Florida’s interior defense led to 15 missed layup attempts for Kentucky. (Florida Athletics/Maddie Washburn Athletics)
According to the SEC Network, Florida’s last five opponents have now missed 66 layup attempts, including 15 by Kentucky in Saturday’s 92-83 loss.
“We were disappointingly poor at the rim, and that’s what Florida does,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said on the UK Radio Network postgame show. “It’s a credit to them, and it’s something that we have to get better at. I thought we got good opportunities to the rim and we just didn’t finish.”
Why not?
“Part of it was being sped up. Part of it was their length. Part of it was anticipating things. Part of it was trying to lean away from contact. Part of it is not being disciplined enough to play off two feet and take the next option that’s available to us,” Pope said.
“And that’s what they do. Also, they get you sped up. They get you looking around.”
Kentucky usually plays its best when it can play fast. That didn’t work against Florida, especially early in the game when the Cats turned the ball over way too often, and the Gators converted the mistakes into points.
“Usually, that feeds right into our wheelhouse. We were a little sped up. I actually didn’t dislike the looks that our guys earned for the most part. Early on, we had some shots we really liked. It just kind of back-rimmed out. I guess that got us a little distracted early on, and then I thought we got a little bit rushed,” Pope said.
“I thought there was a stretch of three or four minutes in where we got a little rushed. Then I thought in the second half, mid-half, we got a little frantic. This was one of those games where you wish you had five timeouts just to settle us. The guys were able to finally recover; we just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Former UK All-American Jack Givens thought Florida’s size — the Gators start three players 6-foot-9 or taller — took Kentucky time to adjust to.
“Kentucky might have been a little overwhelmed early. These guys are all long, strong, and mobile guys. It just takes some time to get used to. Florida is a good team, and those bigs have gotten better since last year,” Givens, the UK Radio Network analyst, said.
Pope said even when UK got stops late in the game, the Gators countered with
“I felt like we got the stops we needed down the stretch. We couldn’t grab a rebound, which is exactly what they do. It’s what they do,” Pope said. “We’ll get better at that. We’ll get better at carving out space. We’ll get better at getting the second hit.
“We had some things go great for us early on, and then, and then, you know, we kind of got beat up on the glass in the second half. We had managed in the first half, we got beat up a little bit.”
ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes believes Florida has the nation’s best defensive team, led by point guard Boogie Fland and center Rueben Chinyelu. He believes they are the nation’s best individual defenders at their positions.
“Florida just wears you down on the glass. They are relentless, and that takes a toll on you,” Dykes said. “Florida has size and athleticism that doesn’t let you get to the basket. There are no free cuts to the basket allowed against the Gators. Florida also plays so hard. They work you.”
Florida’s guard play doomed UK’s chances to win. The Gators were shooting 29 percent from 3-point range in SEC play, but Xavian Lee and Urban Klavzar combined for nine 3-pointers against the Cats.
“I thought the difference in the game, probably for them today, was their guard play was, was, was better,” Pope said. ” I thought that gave him a real boost, especially earlier, the emotions coming into this game, the build-up, and just what you see.
“I probably made a mistake on matchups. I probably should have rethought that a little bit.”
10 Responses
We miss more layups then any Kentucky team I've ever seen play. We also have ridiculous turnovers just throwing the ball to the crowd. I said all that to also say Florida should have been called for at least 8 more fouls which would have evened up the game. We just didn't have the muscle down low. Moreno played a good game. But he even missed some easy lay ups right at the rim. Every time I give BG some credit he lays a egg. He finished with 0 points and fouled out. How do you even do that? We will beat Florida at Rupp Arena. If this was even a neutral site matchup I think it comes down to the last shot. At one point in the second half we had 11 fouls and they only had 3-4 fouls. But they were grabbing our players jerseys and fouling just about every time we were next to the basket and never got called for it. I don't want to play them in the NCAA tournament I can tell you that. I've said all season Florida is the best team in the SEC. We won't play a harder game then we played yesterday for the rest of the season. Even the next time we play them will be at home.
15 missed layups. If you even make 7 of them not even 50% we win by 5.
Instead of driving into 3 seven footers, we should have been taking more 3s and should have been guarding their 3 point shooters. That is where the game was lost, but Pope has no control over Aberdeen and Oweh. Sure, they have won some games for us with some timely shots by Chandler, but they have cost us games that we should have won too. Pope doesn't have the stones to make those two plus Dioubate play team ball. Chandler, Jelavic, Noah, and Johnson should have played more yesterday and shot more 3s that we shot at 45% instead of watching the three Amigos throw up wild shots in the lane at a dismal 30% rate. We could have and should have won yesterday. We would be tied for first in the SEC and would have been in control of our own destiny. Now we are tied for third with 3 other teams. We will be lucky to finish in the top 4. All of the Rah Rahs will be screaming for me to stop saying bad things about Kentucky and Mark Pope. Pope falls somewhere in between Tubby Smith and Billy Clyde as a coach, being closer to Billy than Tubby. The painful truth is we will never win No. 9 with Pope as our coach. We may have already become the next Indiana. I am not going to waste my time and money watching a perennial also ran play its way into mediocrity. Rah Rah Rah!!!
UF showed they really are the real deal. We gave up our best but still only play 1 half at a time, have trouble defending the 3, can't make a shot in close, and have problems defending the post. Kelenic has to take more than 7 shots and be more physical. Moreno has to develope some shots other than slams. Their bigs just played with our bigs and had their way all day. UF won because they had Lee. UK lost because we had Garrison. Is he still on the team? But wait……he did have 0 points, 3 boards, and 5 personal fouls. He seems to be happy just wearing the "Slacker of the Year" hat.
Wearing that hat pays well.
Dominant big men demand the ball and offenses can revolve around them.. Garrison is nowhere near that kind of big man.
Sad part is he could be that man . He has the physical tools but not the mental.
I'd love to know what our big men do in the off season. Finding a polished big man these days is hard to do. Do they work on footwork? do they lift weights? I don't know if Garrison has " the tools" I've never witnessed it..He does have the height and some athletic ability which gets you by some. But the reality he's not a threat on offense.
Malachi has his brother to play against. That makes him better.
And yet Grant we hard all summer how much Grant had improved
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