With Kentucky, it’s a question of speed.
Not in the traditional athletic sense, as in their athletes are faster than your athletes. Moreso, in the sense of a automobile racing, as in the car the Wildcats’ are driving simply has more horsepower and therefore goes faster than other teams. So when they press the pedal to medal, well, opponents simply can’t keep up.
That phenomenon was on display again Friday in the SEC tournament as the unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Wildcats blew past eighth-seeded Florida 64-59 in the quarterfinals. Now an unprecedented 32-0, Kentucky will face Auburn in the tournament semifinals on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“They have a will to win,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said after the win, its third over Florida this season. “And we have enough play-maker kind of players — Andrew to Aaron (Harrison) to Karl(-Anthony Towns) to Trey (Lyles) — that aren’t afraid to make the play. … You cannot be afraid to make the game-winning play and none of those kids are.”
In what has become a common refrain for UK’s opponents this season, Florida leaped ahead by five in the first half and remained competitively close well inside the game’s final 10 minutes. The Gators were within five with just over seven minutes to play.
Then the Wildcats stepped on their accelerator and went on a 12-2 run over the next five minutes. And the contest was over.
Lyles, the 6-foot-10 “small forward,” and Towns, the 6-11 freshman center, scored nine of those points during the decisive late stretch. Towns led the Wildcats with 13 points and 12 rebounds, Aaron Harrison added 13 and Lyles had 7 to go with 6 rebounds.
“When you are playing against guys who are that athletic, that long and have that kind of strength, if you don’t stay disciplined and stick to the gameplan, it’s kind of tough,” said Jon Horford, who led the Gators with 15 points.
Florida, which went 18-0 in conference play a year ago, falls to 16-17 on the season and is in danger of missing postseason play for the first time in 17 years under coach Billy Donovan.
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