Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s win over the Florida Gators in Gainesville

Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 82-74 victory over the Florida Gators at Exactech Arena:

1. Any Kentucky road win is a good Kentucky win

I know, I know, Kentucky was supposed to win. The Cats were a 2.5-point favorite. Florida was without its best offensive force and rim protector in 7-footer Colin Castleton. Even with Castleton scoring 25 points, the Cats had held off the Gators 72-67 in Lexington just three weeks before. UK entered the contest 9-5 in the SEC. Florida was 7-7.

And yet with 1:12 left in the rematch at the O’Connell Center, Kentucky clung to a 74-72 lead over the scrappy Gators.

“This was a gut-it-out win,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said afterward.

The Cats gutted it out, indeed, with Calipari sticking with his starting five for the entire second half. No subs. No surrender. And once again, UK played with that refuse-to-lose mentality, making just enough plays to hold off the home team.

The game’s biggest play belonged, once again, to freshman Chris Livingston. The 6-foot-6 Akron, Ohio, native rebounded a missed shot and scored with 49.1 seconds left, all while being fouled. Livingston then hit the free throw to extend the Cats’ advantage to 77-72.

From there, Kentucky made five of its six free throws in the final 32.5 seconds. Jacob Toppin hit the front end of a bonus before missing the second. Then, with 16.4 remaining, Toppin returned to the line and nailed both ends of the one-and-one. Finally, Cason Wallace calmly sank two free throws to improve the Cats to 10-5 in SEC play.

They would not have done so without Livingston and Toppin. After going 2-for-14 against Castleton on the way to four points at Rupp, UK’s Oscar Tshiebwe took advantage of UF’s big man sitting on the bench with a broken right hand to go 12 of 13 from the field on the way to 25 points. But Oscar grabbed an un-Oscar four rebounds. No problem. Livingston finished with 15 boards. Toppin had 11 to go with his 19 points.

“What it says is that Oscar can’t rebound,” Toppin joked.

“They were going crazy in the locker room,” a smiling Tshiebwe said in describing how his teammates had outrebounded the nation’s leading rebounder.

2. Give the undermanned Gators credit

Apparently Florida didn’t get the memo about how they were not supposed to win this game. New coach Todd Golden’s team fought from beginning to end.

Or at least Florida fought back after falling behind 30-15 with 8:18 left in the first half. From that point on the Gators outscored Kentucky 22-6 to head to the locker room at halftime with an unexpected 37-36 lead.

Last Saturday at Arkansas, the Gators hung tough with the Razorbacks before being outscored 17-2 to start the second half. A similar scenario happened Wednesday. The Cats outscored the Gators 14-6 before Golden called time with 15:13 left.

Yet Florida fought back again to take a 51-50 lead at the 13:47 mark when little-used Niels Lane completed an old-fashioned three-point play. The game was tied at 59 when Kentucky finally scored eight straight points to take control for good.

At halftime, I talked to Florida AD Scott Stricklin, Mitch Barnhart’s former top aide at UK. Stricklin said he was very happy with Golden’s first year in Gainesville. He liked his new coach’s positivity and the way the Gators had competed.

Why even the Florida fans competed. A little too much. When UK’s Wallace landed on some fans while trying to save a loose ball, the Gators backers held the UK freshman back from returning to the floor. Those fans were asked to leave the facility.

3. Three more games to tournament time

With its win streak now at three, Kentucky has but three games remaining in the regular season. Auburn comes to Rupp Arena on Saturday. Vanderbilt follows suit next Wednesday. Then the Cats close out the regular campaign at Arkansas on March 4 before the SEC Tournament starts March 8 in Nashville.

While walking with Calipari back to the UK locker room after his postgame press conference, I asked the coach about Livingston’s emergence. Often this time of year, freshmen wear down from the grind of a long season. Not Livingston. He’s playing his best basketball of the year right now. Why?

“Confidence,” Calipari said. “His confidence is growing.”

You can feel this team’s confidence growing. That doesn’t guarantee future success, but it’s difficult to win without it. And right now, this team appears to have it.

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