Games against the Gators defined the Cats’ regular season

By Les Johns | @KernelJohns

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Less than one month separating them, the two games against the Florida Gators defined UK’s regular season.

The Cats were struggling before freshman forward Nerlens Noel tore his ACL against the Gators in Gainesville on Feb. 12, but they plummeted in the weeks following.

The Cats dropped three of six games including a 30-point beat-down at Tennessee and back-to-back road losses against Arkansas and Georgia.

The late season tailspin threatened the Cats’ chances of playing in the NCAA tourney, and  had national commentators doubting head coach John Calipari’s system at UK.

Reeling and desperate, the Cats defeated Florida 61-57 Saturday afternoon to completely flip the script on their season yet again.

How did the Cats pull off the victory over the No. 11 team in the country — a team that many believe have the potential to make a run all the way to the Final Four in Atlanta?

In a game this close, dozens of factors were crucial — freshman forward Alex Poythress’ effort, graduate student guard Julius Mays’ leadership and sophomore guard Ryan Harrow’s heady point-guard play.

The Cats played their best team defense of the season, especially in the final seven minutes.

That is how they won the game and that is what moved them back on to the hypothetical smiling side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.

The Cats communicated, hustled and rotated on defense. They alerted teammates on screens and switched out when needed.

“We have been talking a lot more. In games like this we have to feed off each other more and we know that now,” freshman guard Archie Goodwin said. “When we have to switch on screens, like we had to today, communication like that is key for us.”

They did not suffocate, but they did contest every Gator shot — especially in the waning minutes of the game.

“We just finally had everyone rotating well like we were supposed to,” Goodwin said. “We had moments where we needed to scramble, and we did that well. We were able to make them take tough shots and when we weren’t able to do that they had a couple of freebies that they missed because they were riled up from those last seven minutes of us playing hard like we did.”

The defensive pressure forced the Gators to miss their final 11 field goal attempts, and Florida went completely scoreless for the final 7:36. Meanwhile, the Cats did just enough offensively to turn a 57-50 deficit into a four-point win.

The Gators also turned the ball over five times in the final minutes, three-consecutive trips during one stretch.

Florida head coach Billy Donovan felt the Gators got good looks at the basket.

“I think we executed very well,” Donovan said. “The execution is you’re shooting the ball and you want the ball to go in. If we could execute making shots every team in the country would shoot 100 percent. “

Down two with 25 seconds remaining, Florida senior guard Kenny Boynton missed the Gators ninth shot in a row, a leaning 17-foot jumper from the wing.

“In those situations, you aren’t going to get wide-open looks,” Donovan said.

The super charged Rupp Arena crowd was an additional catalyst for the Cats final minute defensive surge.

In a series of tweets Friday evening, Calipari said, “At the 8-min timeout in the 2nd half, let’s commit to standing and cheering until the final horn. It won’t be easy, but we need you!”

The crowd responded at a time they — and the team — could have folded.

The Gators had finished off a 19-5 run over the previous seven minutes and nothing seemed to be going the Cats way.

Shots weren’t falling, freshman forward Willie Cauley-Stein was in foul trouble and every seemingly 50/50 call seemed to go against the Cats.

Yet, the crowed rose to their collective feet and delivered the energy Calipari requested — and the Cats followed suit with their best defensive effort of the season.

“That building was unbelievable,” Calipari said after the win. “That was as loud as we’ve been in four years. The great thing is the crowd knows this team is so young that they really need them.”

The bad news is that the Cats won’t play any further games at Rupp Arena (unless the unexpected happens and they are relegated to the NIT).  The good news is that they also won’t have to play any true road games.

The SEC Tournament will be played at Cat-friendly Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. The Cats are 11-1 in SEC tourneys played in Nashville, winning three championships in the four they have competed in.

“We don’t have to go on the road. Nashville has been a good home for us,” Calipari said. “So it’s not like we’re not going to have some people up there.”