Cats Have to Regroup, Get Ready for NCAA

Mo Dioubate (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky shot 35.6 percent from the field, got outrebounded 50-29 and was playing its third game in just over 48 hours while defending national champion Florida had not had a game since beating UK last Saturday.

So in some ways, Friday’s 71-63 to Florida in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals was not devastating for coach Mark Pope’s team.

Florida did what it had done in two previous wins over UK. The Gators built a significant lead, let the Cats come back and then put the game away. In three games against Florida, UK never had a lead this season.

“Frustrating night for us. I thought the guys, I thought our competitive spirit was great. We got beat up on the glass in a massive way. We were in some foul trouble, trying to manage some foul issues. We ended up being small. Even when we were big, it was hard for us on the glass,” Pope said after the game.

“Credit Florida for that. They did a tremendous job on the glass. We’ll regroup and go home, then get ready for the NCAA tournament.”

How ready can Kentucky be? The Cats have now lost 13 games but still will likely be a No. 7 seed when pairings are released Sunday. They are 2-3 in their last five games.

Pope says he has “trust the people that are making those decisions” will make a fair evaluation of Kentucky’s season that has included two wins over Tennessee and wins over Arkansas, Vanderbilt and St. John’s.

“At the end of the day, you got a bunch of teams. You got to win all your games. I’m not really concerned. We have to go play great teams,” Pope said. “Everybody in the tournament is going to be a great team.

“You have to find a way to win ’em. Feels very much like the SEC. You play great teams every night. It’s really not any more complicated than that.”

Sophomore guard Collin Chandler thinks winning two games and playing three games in the SEC tourney will help UK in the NCAA.

“A lot of opportunities to learn a lot of reps that we got this week. So we’re going to take those into the next few weeks as we play in the tournament,” Chandler said.

“No one is battle-tested like us. I think a lot of these games that we played this weekend will help us, is going to help us, transition to the NCAA tournament. We just going to carry on the momentum,” UK teammate Mo Dioubate, who had 14 points before fouling out against Florida, said.

Dioubate didn’t blame fatigue for Kentucky getting dominated on the boards. Guards Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen led UK with five rebounds.

“I think they just did a really good job on the glass tonight. 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,” Dioubate said. “We could have did a better job with rebounding. That’s where I feel like there had been a big difference in the game if we had rebounded more. We just got to be better.”

Pope said the team cannot worry about what has or has not happened.

“We’re just trying to get ourselves to playing the best basketball we can,” the Kentucky coach said. “I think we gained a ton of experience in the last three days. It’s important for us.

“I’m proud of the way our guys competed the last three days.  You’re just trying to steal every lesson you can. We had a lot of lessons from the last few days that we’ll take with us and make a huge push in the (NCAA) tournament.”