actually opened a seven-point margin, 58-51with just over 12 minutes remaining, before the Cats started clawing back.
Florida's last lead, at 76-74, came after two Clayton free throws. Kentucky tied the score on a driving, guarded layup by Reeves, then forced a shot-clock violation on the Gators' next possession with 1:43 to play and the score knotted at 76.
Twenty second later, Bradshaw was wide open from the top of the key and swished the game-changer.
"A dagger shot," Golden said.
Some of UK shots that preceded Bradshaw's weren't as loud, but they were every bit as key. The Cats hit five of their last six field-goal attempts and nine of 11 free throws over the final six minutes. Each time Sheppard stepped to the line – with 19 seconds to go, then eight, then two – his team was up by just two points. Each time, he made it a two-possession game.
UF actually had a longshot chance to tie the score, as Sheppard inexplicably fouled 6-11 freshman forward Alex Condon (10 points, 4 rebounds) while he was attempting a 3-pointer with .4 remaining in the game. Condon sank the first two free throws, then intentionally missed the third in hopes a tall teammate could get a game-tying tip.
Instead, a UK player knocked the rebound away as the horn sounded.
"They're going to win a lot of games," Cats coach John Calipari said of the Gators.
Golden said he expected to win this one, which made the outcome all the more disappointing and frustrating.
"It's all part of the growth of where we're trying to get," Golden said. "We led for 30 minutes. We were right there. That's going to sting. No moral victories, but fair to say this program is on the right track."
Now it just need the wins (some big ones, as in Q1s) to show for.
