Bledsoe helps UK stay undefeated

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For a while, it looked like UK wanted to get out of Gainesville on Tuesday faster than Lane Kiffin got out of Knoxville, Tenn.

After a 15-point UK lead turned into a tie game in the second half, UK looked ready to tuck its tail and run.

Then, as Eric Bledsoe said, they got an extra boost.

Hard to believe that now ,17 games into the season, Tuesday’s win over Florida was just the Cats’ second true road game of the season. Both road games so far have been played in two of college basketball’s most notorious environments: the first at Indiana, and Tuesday’s at Florida.

Whether the Cats were dealing with the Hoosiers’ odd tradition of floating heads in the end zones or the Florida students’ painted-on black eyes in homage to the DeMarcus Cousins incident against Louisville, the No. 2 Cats now have enough data to prove a trend that playing on the road won’t be easy.

And we now have enough data to prove another trend: UK thrives on the adversity.

After the Gators played UK close well into the second half — and the crowd was still rocking — UK pulled away because of any combination of its size, strength, speed or general basketball advantages. The same thing happened in Bloomington, Ind., a month ago.

Aren’t a bunch of freshmen supposed to do otherwise on the road?

Instead, the freshmen responded positively. So much so, they were the difference in the game.

Daniel Orton’s defense (three of his four blocks came on one Mutombo-inspired possession) and John Wall’s steady point play — although his 19 points seemed as quiet as 19 points can be — set the pace for Bledsoe to do his thing.

Bledsoe scored 25 points, shooting a staggering-for-a-guard 10-of-13 from the field.

“Can you imagine that? He’s a freshman,” UK coach John Calipari said. “He has no idea what he’s doing, and he goes for 25.”

Through two road games, Bledsoe is averaging 24 points. He said it wasn’t a direct result of playing on the road and feeding off the adverse atmosphere; rather, both the Hoosiers and the Gators focused defensively on keeping the ball away from Wall, allowing Bledsoe to have more time running the point and more freedom to drive to the basket.

Wall has proven that one man isn’t enough to stop him. With only five guys on the floor, something has to give. Like Indiana coach Tom Crean, Florida’s Billy Donovan paid extra attention to Wall.

“What Billy was doing was saying, ‘We’re going to make this hard for John and make these other players make plays,’ ” Calipari said.

I’m-in-Control Bledsoe is a much different player than Wall’s-in-Control Bledsoe. The two play great together; otherwise, UK wouldn’t be undefeated. But Bledsoe’s three highest-scoring games so far at UK have been against Indiana, Florida and Morehead State (during Wall’s suspension).

After the game, a beaming Bledsoe didn’t read into anything playing out of Wall’s shadow. “Anything to help the team win,” he said. He did admit, though, that he does enjoy playing on the road.

Feeding off that negative energy directed toward him — well, maybe not directly at Bledsoe, but at least at his team — gave him a little extra boost.

Said Bledsoe: “It kind of seems that way, doesn’t it?”

He and his teammates are going to need to feel that extra boost fairly often this year if the Cats want to keep winning these close games on the road.

If that boost doesn’t come, they’ll want to get out of town even faster than Kiffin did.