KSR’s takeaways from another way-too-early loss for Kentucky at the SEC Tournament

Kentucky followed a winning script and did enough to pull off the upset in several key areas. The Wildcats were strong defensively while finding advantages in transition (18-10), off the bench (22-14) and off turnovers (18 TOs leading to 18 points off TOs). If you were to tell me Thomas Haugh (2-9 FG), Rueben Chinyelu (2-6 FG), Boogie Fland (3-13 FG), Urban Klavzar (2-6 FG) and Isaiah Brown (1-5 FG) would combine for 34 points on 10-39 shooting, I’d ask you where we were celebrating on Broadway before gearing up for the SEC Tournament semifinals on Saturday.

Instead, Florida led for 38:23 with the other 1:37 spent tied — 0:00 with Mark Pope’s group out in front. It was the same for all three games, as Todd Golden so eloquently put it after the 71-63 finish at Bridgestone Arena.

“We did what we needed to do,” he said. “I would have preferred to win this game by 20, but I will take this eight-point win. In the three games that we’ve played these guys, they haven’t led for one minute.”

How did the so-close-yet-so-far result come together to send Kentucky home before the weekend once again? KSR has the top takeaways from Bridgestone Arena before sadly packing up and heading back to the Bluegrass.

Too little, too late

Kentucky trailed 22-8 just 7:04 into the series-opening matchup in Gainesville, but won the final 32:56 by five (75-70). Then in round two in Lexington, it was an 11-0 start for Florida in the first 2:34, only for the Wildcats to win the final 37:26 by four (77-73).

This time around? A 16-6 lead for UF just 5:47 in, only for UK to win the last 34:13 by two (57-55).

That’s a combined 104 minutes and change out of 120 minutes, cutting it to five in all three in the final minute-plus without getting any closer. The issue? They trailed by 10 with 1:26 to go in round one, 10 with 2:06 to go in round two and 10 with 3:13 to go in round three. Their pushes were admirable and make the final box score look good with Kentucky making up three of Florida’s single-digit wins out of four in all of SEC play — Vanderbilt (98-94) the only outlier in 17 total victories for the Gators — but they don’t amount to much, knowing how late they all started. At the end of the day, the eye test told the real story in the season sweep: UF never truly felt threatened by UK because the Gators have the horses that the Wildcats do not.

Exposed on the glass

Kentucky lost the rebounding battle 45-37 in the first matchup, but had it tied up at 20-20 at halftime. The second was a 41-40 advantage for Florida with a 14-14 tie on the offensive glass and just a 16-15 edge at halftime with the Wildcats actually pulling down more offensive rebounds (6-4) going into the break.

Considering the Gators rank No. 1 in rebounding margin, average and on the offensive boards, you take those results and hope some wins in other categories push you over the edge.

This time around, the best rebounding team in the country looked like the best rebounding team in the country. Florida finished with an eye-popping 50-29 advantage overall, including 18 offensive rebounds for the Gators compared to 21 defensive rebounds for Kentucky, no Wildcat finishing with more than five total boards. That led to 21 second-chance points for UF compared to just eight for UK.

“We got beat up on the glass in a massive way,” Mark Pope said after the loss.

“I think they just did a really good job on the glass tonight,” Mo Dioubate added. “Both the first two games we played them, they weren’t this good on the glass. Today they just got a lot of good tips. They won a lot of 50/50 balls. We could have did a better job with rebounding. … We just got to be better.”

Kentucky had the defense to win, but lost with shooting

Alex Condon was a monster — although he travels on every touch, just so we’re all clear — finishing with 22 points on 7-12 shooting and 8-11 at the line to go with 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 36 minutes. There wasn’t a single matchup that he didn’t eat alive.

Xaivian Lee scored five in the first three minutes to put Florida up by six, then added five more in the final 50 seconds, no make bigger in the game than his dagger response from deep at the end of the shot clock after Denzel Aberdeen’s made three to cut it to five with 1:21 to go. He effectively ended the game, then added a pair of free throws to officially close out the eight-point win. He went for 11 total on 3-5 shooting and 2-3 from deep while adding six assists, five rebounds and three steals.

Elsewhere? 12-41 from the field for a hit rate of 29.3 percent. Their team numbers aren’t much better anyway, finishing with shooting splits of 38/15/73. The Wildcats played winning basketball on that end of the floor.

The issue? Kentucky couldn’t get anything to fall on the other with splits of 36/22/80, Mo Dioubate (14 points, 5-7 FG) and Malachi Moreno (6 points, 2-3 FG) making up the only players hitting at least half of their shots. Denzel Aberdeen was a respectable 5-11 from the field and 2-5 from three for 17 points while adding five rebounds, three assists and a steal, but Otega Oweh (10 points, 5-18 FG) and Collin Chandler (6 points, 1-4 FG) just didn’t provide what this team needs to have any shot against a title-contending team like Florida.

Think of it this way: Dioubate (2-4) and Brandon Garrison (2-3) combined (4-7) to outshoot Chandler (4-11), Aberdeen (4-14) and Oweh (2-12) individually from the perimeter with the three-headed GOAT finishing just 27.0 percent as a group on the week.

It didn’t help that Andrija Jelavic (0-4), Jasper Johnson (0-2), Trent Noah (0-2) and Kam Williams (0-1) couldn’t bring anything to the table from beyond the arc in this one. The reality is that if Kentucky is just OK in that category instead of an abysmal 5-23, the Wildcats pull off the upset as 11.5-point underdogs. The defense gave this team a real chance to win, but the offense got ’em sent home.

Enough with the moral victories

Kentucky was totally outclassed, but found itself a shot or two away from pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Saying you kept it competitive in three of three against a legitimate title contender is something, I guess. Did you know the Wildcats won two games in the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2018? Their six-point win over Missouri was also the program’s largest margin of victory in the event since 2019.

All of that stuff is fine and dandy, but you know what? I’m tired of overpacking and making sad drives back to Kentucky with clean clothes before the weekend. I’m tired of being an afterthought in this event, lumped in with the best of the rest outside of the actual favorites. I’m tired of the mental gymnastics behind starting on Wednesday for the first time since 1979 and having nothing tangible to suggest the Wildcats had any real shot against the Gators outside of hope. I’m tired of opposing coaches and players dunking on us anytime a microphone is put in their faces because the rest of the college basketball world has moved on without us. I’m tired of talking through seeding scenarios that could make us a sneaky upset pick against a No. 2 in the Round of 32 rather than being the hunted.

I’m tired.