to watch every recorded game of the 1996 team over and over.

Guys, I realize that Cal has a lifetime contract. But it's possible to make him want to leave. It's past time to make him want to leave. People in Lexington need to make home so uncomfortable that he can't wait to exit the Bluegrass. I know that BBN can do it. Anytime you see that turd in public, quit fawning on him and bring the heat instead.
Make him so uncomfortable to leave his home that he wants to leave town.

What is going on? The last couple of games we have had soooo many shots blocked?

GO CATS

*****

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KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME NOTES
RUPP ARENA AT CENTRAL BANK CENTER | LEXINGTON, KY
JAN. 31, 2024
ATTENDANCE: 20,068



Final Score: Florida 94, No. 10/8 Kentucky 91 (overtime)



Team Records and Series Notes

• Kentucky is 15-5 on the season, 5-3 in the Southeastern Conference.
• Florida extended its winning streak to four in a row is 15-6 overall, 5-3 in league play.
• UK leads the series 110-42 but tonight ended a five-game UK win streak in the series.
  • UK leads 55-12 in games played in Lexington.
• Next for Kentucky: on Saturday, UK plays host to Tennessee at 8:30 p.m. in a game that will be televised by ESPN.

Team Notes

• The game featured 15 ties and 29 lead changes. There were 14 ties and 26 lead changes in regulation.
• Kentucky is 1-2 in overtime game this season.
• Kentucky scored 91 points tonight. UK entered the game fourth in the nation in scoring at 88.5 points per game.
• Kentucky had 17 assists and nine turnovers, an assist/turnover ratio of +1.89.
• UK entered the game fifth in the nation with a +1.82 ratio.
• UK entered the game 13thin the nation in assists per game with 18.0.
• Kentucky had a season-high 14 blocked shots tonight. UK entered the game ninth in the nation with 5.7 blocks per game.
• Since the North Carolina game on Dec. 16, the first game that UK had two of its seven-foot players available, the Wildcats have averaged 7.2blocks per game.
• Kentucky’s largest lead was 10 points. The Wildcats are 342-16 (95.5%) under Calipari when leading by 10 or more at some point during the game.
• This was the sixth game this season that UK had two players score at least 20 points. UK is 5-1 in those games.
• D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards did not play because of injuries. Kentucky has not had all players available for any game this season.

Player Notes

• Ugonna Onyenso had his first UK double-double with a career-high 13 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
  • He also had a career-high eight blocks while playing a career-best 33 minutes.
  • His 13-16-8 stat line is the first such combination by a player in Kentucky history.
  • His 16 rebounds are the most by a Wildcat in a game this season.
• Playing all 45 minutes, Reed Sheppard had 24 points, his fourth 20-point game of the season and most against an SEC opponent.
  • He also led the Wildcats in assists with six.
• Playing a career-high 39 minutes, Rob Dillingham had 20 points, his third game this season of at least 20 points.
• Antonio Reeves had 19 points.
  • He has landed in double figures in every game but one this season.

Coach John Calipari

• Calipari has an 847-258 (76.7%) all-time on-court record, including 402-118 (77.3%) at Kentucky.
• Calipari is 331-68 (83.0%) at UK against unranked competition.
• Calipari is 25-10 vs. Florida.
• Calipari is now 398-129 (75.5%) all-time in conference games, including 190-63 (75.1%) in the SEC.

In the First Half

• Kentucky started Reed Sheppard, Antonio Reeves, Adou Thiero, Tre Mitchell and Ugonna Onyensofor the first time.
  • It is the sixth different lineup of the season and third straight game with a different lineup.
• Aaron Bradshaw and Rob Dillingham were UK’s first substitutions at the 15:06 mark.
• Trailing 28-27, UK went on a 12-1 run to take a 39-29 lead.
• Florida scored five points in the final minute to pull within 41-36 at halftime.
  • The first half featured five ties and 14 lead changes.
• Sheppard led UK with 11 points while Dillingham and Reeves had eight each.
• UK is now 13-2 this season when leading at halftime.

In the Second Half

• Kentucky began the second half with Sheppard, Dillingham, Reeves, Mitchell and Onyenso.
• Appropriate for a game with 14 ties and 26 lead changes in regulation, Florida’s Walter Clayton hit a 3-pointer with five seconds left to send the game to overtime at 84-84.

In Overtime

• Kentucky began the overtime with Sheppard, Dillingham, Reeves, Mitchell and Onyenso.
• Trailing 87-86, Clayton hit a 3-pointer with 1:42 remaining to put Florida ahead 89-87.
• The Gators added five foul shots to make it 94-87.
• Sheppard hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, and after a UK steal, was fouled with two seconds left.
• Sheppard made the first foul shot to make it 94-91. He intentionally missed the second but Florida got the rebound to seal the win.

Hoping Ugo gets the start tonight, and if he does, I see him as a key guy slowing down Florida's offensive rebounding prowess.

7 pts, 10 reb, 5 blk

It was dumb then and even dumber now. This team gets bullied every night. I miss Oscar more every day.

Cal is getting paid to WIN FREAKIN games!!! I don't care about our opponent!!!! I want to BEAT THEIR BRAINS IN!!!! I want our coach to be PISSED over losing!!!!!! Not telling me how GREAT the team that just beat us is!!!!

Then he says he just wants to get home to his dog!!! I am also tired of hearing how much he wants to be with his dog afetr a loss!!!!

To think UK is paying this dude $9 million/year to praise the opponent that just KICKED HIS BUTT and tell us all how much he misses his dog BLOWS MY MIND!!!!

That could go to Keenland & sell horseshit for
a $1000.00 a pound when you could go in
any stall & get it for free.

I’m sure by now some of you have seen the rumors surrounding Arkansas, all I have to say is I’m really not surprised lol

Looked to me like Ugo’s hook shot was on the way down when it was blocked toward the end of the game. Anyone else see it? I’m sure there was no dead ball review a la College Station.

Is it just me or do we implode at the end of every single half?(not literally.....but we are awful in the last couple minutes). Had a big chance there to blow it open....until this team can build leads and sustain them they're not going to be a contender. I just don't get this bunch sometimes. They've got all the pieces....

Can’t help but think that Wagner was healthy enough to play tonight but Cal held him out to be overly safe. If he plays Sat I’m going to be very pissed.

Don’t care about Edwards because it gives Adou more minutes and forces Cal to play more 3 guard lineups.

Reed’s defense is atrocious. I’m not sure he could guard me. He got lost time and time again and it seemed it always led to big 3’s. Seemed like Pullen scored 6 straight on him at one point.

There ya go.

Print that shit.

QUICK TAKES: Florida 94, Kentucky 91 - OT​

Florida's Zyon Pullin handled the ball against a trap from Kentucky defenders Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves during Wednesday's game at Rupp Arena. (Jeff Drummond/Cats Illustrated)

Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK

In our regular postgame feature, the Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions from Kentucky's 94-91 overtime loss to Florida on Wednesday night at Rupp Arena.​

JEFF DRUMMOND:

Kentucky was probably lucky to leave Gainesville with a two-point victory earlier this month, and Florida returned the favor with an unlikely win tonight at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats managed to blow a four-point lead in the final 37 seconds, allowing the Gators to get a game-tying 3-pointer off with three seconds to go. UK chose not to foul early, which proved to be a big mistake. John Calipari will have to answer questions about that late strategy. This is a costly loss. You can't afford home losses in this league, even if you're playing without a couple of starters in DJ Wagner (ankle) and Justin Edwards (knee). It's a shame that the Cats wasted a huge performance from Ugonna Onyenso (13 points, 16 rebounds, 8 blocked shots) in his first collegiate start. It was somewhat negated by a rare off-night for Tre Mitchell (2-for-10 FG, 5 points). Even with Ugo giving UK some serious rim protection, the Cats remain pretty bad on the defensive end of the floor. You can't allow 94 points to unranked teams. Things don't get any easier on Saturday as No. 5 Tennessee comes to town.

JUSTIN ROWLAND:

This loss really impacts my opinion of this team. After the Arkansas game you had to leave open the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they were taking a big step forward defensively. Tonight, it doesn't feel like that's the case. Does a championship-caliber team lose to UNCW and an unranked Florida team at Rupp? As explosive as this team has looked offensively, how often has this team looked anything like "dominant" against just about anybody? We probably need a hard reset about expectations for this team. Nobody's off the hook tonight. Even the better players and the stat sheet stuffers showed glaring deficiencies.

TRAVIS GRAF:

Once it went to overtime, I didn’t feel good about Kentucky’s chances. They had chances to win it in regulation but couldn’t capitalize. Florida is a solid team, but this is a very bad loss for Kentucky. They’re just not good at finishing games and struggle to get stops. Guys were tired at the end of the game, but so were Florida’s. The one bright spot was Ugonna Onyenso, who looks like the team’s go-to guy on the interior.

DAVID SISK:

This was a weird game. Kentucky was down D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards. Adou Thiero evidently got injured during the game, and Rob Dillingham played out the overtime session with a cramp. There were some tired legs late. Reed Sheppard played all 45 minutes. Antonio Reeves, Tre Mitchell, and Dillingham all played at least 35 minutes. But in the end, the defensive struggles reared its ugly head. Florida had to have three points on the last-second possession, and they got it. Then they could not get the critical stops in overtime. Florida hit 12 treys and made seven more foul shots. (The Gators made more 3-pointers than the Cats made free throws.) UK will get healthy, but as I’ve been saying for weeks they have to improve on the defensive end. If you can’t get stops you are at the other team’s mercy in a close tournament game.

We needed Reeves and Toppin today. Great effort by Oscar and Wallace. Here’s to hoping Oscar, Toppin and Reeves Return

Yay, we finally can make shots and put up points. But what does it matter if the other teams out scores us and we can’t defend anything? Also 2 OT games where basically we have just stopped scoring and let the other team win.

This team isn’t any different than last year. Just losers in different ways, and we can work ourselves into pretzels coming up with excuses as to why.

Basically no improvement at all. “11 deep,” but really only 3 players seem to care about being out there and playing hard, so how can we be a “deep and talented team?” Guys that were projected as top 10 picks now aren’t even projected in the first round. Maybe they shouldn’t have been anyways I guess.

Jack Givens congratulated Reeves on the post game for his effort, and said Reed deserved a good night’s sleep after playing all 45 minutes. Is that what we are celebrating now? Really?

Some other teams lost this week too, so it's fine.

Besides, Cal can't shoot free throws for them. It's not his fault they didn't foul at the end of the game to prevent the three from Clayton Jr. who had been shooting threes all night.

Let's just let the season play out before we start criticizing our 400-win coach who has a $40 million buyout and is irreplaceable anyway.

Accepted this team won’t play good or decent defense. Which limits our ability to make a good run in March.
I’m hopeful but not overly optimistic

Unpopular take. Reed shepherd couldn’t guard 95% of us on this board.

Its a matter of want to from the players. Getting beat off the dribble will happen. But ball watching leading to open shots should not. It is fixable....its just up to them to do it.

Why did Devo Davis “step away from the team”?