Semi-Interested ‘Cats Beat Florida on Senior Day, 74-66

Senior Day games are usually marked by emotion from start to finish. The seniors want to play a great last game, while teammates and fans want to send them off in style. As is always the case, pre-game festivities at Rupp culminated with the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home”, not surprisingly, John Calipari got a bit emotional.

Then, the ‘Cats took the floor. Normal starters John Wall and Patrick Patterson trotted out with departing seniors Perry Stevenson, Ramon Harris, and Mark Krebs. That group actually stayed on the floor past the first TV timeout, holding their own and staking UK to an early lead.

Eventually, though, Cal called on his traditional starters, who held on to a two to seven point lead until around the nine minute mark in the first half. At that point, UK went with a lineup of Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton, Darius Miller, and Darnell Dodson. That’s not exactly the lineup you would expect to put together a 14-0 run in under four minutes, but that’s exactly what they did. Dodson and Miller had consecutive treys, Miller had a putback dunk, Bledsoe had a couple nice takes to the basket, and Dodson closed it out with a long two point jumper.

It looked like there was a chance that the seniors and Patterson would enjoy a last game victory lap as they blew out the hapless Gators. ‘Cats fans that had watched the first 30 games of the season knew better. You see, this UK team has just about the worst case of ADD I’ve seen.

They had Florida down, but they were only marginally interested in keeping it that way. They treaded water until the 1:30 mark in the half, then Florida pieced together a 6-0 run to close within ten at the break. From there, it was a battle the rest of the way.

Florida was able to whittle the lead to four early in the second half, then three with ten minutes left, and finally to two with with seven minutes left. All along though, no one really seemed all that worried, crowd included. It turned out there wasn’t much cause for concern, because it was John Wall time at the end again, UK made a couple free throws, and the ‘Cats moved to 29-2, obliterating any remain doubt about the prospect of a number one seed in the Tournament.

In all reality, it was a bit of a mail it in kind of performance by UK and even the crowd, making it all the more impressive that they were able to dispatch a team playing for its NCAA Tournament life. No one really played all that well, but UK got an anticlimactic win in bidding farewell to Patterson, the seniors, and likely Wall and Cousins, in spite of the “one more year” chants that we periodically thown around.

It was one of the more balanced performances by UK this season, highlighted by 8-18 shooting from deep and double figure scoring from Miller (14), Bledsoe (14), Patterson (13), Wall (11), and Dodson (10). Even though UK was outrebounded and outscored in the paint, UK played enough D and hit enough outside shots to get the W.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the game was the play of Dodson and Miller, who were a combined 8-10 from the field. Both were aggressive and effective, but Dodson stuggled at times with decision making and defense, making it difficult for Cal to be comfortable with him on the floor as Florida was making a run. Miller seems to have had a bit of rebirth after being relegated to benchwarmer status for a few games. His continued confident play and really solid defense has to be frigtening for teams trying to piece together a gameplan to beat UK.

Dodson and Miller needed to get it done, because Wall, Cousins, and Patterson had pretty quiet games by their high standards in their likely last games. They combined for just 32 points on 10-27 shooting.

UK now heads to post-season play as SEC Champs, unbeaten at home, and presumably the #2 team in the land. It’s been quite a ride so far this season, but this game really had the feel that everybody was ready for what’s next.