Column: The bounce finally goes in UK’s favor

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The road doesn’t get any easier from here.

The Cats travel to Arkansas on Saturday for a matchup against former UK star John Pelphrey. Next Tuesday, they revisit the scene of last season’s dismantling at Memorial Gym in Nashville. Matchups against pre-season Southeastern Conference favorite Tennessee and SEC West leader Louisiana State loom just on the horizon.

But for one night, none of that mattered. The Cats finally caught a break.

Florida forward Dan Werner had a chance to give the Gators a one-point lead with his second free throw with 40 seconds left Tuesday night. His shot appeared good, but rimmed out at the last second.

The Cats had the ball, tied at 65, with 29 seconds left when UK head coach Billy Gillispie called a timeout to draw up one final play. The Cats had one goal in mind; get the ball to their best player.

“We just wanted to make sure that the guy who had the best chance of scoring had a chance to do something,” Gillispie said.

After the game, Gillispie joked that he had drawn up the play for Meeks to get an off-balanced, one-handed shot as the shot clock expired. Whether that is true or not, that’s the shot the Cats got.

Meeks said Florida guard Nick Calathes tipped the ball in his hands before he shot it. Meeks regained his composure and threw up one last lucky shot to win the game. This one appeared to be over.

“It was probably a luck shot,” Gillispie said. “But I really do believe that maybe sometimes you deserve them once in a while.”

But just as the final second wound down and Calathes appeared to heave a final errant 3-pointer, junior guard Kevin Galloway was whistled for a foul on the shot. Calathes, a 71 percent free-throw shooter who was 11-of-12 in the game from the line at that point would have a chance to send the contest to overtime.

He missed the first, he missed the second and missed the third.

Just like that, UK’s luck had changed.

This was the team that lost to archrival Louisville on a miracle 3-point basket as time expired.

This was the team that had lost three consecutive games and had just suffered through a week with no games to erase the sour taste left after back-to-back home court losses to South Carolina and Mississippi State.

This was the team that had suffered a last-second dagger from South Carolina guard Devan Downey. The same team that had watched Mississippi State drill 14 3-point baskets compared to only nine two-point shots.

To make matters worse, this was the team that had lost their preseason All-American hopeful Patrick Patterson to an injury earlier in the game.

If the Cats needed anything, it was a batch of good luck.

After holding the Gators without a field goal for the final 4:36, watching a lucky shot go in to win the game and holding their breath through a plethora of missed Florida free throws, the Cats can finally say a break went their way.

The road gets tougher from here. Starting Saturday this game won’t mean anything.

But for one night the Cats are just glad the ball finally bounced their direction.
Jon Hale is a journalism senior. E-mail jhale@kykernel.com.