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When Kentucky started rolling off wins this year, many thought the biggest test for the Wildcats could be the game at Florida.
It turned out that way, too, Saturday night in Gainesville.
Florida has not played anything near like the Final Four team it was last season all year, but the Gators played with passion and effort to push No. 1 Kentucky out of its comfort zone. Still, once again UK found a way to keep winning and pulled out a 68-61 road victory and tied the 1966 UK team for the second-best start in school history at 23-0. It also snapped a 5-0 mark Florida had on UK when hosting ESPN College Game Day.
“Kentucky came in expecting to get a 12-10 team and Florida is not playing like a 12-10 team,” said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas early in the game — and that trend never changed.
Kentucky coach John Calipari told ESPN’s Shannon Spake at halftime that UK had some players not make a play the entire first half and that his team was getting outmuscled and beat for loose balls.
“But we need this. This is good for us,” Calipari told Spake.
He could be right because in the second half the Cats did everything necessary to survive in a hostile arena and got key contributions from a number of players. But no one was bigger than freshman Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 19 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.
“Karl has been the best player on the floor. He has done a little bit of everything,” Bilas said during the game.
Aaron Harrison wasn’t bad, either, especially in the second half when he put the offense on his back. He was coming off one of his worst offensive games against Georgia when he didn’t have a field goal and struggled in the first half when UK fell behind by nine points, but he finished with 23 points and was 3-for-6 from 3-point range. His play helped UK have an answer for every Florida challenge the second half.
Kentucky also did one thing championship teams must do — make free throws. The Cats made their first 16 free throws and went 17 of 18 at the foul line.
Even though Florida hit 49 percent overall matching the season high against UK’s highly touted defense, the Cats just refused to wilt despite having four players combine for all but one point. Willie Cauley-Stein had 13 points, five rebounds and two assists — not to mention what could turn out to be the dunk of the year — and Devin Booker had 12 p oints and four rebounds.
The only other point came in the final minute from Andrew Harrison, who followed his spectacular 23-point outing against Georgia with a less than stellar overall performance.
Yet once again Kentucky managed to win.
“Kentucky does whatever is necessary in the situation,” Bilas said. “Big Blue Nation has to be impressed with how they answered the bell.”
The game had eight lead changes and four ties that kept Kentucky from ever getting a firm grip on the win. However, one potential omen from this game that UK fans should like — every Kentucky national championship team has won at Florida.
Now it’s on to LSU for UK on Tuesday night to try and continue this magical quest to become the first unbeaten national championship team since Indiana in 1976.
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