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12 January 2010
Billy Donovan's Gators showed some mettle in an 89-77 loss to Kentucky tonight. The Gators trailed at the half by the score 38-31 and got down by as much as 13 early in the second half. Kenny Boyton and Erving Walker led the Gators back to a one point deficit with 4:47 left in the game.
In the end it wasn't enough. Kentucky finished the game on a 15-4 run to improve to 17-0 on the season. Eric Bledsoe continued over from the first half to lead the Cats with 25 points on the night. John Wall padded the stats with some late free throws and a later three and finished with 19. The big guys all chipped in with Patterson having 15 and 7, DeMarcus Cousins having 13 and 5 in limited minutes, and Daniel Orton contributing 2 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 huge blocks.
Florida made 5 three pointers in the second half, many from well beyond the line. The Gators couldn't get enough of the deep shots to fall down the stretch and Kentucky got some big shots to fall from Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson.
A lot of talk over the last few days has centered around DeAndre Liggins recent good play, but Liggins did not see major minutes tonight. When he was in the game he played fairly good defense; however, DeAndre does not contribute any aggressiveness on offense.
A couple of parting shots on the announcing tonight. Overall, it wasn't horrible (for a Vitale called game). We did get a case of Jimmy Dykesesque repeating as "John Wall has a 43 inch vertical" was said at least 4 times. The other major problem with the broadcast tonight was Dick Vitale saying on multiple occasions that "the three point line is the great equalizer in the game today."
Okay, I understand that a team making a lot of three's is important, but I have a major problem with how Dicky V (and other announcers) say this. All of the older announcers say things like this. The bottom line is that the NCAA implemented the three point line in 1986. It has been nearly 25 years since this change was made. Can we drop the "in the game today" talk when discussing how a team's three point shooting can help them get back in a game already? I mean seriously, the three point line has been in the NCAA longer than several of my good friends have been alive!
Alright, mini-rant ends here. Overall, a pretty exciting game for UK and Florida fans but it ends in good fashion for Cats fans. A twelve point win on the road against a team that was ranked a couple of weeks ago is a good sign that this young team is making strides in the right direction. Florida hosts LSU Saturday while Kentucky travels to Auburn to try to extend their perfect record to 18-0.
