Florida sends Cats’ NCAA hopes reeling

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Going into Saturday’s game against Florida, conventional wisdom subtly suggested the Cats needed a win to rejoin the NCAA tournament conversation.

After suffering a 60-53 loss to the Gators on Saturday — perhaps an NCAA knockout blow — conventional wisdom decided to up its tone.

“We have the SEC tournament, that’s our last resort,” sophomore Patrick Patterson said. “We gotta win that, win a bunch of games in the tournament. We know we could’ve been in better shape, but we’re 8-8 (in the Southeastern Conference) so we just have to stick with it and get ready for the next games.”

Patterson led the Cats (19-12, 8-8 SEC) with 16 points and 13 rebounds, but his production flooded in too much too soon, too little too late. He shot 7-of-16 from the field in the first half, scoring 14 points. But after halftime, he attempted just one field goal (a miss), scoring two points on a pair of free throws.

Despite taking 16 shots in the first half, the big man made no trips to the charity stripe. Each team was whistled for just two first-half fouls, and neither team attempted a foul shot until over five minutes after the intermission.

“I told the officials at one point that we were playing in the wrong arena,” Florida head coach Billy Donovan said. “We should be playing in the football stadium with the amount of contact they were letting go. But it was for both teams.”

Sophomore Patrick Patterson catches his breath during the first half of the Cats’ 60-53 loss to Florida on Saturday. Patterson scored 16 points in the loss, including 14 in the first half. Photo by Britney McIntosh | Staff

More fouls were called on both ends in the second half but at that point, the Gators (22-9, 9-7 SEC) managed to limit Patterson’s touches, seemingly rendering him useless.

“We threw it in there quite a bit, we just probably didn’t do a very good job of executing anything in the second half,” UK head coach Billy Gillispie said. “I love the way they competed and fought, we just didn’t execute well enough to win.”

The Cats had their fair share of execution problems in the first half, too. Patterson missed several uncontested layups, but his seven first-half offensive rebounds created second (and sometimes third) opportunities.

With Patterson missing point-blank attempts, the Cats struggled to create offense elsewhere. Junior Jodie Meeks had difficulty finding a rhythm — a problem he’s faced regularly in the Cats’ current four-game losing streak. Meeks shot 3-of-10 in the first half, including 0-for-4 from long range.

UK’s two stars combined to take 26 of the Cats’ 30 first-half shots.

“We can’t do it alone, but I have confidence in my teammates that they can knock down shots,” Meeks said. “It didn’t happen today, but I was glad to see Ramon (Harris) step up at the end.”

Harris asserted himself late for the Cats, scoring 14 points (12 in the game’s final 15 minutes), but Florida’s crunch-time shooting quickly ended each of the Cats’ runs.

Although the Gators scored the game’s first points and never lost the lead, UK put together several runs within the game. The Cats’ last serious push came with 5:20 left when junior Kevin Galloway found Harris on a two-on-one breakaway. Harris slammed it down and brought the Cats within five points, 51-46.

But on Florida’s following possession, freshman Erving Walker drilled a high-arcing 3-pointer to open the game back up.

As a result, the Cats are charting unfamiliar territory: They’re in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991. While conventional wisdom may suggest UK has a tough path to reach March Madness, the Cats are firmly inserting their ear plugs and moving on.

“We’re not worried about it, we’re staying away from it all,” Patterson said. “Anything online, any other distractions on Facebook or MySpace, or our friends giving us their opinions. We just try to block it out and concentrate on this family, this basketball team. We’re concentrating on winning and spending time with our teammates. We don’t have much time left.”

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