UK Athletics Photo
This loss really hurts.
Kentucky was not overly impressive last week with its loss at South Carolina and narrow win over Arkansas and needed to regain the form it had earlier in the season when it hosted Florida Wednesday night.
The Wildcats had come from behind to win at Florida to open Southeastern Conference play and seemed ready to roll when they built a 10-point lead late in the first half. But with a chance to maybe put the game away, UK not only let Florida cut the lead to five points at halftime but then take the lead early in the second half.
Still, the Cats had four-point leads late in regulation and were up two points when freshman Rob Dillingham went to the foul line with 13 seconds left leading 83-81 after Ugonna Onyenso blocked a Florida shot. However, Dillingham made just one free throw and the Gators hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with :04 to play.
In overtime, UK wilted. It went almost three minutes without scoring and missed five straight shots to eventually lose 94-91 in overtime to a Florida team that just made the plays down the stretch.
“Florida played desperately and you have to give them a lot of credit,” UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens said. “Kentucky did a lot of things well but sometimes it comes down to getting stops and unfortunately that is not one of the strong suits of this Kentucky team.”
Yet Kentucky shot 44.9 percent from the field (35 of 78) while Florida shot 41 percent (32 of 78). Kentucky was 10 of 26 from 3 and Florida 12 of 28. However, the more aggressive Gators went 18-for-22 from the foul line and UK only 11 of 17.
I think ESPN analyst Jay Bilas warned UK fans what might be getting ready to happen going into overtime.
“The question now is the mindset and Kentucky could be thinking we had this won and what are we doing here? How will Kentucky respond to the punch they took and had the game taken away?” Bilas said.
Kentucky didn’t respond. It had an 87-86 lead with 2:49 left in regulation but didn’t score until Reed Sheppard hit a 3 with 10.5 seconds to play and that was too little, too late.
Kentucky had some terrific individual performances, especially with D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards out with injuries and forcing some players to play a lot more.
— Freshman Sheppard played all 45 minutes and went 7-for-15 from the field with 24 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two blocks, one steal and three turnovers.
— Onyenso had 13 points on 4-for-11 shooting, 16 rebounds, eight blocks and two steals in 33 minutes.
— Antonio Reeves got in foul trouble but still played 37 minutes and had 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting, four rebounds, three assists and one steal.
— Dillingham was in for 39 minutes after missing the previous game with a stomach bug and finished with 20 points on 8-for-17 shooting, four rebounds, four assists and one steal.
Kentucky coach John Calipari said he was “disappointed” because his short-handed team fought and had the game won.
“The crowd was great. If anybody watched on TV what would they say? What a fun game. It was not a fun game for us,” Calipari said on his postgame radio show. “I am exhausted. I need to go home and see my dog Palmer. I am tired.”
The problem is Kentucky fans are “tired” of home-court losses — UK lost to UNC-Wilmington earlier this season — and UK struggling in SEC play. Kentucky is now 5-3 and has Tennessee, which lost at home to South Carolina Tuesday, coming to Rupp Arena Saturday.
“Florida made the plays they had to make. You have to give them credit. They made big shots, they made free throws and did little things to win a game like this,” Givens said. “Kentucky missed free throws and missed some opportunities to rebound. It was one (game) Kentucky had every opportunity to win but it didn’t work out.”
And that is what has happened way too often to Kentucky in recent years.
16 Responses
When a three will tie the game, giving up a wide open three is indefensible (pun not intended).
Edwards and possibly Wagner are done for the season. They know the more they play from this point on the worse they’ll look to the scouts.
It wouldn’t do any good to take their scholarships away because they don’t care about that and I don’t guess we can take NIL money away.
Calipari knows what their doing and let’s them do it and even provides cover for them.
This is correct. Cal tried to shift a little of the blame for the L to injured guys out. Really??. has any team not named UK under Cal ever had more soft, mysterious injuries during the year and ongoing for several?
Disappointing is the word
Will keep cheering them on regardless. Go Cats!!
Yes I will but as fans we’re waiting our pretty on them. It took a Hall of Fame coach 20!! games to figure out who his best point gard and center are!
Waisting
This season was over before it started. As soon as the fraud returned to steal his 9 million for another year.
The young coaches in the league are absolutely taking him to the woodshed!
I predict that after Tennessee gives us a drubbing fan attendance will drop like a rock.
Sure UK already has our money but it will still send a message.
But, Calipari, Barnhart and Capiluto won’t care.
The fact is, and has been all season, this is the weakest UK defensive team at least since 1997, and with Pitino in that chair prior to 1997, that legitimately goes back to at least 1992.
This was a game we should have won. At the end of regulation, Dilly should have returned the ball back to Sheppard so he would have been at the line, but Dilly wanted to be the hero. He holds the ball, gets fouled, and only makes one of two free throws…Sheppard would have iced both of them and we get the win. The last play of regulation, we are up 3 with 5 seconds to play. A layup would have given us the win, so why wasn’t everyone on the 3 point line? Dilly didn’t even guard his guy and he sinks the 3 and overtime results and we lose. Calipari gave the excuse that he didn’t want to ice Dilly on that last free throw. After making the first, ANY good coach would have called that timeout to set the defense to preserve the win. Calipari didn’t…but then again, he is not a good coach.
Maybe that will get a response from the Calipari lovers…they sure aren’t saying much otherwise.
Barry I agree or Dilly should have taken the ball out.
79, bless your heart. At least you show up. As you see, everyone should be upset with this loss, but the bulk of the lovers refuse to be objective. We are looking at ANOTHER double digit loss season for sure.
You could be right Barry, the way they don’t want to play defense. But I’m not going lose sleep over it. Been a Minnesota Viking fan since the Fran Tarkington days watch them lose 4 super bowls will always cheer them on as I will the cats.
UK stands at 15-5, having lost 3 of the last 6. There are 11 games remaining.
Anyone care to venture how many more wins this team can squeeze from the last 11 games?
Will they go 9-2? What about 7-4? Any takers for 5-6?
Losses in the SEC T and NCAA with the current 5 losses only leaves 2 more regular season losses for an under 10 loss season.
Whoopi!!!!!!!
This team is in decline as February begins. Losing 3 of the last 6, and even the 3 wins have been unimpressive against a very weak Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi State teams.
First weekend oiut. The odds of this team making the Sweet 16 are about the same as the odd of this team dropping in the first round. Those who believe this is a final four team will be disappointed.
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