This was a game that UK fans should really cherish. I think Billy Donovan is the greatest coach Kentucky has ever faced in conference play, and his team this year is really good. According to Ken Pomeroy, Florida has the second-most efficient offense in the country. The Gators were 19-4 coming into this game, and two of their losses were at Ohio State and Syracuse. They were 7-1 in the SEC, number 8 in the country, and they were clearly fired up to this game. With 8 minutes left in the first half, UK led by only 21-17. Normally, those circumstances mean a long night for the UK faithful.
Instead, the Cats went on a run where they outscored Florida 47-30 to build a 21-point lead (68-47) with only 6:22 let in the game. It was simply an awesome performance against an excellent team, and it led to UK's fourth consecutive win by 20 points or more -- all against SEC opponents.
How did this happen? Let's look at what Pomeroy thought would happen. His analysis indicated that there would be 66 possessions in the game, and that the Cats would win 79-67. Instead, there were only 61 possessions. UK still managed to get 78 points, which means it was more efficient than expected, while Florida was held to only 58 points -- so they were less efficient then expected.
Where did UK's extra efficiency come from? In my opinion, it was their shooting. The Cats normally make close to 37 percent of their three-point attempts. Let's assume that on a good night at home we could expect them to make 40 percent. They took 15 three's, and if they had shot 40 percent, they would have gone 6-15. Instead, they went 9-15 -- 60 percent. That's nine extra points right there. The Cats also make almost 72 percent of their free throws. They had 11 FT's tonight, so you would expect around 8 points there. Instead, they went 11-11 -- giving them another three extra points. So between their red-hot three-point shooting and their perfection at the line, the Cats got 12 points that you wouldn't normally have expected them to receive.
Now let's look at Florida. The Gators normally make 40 percent from three-point range. Tonight they took 27 three's, and 40 percent of 27 is 10.8. Let's round down (since they were on the road), and assume that the Gators would normally have made 10 three's tonight. Instead, they made only six. So that's 12 points gone right there. Yes, I realize that UK did a great job defending the three, and that many of those shots were contested. But I also saw Florida miss a lot of three's that I expected them to make.
In other words, while UK played very hard and very well, tonight they also got some breaks -- and those breaks contributed to the final margin. Can we really expect Teague and Wiltjer to go a combined 4-5 from three-point range very often? Of course not. Were we lucky that Florida's guys (with the exception of the remarkable Kenny Boynton, who made 4-8 three's) were so cold from beyond the arc? Of course we were. In short, we are probably better than Florida -- but I don't think we're 20 points better. If we go to Gainesville, and they're red-hot, and we're not, the game will look very different.
Having said that, attention should be paid to the remarkable effort and intelligence we are seeing from the team right now. I don't know if they can keep up this level of play, but they have simply been spectacular. Their defense, on a possession-by-possession basis, is ferocious. This is not the sort of pressing, scrambling defense that Pitino and Donovan like so much. In fact, UK doesn't generate that many turnovers. Instead, they have everyone play very aggressively all over the floor -- and if anyone gets beat, Davis is there to defend the goal. I can't remember seeing any freshman center play defense like Davis since Patrick Ewing was at Georgetown. And he never stops. Tonight he had a huge block off the backboard, and his momentum carried him out of bounds. Meanwhile, the ball bounces back to Florida, and a Gator quickly whips the ball back to a teammate for what appears to be an easy dunk. But Davis suddenly re-appears on the other side of the backboard and blocks that shot. It was a spectacular sequence, and I can't think of another UK player who could and would have done it. ESPN is going on and on about Davis tonight, and they should.
But Kidd-Gilchrist was also spectacular. MKG had 13 points and 13 rebounds, and went 5-5 from the line. Twice tonight, MKG did something I can't remember seeing another UK forward do: he took the ball in back court, raced down the floor before the defense could get set, and closed the possession with a delicate layup. One of the folks on SportCenter said he looked like a mini-LeBron, and that's about right. The speed and power necessary for such a play -- as well as the imagination to conceive it -- are extraordinarily rare. Mashburn could probably have done it, and maybe Antoine Walker -- but I don't even think they could have pulled this sort of thing off against a top-10 team when they were freshmen.
And then there's Teague. Florida tried to pressure UK at several points tonight -- and Donovan knows how to coach a good press (he learned from Pitino). But the tactic backfired on Florida. Teague was not rattled, and the Cats were usually able to turn Florida's press into a fast break -- often leading to a thunderous dunk by Davis. The Gators also played off of Teague in the half-court, inviting him to shoot -- and he burned them by hitting two of three three-pointers. He finished with his first double-double: 12 points and 10 assists. And, of course, he was playing great defense at the other end. Just a glorious performance.
And I don't even have room to mention Jones (4 points and 7 rebounds in only 19 minutes), Miller (9 points in 24 minutes), and Wiltjer (6 points in 11 minutes), or my hero Doron Lamb, who played an almost perfect game: 6-8 from the field, 4-5 from three-point range, 2-2 from the line, 18 points and 3 rebounds). And yet these guys all played very well. (I was even OK with Jones, who had to deal with some absurd officiating in terms of charging calls.)
In short, this was a game to savor. At most, we only get to see this team for two more months. If they keep playing like this, you will want to see them every chance you get.
