In the 45 seconds it took for the Kentucky Wildcats to douse the flames of a sizzling hot Florida rally and turn a white knuckler of an SEC basketball game into a 12-point win, the Gators got a reminder of what life used to be like when they were the ones with a lineup that included three first-round NBA lottery picks. Back in those days, the Gators were the ones who could flip the switches and power up a win almost at will. Kentucky had the studs to do it Tuesday night and really, there wasn’t a lot Billy Donovan’s crew could do about it.
At the 5:14 mark it seemed as if the Gators had the Wildcats on the ropes. A Vernon Macklin dunk off a missed three-pointer by Kenny Boynton capped off a magnificent rally that saw the Gators claw and scratch their way back from a 15-point deficit. When Macklin dunked the O-Dome rocked and it seemed like old times when the joint rocked regularly after one of those Al Horford or Joakim Noah throw-downs. A stop at the defensive end and the Gators would have blown the lid off the place, but this is where it helps to have the studs. Kentucky had them and they were too much for Florida’s very good, but on this night, not good enough crew.
Starting at the 4:45 mark when Patrick Patterson was fouled while scoring a go-ahead layup, things unraveled quickly for the Gators. Patterson missed his free throw but the Gators couldn’t come down with the rebound and the ball skidded out of bounds, possession Kentucky. On the inbounds pass, Darnell Dodson, whose only purpose in life is to launch three-balls for the Wildcats, got a clean look which he buried and suddenly the Gators were down five. At the other end, Florida had a chance to cut the margin back to three, but when Chandler Parsons missed the second of his two free throws, a window of opportunity was about to slam shut. Eighteen seconds later, Bledsoe buried a three-ball and the Gators were right back where they started, playing a high risk game of catch-up which they didn’t have the manpower or energy to do.
Kentucky’s 89-77 win was a testament to what superior height, strength, speed and depth will do for you. Maybe these Wildcats are a rent-a-team — nobody really expects stud freshmen Eric Bledsoe (25 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals), John Wall (19 points, three rebounds and six assists) and DeMarcus Cousins (13 points, five rebounds) to stick around for another year and junior Patrick Patterson (15 points, seven rebounds, one blocked shot and two steals) is gone for sure — but they are the best team the Southeastern Conference has fielded since Florida won the second of its two straight NCAA championships in 2007.
And it is because Kentucky is that good that Tuesday night actually offered a ray of hope for Florida fans. Florida’s injury depleted roster leaves Donovan working an eight-man bench, certainly not what it takes to go against the Wildcats, who are good enough that Ramon Harris and Perry Stevenson, two-year starters coming into the season, only get spot duty to give one of the new studs on the block a breather. Give the Gators two extra players of the caliber of Harris and Stevenson to bolster their lineup and maybe the Gators might have sprung the upset.
Florida doesn’t have enough bodies, nor do they have the physical strength or height that John Calipari can throw into the game in waves, so the margin for error is very, very small. When Kentucky has foul trouble on the front line, for example, they just dial in 6-10, 250-pound Daniel Orton off the bench. He only scored two points but he grabbed nine rebounds, blocked four shots and altered at least four others. If they need scoring, they bring in Dodson, who can’t play a lick of defense but does he really have to with that silky-smooth stroke from the outside? And then there is Bledsoe and Wall, perhaps the two fastest guards in the country off the bounce, who take off once a shot goes up, which means they need only a couple of dribbles before they’re at the rim once they catch the outlet pass.
Kentucky has all the physical ingredients it takes to win a championship but for all their size, strength, speed and depth, the Gators never once backed down. The Gators had ample opportunity to mail it in Tuesday night, but they kept on fighting and actually gave themselves a chance to win.
“Our margin for error is a lot different than their margin for error,” Donovan said. “I thought our guys came in and I think they gave everything they had and they left it on the floor. I think as a coach that’s all you can expect and ask for.”
For the Gators to have pulled this one out, a lot of things had to go right and not just stretch from 13:53 remaining until the Macklin dunk when they outscored Kentucky, 30-15, in what might have been the best 8:39 seconds of basketball the Gators have played all season long. During the rally, Erving Walker was a regular shooting phenom. He hit four three-balls in a row and lit up Kentucky for 16 of Florida’s 30 points. With the exception of a couple of lapses when they let Wall sneak behind the backside of the zone for an alley-oop dunk and an easy three-ball from the top of the key by Darius Miller, Florida’s defense was intense and furious.
Everybody got into the act. Whether it was an unlikely rebound like the one that Erik Murphy snatched away from Cousins, who is a couple inches taller and at least 40 pounds heavier that cued a fast break which Kenny Boynton finished at the other end or those two sneaky points Parsons delivered when he retrieved a Murphy shot that had been blocked and snaked under Patterson for a layup, the Gators had it going.
When Walker hit consecutive three-balls to whittle six points off a ten-point Kentucky lead with 8:29 left (from 68-58 to 68-64), the Wildcats looked like boxer trying to use the ropes to get his second wind. By the time the Gators had tacked eight more points on the board to tie it up at 72-72, Kentucky looked seriously gassed.
But just like that, the Wildcats flipped on the switches. They went from looking like a team teetering on the verge to one that seemed capable of transforming a close game into a runaway any time they want. They had the studs and the fresh legs that the Gators didn’t. Florida might have been the team with the most heart, Tuesday night, but the Gators sure could have used a couple more bodies with muscle and fresh legs but that might not have done the job against a Kentucky team that is probably more talented than any team in the nation.
The Gators will get back to this level once again. Donovan keeps adding pieces to the puzzle and if he lands the right point guard — Brandon Knight and Ray McCallum both have Billy Donovan on speed dial and one of them is likely to say yes — and another big guy to go with incoming studs Patric Young and Casey Prather, Florida will be a team to reckon with the same as Kentucky is right now.
Until then, enjoy this basketball team. They have nights when they can’t hit a shot and they have nights when they can’t match up stud for stud with a seriously talented team, but they play hard and they don’t ever give up. You don’t have to question their will to take on the new bully on the block because they showed Tuesday night that they’re all too willing to throw punch after punch even when they know the big guy can land a haymaker at will.
They have 14 SEC games to go and one out-of-conference encounter with Xavier. Based on their lack of depth, their penchant for tossing up scuds from beyond the three-point line and their relative youth, it’s all too easy to figure a third straight trip to the NIT is in the cards but if you give up on them right now, you might be making a huge mistake.
For all the things these guys lack, they’ve got heart and a never-ending will to win. That wasn’t good enough Tuesday night, but there will be more than a few nights remaining on the schedule when heart and the willingness to keep coming at a bigger, stronger or more talented team will pay off.
Billy Donovan is in the process of recruiting more height and there is no question his training staff will get them in the weight room where they will get stronger. He’s going to add more bodies on the roster, and not just bodies, but players who can step in and do something good. If he can add those things while sustaining the heart he’s got with this team, then there will be light at the end of the tunnel and it won’t be an approaching Kentucky freight train.