{"id":183138,"date":"2026-03-08T12:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/183138\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T12:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:26:14","slug":"kentucky-was-childish-played-into-what-the-opponent-wants-in-senior-day-loss-to-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/183138\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky was ‘childish,’ played into ‘what the opponent wants’ in Senior Day loss to Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky<\/a> turned it over nine times to Florida\u2019s ten, but the Gators assisted on 20 of their 28 made field goals compared to 17 of 26 for the Wildcats. As a team, UK converted on just 39.4 percent of its shots and 34.8 percent from three as UF knocked down 45.8 percent overall and 44.4 percent from deep. Elsewhere, it was a 41-40 advantage on the glass and a 38-32 scoring edge in the paint for the road team, but the good guys finished ahead 19-10 in bench scoring and closed up 12-10 in points off turnovers.<\/p>\n

The 24-4 difference in fastbreak points was the only truly damning statistic on the day for the blue and white. In fact, Mark Pope\u2019s group actually won the second half 45-35 \u2014 and, really, the final 38 minutes of the game after trailing 11-0 right out of the gate. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes the 84-77 loss on Senior Day so frustrating, though. The windows were there, the Wildcats just refused to go through them. Or they waited too long to make their move and didn\u2019t give themselves a real opportunity after going down by as many as 20. A two-possession game in the final minute, they were within striking distance, but couldn\u2019t truly threaten the serious Final Four contender.<\/p>\n

A few obvious obstacles stand in their way from closing that gap, one player believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re really close and it\u2019s not even a matter of physicality, it\u2019s not a matter of tactics, it\u2019s just a matter of will we understand what we need to do to win? And that\u2019s passing to each other, playing together both on defense and offense,\u201d sophomore forward Andrija Jelavic<\/a> said. <\/a>\u201cOn the offensive end, make players come to you and pass to the other guy \u2014 he will make a shot. That\u2019s what we do on offense. On defense, just being physical and five plays as one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we understand that before the SEC Tournament starts, I\u2019m not worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wildcats spotted the Gators an 11-0 lead in the openminutes, but responded with a run to cut it to 20-19 at the 8:57 mark. That led to a 13-0 Florida run right back, unfortunately, to go up by 14 \u2014 then as many as 18 before halftime.<\/p>\n

What happened in that brutal stretch they could never totally overcome?<\/p>\n

Jelavic actually likes how his team played on the defensive end, but things stalled out on the other end of the floor with a lot of that being self-inflicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fine on the defensive end but we were playing losing ball on the offensive end,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were making turnovers, taking bad shots and that\u2019s what results in going 11-0 or 13-0 at the beginning. That\u2019s just what Florida wants.\u00a0They want you to take bad shots, they want you to think that you can do a layup and they block you and then the two of them run and score a layup. I think that was the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started to play like us on offense, the defense just came to its own and almost turned around. We were short in the end because of that start. Against Florida, you need to play all 40 minutes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

He mentioned bad shots and turnovers on multiple occasions, and he feels the team got there by playing selfish and immature basketball. Players were more focused on getting theirs and monitoring how many possessions ended in opportunities for teammates, not themselves.<\/p>\n

Jelavic called it \u2018childish\u2019 \u2014 sticking with his theme of head-turning quotes talking with the media following his seven-point, four-rebound, two-assist, one-block, one-teal effort in 21 minutes. He wasn\u2019t a fan of the fatigue excuses made up by Mark Pope,<\/a> and he wasn\u2019t a fan of Kentucky\u2019s teamwork in the finale, just like all of their losses up to this point.<\/p>\n

Again, that\u2019s what Florida wanted, playing right into the top-seeded Gators\u2019 trap. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when you pass the ball to each other \u2014 some guys don\u2019t touch the ball for 2-3 minutes, and they just need to be mature, not be childish. Know the game will come to them and not just force it. That usually ends with a turnover or blocked shots. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the opponent wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kentucky was competitive in that extended first-half period that saw the Cats cut an 11-point deficit down to one, only to let go of the rope going into the break. That continued into the second with Florida pushing ahead by 20, followed by UK giving itself an unlikely shot in the final minutes. <\/p>\n

Against that team, though, it takes a complete game from start to finish. And it takes unselfish play, something that was missing for Pope\u2019s squad in the disappointing Rupp Arena finale.<\/p>\n

From this point forward, there are no more redos. It\u2019s win-or-go-home, survive-and-advance territory. \u2018Childish\u2019 time is over. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky turned it over nine times to Florida\u2019s ten, but the Gators assisted on 20 of their 28…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,49482],"class_list":["post-183138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-kentucky-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}