No. 4 Florida has the look of an NCAA title contender
LEXINGTON, Ky. - From the joy of winning SEC regular-season championships to the pain of losing games that cost them a trip to the Final Four, there are many things these Florida seniors have experienced.
But here's something they hadn't, until Saturday night: A win at Kentucky's Rupp Arena.
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Steadied by senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin down the stretch and buoyed by yet another high-scoring performance from senior forward Casey Prather, No. 4 Florida defeated No. 13 Kentucky, 69-59, in front of a raucous Rupp crowd Saturday night.
'It was surreal - I couldn't believe it,' Florida center Patric Young said. 'When we were walking off the court, it didn't seem real. It was so hard for us. Last year, we let it slip away. Years before, we weren't even in the game.'
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Saturday's was the Gators' first win in Lexington since 2007, which, if you remember correctly, was a pretty darn good Florida team.
So good in fact that coach Billy Donovan was asked after Saturday's win if he could compare that national championship-winning team to this year's squad - one many think is another title-caliber team itself. The current Florida team is not nearly as talented, Donovan said; three of his starters in '07 went on to be lottery picks in the NBA draft that June.
'But the comparison I would make is the way those guys tried to play for each other, the way they cared for each other, there are some similarities,' Donovan said.
And perhaps, when all is said and done come April, they'll have similar hardware to show for it. It's time to talk about Florida as a true title contender, and perhaps the most complete team in the country in the aftermath of Arizona's recent injury to starting forward Brandon Ashley.
It took some time for Donovan's pieces to come together; he dealt with suspensions and injuries much of the fall, switching up lineups and rotations as he went. But now, the roster that on paper looked to be one of the nation's most talented and deepest has come to fruition.
He's got Wilbekin, who anchors the team both offensively and defensively and showed he can hit free throws with the game on the line Saturday night. He's got Prather, arguably the most improved player in the country and the kind of big man who can pull down the game's most important rebound in the midst of three Kentucky defenders with 90 seconds left to play. (And score 24 points to boot.) Plus, he's got a nice mix of other veteran players, with a few talented freshmen sprinkled in.
Still, he's not satisfied - which means this particular team is not playing at its peak just yet. Donovan said after Saturday's game that freshman guard Kasey Hill is dealing with a groin injury. He thinks freshman forward Chris Walker, who just became eligible earlier this month, can provide more of a boost of the bench. He believes Dorian Finney-Smith can grow more.
'I like the direction we're moving, but I'm also very guarded,' he said. 'That stuff can change. Different things can happen within your team to break that flow. Right now, we're moving in the right direction, but we have to continue to move in the right direction.'
In Scottie Wilbekin (5), Will Yeguete (15) and Co., Florida has a team that looks like it is built for the NCAA tournament.(Photo: Mark Zerof, USA TODAY Sports)
On the court, it's clear the Gators are doing just that - and doing so in important areas. After a first half in which they appeared timid at times and shied away from Kentucky's length and size down low, they adjusted in the second half, attacked in the paint and responded well to Kentucky's runs. In a tightly contested game down the stretch, Florida scored 31 points over its last 13 possessions, an astounding 2.38 points per possession during a stretch that also included a pair of free throws from a John Calipari technical foul. The Gators made 15 of 17 free throws to close out the game, to go along with an excellent defensive effort and extend their winning streak to 17 games.
Florida held Kentucky to a season-low eight second-chance points Saturday. Entering the game, the Wildcats were one of the country's best offensive rebounding teams. Kentucky scored on just three of its final nine trips down the court.
'What they did, they've done, I'm guessing, 10 games this year, where, with five minutes to go, four minutes to go, three minutes to go, it's anybody's ballgame,' Calipari said. 'Then they just grinded better than the other team grinds it, like they did us. They were just a little too experienced for us down the stretch. ... (Donovan has) had a bunch of good teams, but this is a veteran team that has a lot of things going for it, whether it be defensively, rebounding the ball.'
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So, maybe this isn't the most talented team Donovan has ever coached at Florida. (It's not.) But it is one that appears deep enough and experienced enough to cut down the same nets.
You know, winning a national championship is something this group of seniors hasn't done yet, either.
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