UK improves to 25-8 on the season. Now they just wait for their NCAA tourney seed. This should have put both Florida and UK in as 3 seed but you never know. Lunardi tends to be accurate about who is in and who isn’t but his placement of the schools are not as accurate, you never know if the NCAA committee will bring UK up this high.
What really matters is what the easiest road to the final four is. UK as a 3 seed does not necessarily mean an easier road than a 4 seed. It may mean an easier first game as we would play a 14 seed instead of a 13 seed. Even that isn’t always the case, as the 14 seed could be a tougher game, just depending on how they match up to UK.
Looking past the 1st game though, if UK for example was to be a 3 seed in Kansas’ bracket vs a 4 seed in Notre Dame’s bracket, which one would you take?
Of course a 4 seed would have to play the 1 seed in the Sweet 16 round, where a 3 seed wouldn’t face them until the Elite 8…so there are arguments both ways.
Then of course this is March Madness, there will be upsets. How many of the 3 or 4 seeds of last season would take Kansas’ bracket last year, if they knew what they know now? Kansas was put out in the 2nd round; making what may have been one of the tougher brackets to look quite soft.
So you never know what will end up being the actual best spot. Not saying you don’t have the right to be upset with the committee if they snub us as a 4. Seeds are a matter of respect and we want them to show our Cats the respect they have clearly earned.
The Cats win the SEC tourney for the 2nd straight season. This is the 1st time UK has won back to back titles since 2003/2004 seasons. Last year in a little more dramatic fashion as Miss. St. looked to take us in regulation, and then Cousins gets the last second put back to put the game to force overtime.
Darius Miller won SEC tourney player of the year. Knight and Harrellson also made 1st team along with two Gators.
This team has battled back from diversity like never before. After the Arkansas loss, a lot of people wrote UK off. If it wasn’t for a few other ranked teams losing, and UK taking down the Gators before a new poll came out, UK falls out of the top 25 after this loss for the first time under Coach Cal. If that Arkansas game was a Saturday game and a new poll comes out the next day, we would have been out of the top 25.
As we know this didn’t happen and since this game UK has won six straight and not against cupcakes. Cats took down Florida, Vandy, UT, Ole Miss, Alabama and then today Florida again, putting themselves not just in a good position for a high seed but going into the tournament with momentum.
The biggest two stories of the game was free throw shooting and Doron Lamb playing.
Florida is one of the best teams in the country to avoid fouling and yet UK’s free throw shooting was the difference in this game. Cats shot 24-29 from the line vs Florida who only shot 3-8. The foul discrepancy wasn’t that much 22-15. Of course most of that came at the end when Florida continued to intentionally foul. They fouled us 8 times intentionally, take those out and we are looking at 14-15, with UK actually fouling more.
Billy D kept getting on the refs about the free throw shooting but Florida simply was not fouled when they were shooting…it’s that simple. UK continued to be fouled inside the paint in the process of shooting.
Cats win by 16, UK hits 21 more free throws, there’s your ball game.
The other big story is Doron Lamb playing despite being injured yesterday and being listed as doubtful. He wasn’t much of a factor in scoring as he scored 6 points, going 0-3 from the three. He did show toughness (BCG would be proud) and with our lack of depth, just giving it a go was important.
Speaking of depth, this has to be what Florida is baffled by. They likely expected UK to slow down at some point and this just simply didn’t happen. No team had to play the minutes our guys did in this tourney, just goes to show you the conditioning they are in.
Vargas came in and got some revenge against his old team and gave UK 10 solid minutes. This is what we need from Vargas. If Vargas can give us 10 solid minutes this year, not dominate just hold the fort, then this will be big for us in the NCAA tournament.
It’s a tough call on who to give the player of the game to, I would say it’s a tie between Knight with 17 points, 4 assist and Miller with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
You could also argue for Jones who had a decent game scoring as well with 16 points. He went 7-8 from the line, this was one of his best games at the line this year. He also had 7 rebounds. What about that three? How many of you were just hoping for a rebound but he nailed it right in front of Coach Cal.
Other scorers: Liggins-10, Harrellson-4, and Vargas with 2.
Only one player for Florida scored in double figures, as Boynton put up 10. What maybe one of the most ho hum SEC players of the year Parson, had 9 points and went 0-4 from three.
UK won the rebound battle 31-29. Florida did well on the offensive boards as they won that 9-8.
Cats shot 20-48(41.7%) from the field, 6-14(42.9%) from three, and as mentioned 24-29(82.8%) from the charity strike.
Florida shot 22-57(38.6%) from the field, 7-20(35%) from three, and as mentioned 3-8 (37.5%) from the line.
UK did great in the turnover department with only 6, to Florida’s 14. They showed cold water in their veins to come into the championship game and playing solid.
Coach Cal after the game: Amazing what these guys did, our veterans led the way and I’m proud of him.
Florida missed some shots they normally make but they got the offensive rebound, this was a struggle Cal pushed UK to fix at the half.
We had to guard pick and rolls, we had the zone ready. We wanted to make sure they didn’t get easy baskets in transition.
We guarded the pick and roll pretty well and rebounded pretty well.
On Miller: He is playing now. Cal believes he is as good as anyone in this league, he just has to go out there and prove it. He has proven it in the last three days and won the MVP of the tournament.
He told Lamb that’s a man’s move to play hurt.
He was proud of Vargas for bringing it today and giving UK solid minutes.
Cal believed Knight was really good at running the team today.
Go Cats! Beat whoever is next!
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