The Big Blueprint is a rapid-reaction, nuts-and-bolts recap of the latest Kentucky men’s basketball game. Formatted to relive the key moments from each game, the Big Blueprint will be used on the blog for road games that Cat Scratches does not attend.The skinny: Kentucky dropped consecutive games for the first time in the John Calipari era and the first time since 2009 with another heartbreaking loss, a 70-68 defeat to Florida. It was the same script, different night for the Cats on the road. Similar to the Ole Miss and Alabama losses, UK fell behind by double digits before rallying late in the second half. UK and Florida traded leads down the stretch, but the Gators took the final lead of the game at 67-66 on a pair of free throws from Erving Walker. Brandon Knight’s 3-pointer before the buzzer from the top of the key missed short. Knight finished with 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 4 of 5 from behind the 3-point line. Chandler Parsons paced Florida with 17 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Kentucky falls to 16-6 overall, 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference. Florida improves to 18-5, 7-2 in the league. The difference: Experience and depth. Florida, picked in the preseason to win the SEC because of its experience, played like the veteran team down the stretch. Although the Gators let a 13-point lead slip away, they did not fold and panic when UK took the lead. Kentucky played with more toughness for 40 minutes than it did earlier in the week – quite frankly, Florida played very well Saturday night – but UK has not figured out how to pull out a close game. Also, foul trouble once again tested the Cats’ depth. DeAndre Liggins and Josh Harrellson were riddled in foul trouble most of the game. The Gators feasted in the paint at times without a plethora of big bodies to stop them.Player of the game: Parsons. Knight would have been your player of the game with a win, especially had he drilled his 3-point attempt just before the buzzer. The freshman guard took over in the second half when Kentucky fell behind double digits and played with a calming, follow-me attitude. Ultimately, though, Florida got the win and built its lead on the all-around play from Parsons. The senior forward had 17 points, 12 rebounds and five assists and seemed to come up with key plays at the right moment. His back-to-back put-back dunks after the Cats had stormed back halted the UK momentum.Turning point: Florida and UK were trading the lead until Harrellson fouled out on what looked to be a tie-up situation. Walker went to the line and drained two free throws with 1:51 left, and Alex Tyus followed with a leaning jumper to go up 69-66. The Gators never relinquished the lead.Play of the game: Knight’s 3-point miss that hit the front of the rim. Head coach John Calipari will likely take some heat for UK’s last possession. Instead of calling timeout with 13 seconds left and a chance to tie or win the game, Calipari elected to let Knight dribble the ball up and make a play. There appeared to be some confusion between Knight and Terrence Jones at the top of the key in the closing seconds so Knight decided to launch a 3-point shot.Key stat: Kentucky fell to 0-4 in games decided by five points or fewer. All four of those losses were by two points each. Some of that is misfortune; some of it is clutch play by the other teams. But some of it may be due to youth and inexperience. You can’t show a player or a team how to win late in games. Becoming clutch isn’t taught. John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins naturally knew how to win in tight games last year. One could argue Florida knew how to win Saturday because of its experience. This UK team is still learning, but time is running out on how to pull out close games.
He said what? “He willed us to that (comeback).” – Calipari on Knight “The last play, I’ve got to watch it on tape. The guy in the corner didn’t want to come out. He went backdoor, which is OK. We still go the ball screen, which is what we wanted. We had to go through Brandon down two. Normally I’d say we’re going after them but there were no calls. We were not going to go in there. Terrence went in there three times and we got nothing, so our best bet was going through Brandon. He got a great look late. I didn’t want them to press us, didn’t want them to change different things, didn’t want them to change to a zone. I liked the situation.” – Calipari”We’re just not quite where we need to be. What it shows you is we’re good enough to beat anybody. It also shows you is we have spells in a game where guys (don’t do what they’re supposed to).” – Calipari “I think they’re getting tired of the finishes. … I told you guys every game we play will be a four-point game. We’ve just got to get to where we’re finishing off some games.” – Calipari
Postgame video interview with Calipari, courtesy of the Courier-JournalUnsung hero: Eloy Vargas has been a punching bag for criticism this year because of his timid play, but the junior forward provided the Cats with 14 big minutes Saturday. He only logged two points, four rebounds and one assist, but he filled in admirably for Harrellson while he sat on the bench in foul trouble. Vargas won’t be pleased with a loss, but he can take consolation in the fact that he played well in his return to Florida, where he played at his freshman year.What this one means: Kentucky’s SEC championship hopes just went from slim to slimmer. At 4-4 in the league at the midway point, UK is not only two and a half games behind Florida for the SEC East lead, it also trails a surprising Alabama squad by three games for the overall league lead. Making matters worse, Alabama owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over UK thanks to the game in Tuscaloosa, Ala., a couple of weeks ago. Kentucky isn’t mathematically out of the SEC race at this point, but it’s pretty darn close. Anything short of a 7-1 or 8-0 finish will likely end the Cats’ one-year reign as conference champs. Oh, and did we mention UK still has to play Florida again, Vanderbilt twice and Tennessee twice? The outlook does not look pretty. And though Calipari told Dick Vitale before the game that seeding in the SEC Tournament is all that matters, that is starting to slip as well.
