Rupp Arena was absolutely rocking, the Seniors walked out and got their flowers. Dick Vitale was in the building. Florida is a heated rival. It is everything you want in a college basketball game, then the game started and it all went downhill.
Kentucky basketball's slow starts are mind-boggling
This team, all year long, has had issues with starting games; they just can't seem to ever start with the same amount of energy as the other team coming in. That's a massive problem that is made even worse by missing 3 players.
Kentucky was 1-8 to start the game, and that first basket didn't happen until 15:36. It was made even worse because everything broke for Kentucky to actually lock up the number 4-seed and a double bye in the SEC Tournament, Vandy beat Tennessee, and Arkansas beat Missouri.
Even with the offensive struggles Kentucky was down just 16-9 heading to the under 12 timeout.
Kentucky would somehow get it down to just 1, but just like the Texas A&M game, Florida would go on an extended run and put some real distance between itself and the Cats.
Boogie Fland knocked it away from Brandon Garrison, who, for some reason, was holding it down around his shins, bent over, while at the top of the key. Then Jasper Johnson was dribbling the ball as far from his body as humanly possible, and the Gators knocked it away again. Jasper made it worse by just grabbing on and committing a flagrant foul.
Just like that it was a 13-0 run.
Otega Oweh's career 3-point game not enough to overcome embarrasing effort
The Gators made 11 of their last 13 field goals in the first half, and they outscored Kentucky 29-13 over the last 8:57. This is despite Otega Oweh having a career game from deep in the first half. Oweh had 4 3's and 17 points. He was 6-13 overall; the rest of the team was 5-16 in the first half.
The Cats had 6 turnovers and looked lifeless for large stretches of the first half in the final home game of the season. The only thing they did well in the first half was rebound; they were down just 1 on the glass.
Second half was just more of the same
Kentucky's defense showed up a little more in the 2nd half, holding the Gators to just 2 makes on its first 9 attempts. That's the good news. The bad news is they were just 2-7 and had 2 turnovers in the first 4 minutes. They were still down 17.
Worse than the scoreline was just the energy from the players on the court. There was very little hustle, very little emotion; the Cats were almost resigned to a defeat at home. That should never happen.
To start the second half, Florida shot terribly (7-21), but Kentucky somehow found a way to be worse (6-20). Nothing was going right for the Cats at home, and like so many times this season already, the Cats fought back
Kentucky got it back down to single digits, but it was just too little and far too late. With 57.4 to go Otega Oweh scored his 25th point of the game to cut Florida's lead back down to 7, 77-70. Then he nailed 3 huge free throws to cut it to 5.
And then the refs missed an easy one, Urban Klavzar stepped on the end line, and they just missed it. 2 more free throws from Florida, and then Aberdeen drew a foul on a 3. But unlike Oweh, he just could not convert all 3, missing the middle one.
Xaivian Lee missed one, but an airball 3 from Otega Oweh ended the game. 84-77.
It wasn't the finish that was the problem, again it was the start. Now Kentucky will play either on Wednesday or Thursday in the SEC Tournament.