So maybe Immanuel Quickley should be SEC Player of the Year?
Instant analysis from No. 10 Kentucky’s 65-59 win over Florida:
How the game was won
Immanuel Quickley exploded for 22 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and Tyrese Maxey hit two pressure-packed free throws with 12 seconds left and UK up only two to clinch the victory.
Who’s hot
1. Immanuel Quickley. Maybe the SEC Player of the Year voters need to “pick Quick.”
2. Tyrese Maxey. The UK freshman guard (13 points, seven rebounds, seven assists) flirted with a triple-double..
3. Florida post players. Keyontae Johnson (19 points, nine rebounds) and Kerry Blackshear (18 points, six boards) outplayed the UK bigs.
Who’s not
1. UK press breakers. For the second straight game, Kentucky turnovers against full-court pressure put a game the Cats seemed to have under control into jeopardy.
2. Ashton Hagans’ ball handling. The Kentucky point guard had six turnovers. In UK’s last nine games, its primary ball handler has turned it over four times or more six times.
(Nevertheless, Hagans’ steal that led to a Tyrese Maxey layup that put UK ahead 58-51 with 2:18 left in the game was a Gators back breaker).
3. Kentucky post-player rebounding. UK’s three main big men did not have a rebound until Nate Sestina claimed a missed Florida free throw with 17:05 left in the second half.
Key number(s)
Seven and four. In its prior four games in Rupp Arena, Kentucky made a combined seven three-point shots (7-of-51). Immanuel Quickley hit four treys (4-of-6) Saturday against Florida himself.
The ‘Cat-mosphere’
1. UK ran its new “Nick Richards for All-America” faux political advertisement on the Rupp Arena video boards. The “focus group” of fans gathered in Rupp reacted enthusiastically.
2. The Florida players got the second-heartiest Rupp Arena boos of 2019-20 when they entered for the final time before the game. Only Louisville was booed more vociferously in Rupp so far this season.
3. John Calipari presented graduate transfer Nate Sestina with a basketball commemorating the former Bucknell forward having become a 1,000-points-plus career scorer in UK’s Tuesday night win at LSU.
4. Harlan native Jordan Smith, the season nine winner of “The Voice,” sang a soulful rendition of the national anthem.
5. The “TNT Dunk Squad” used trampolines to make Lexington into “Slam-Dunk City” at halftime.
6. John Wall, the former Kentucky star and current Washington Wizards guard, was “the Y.”
Up next
No. 10 Kentucky (22-5, 12-2 SEC) will travel to College Station to face Texas A&M (14-12, 8-6 SEC after beating Mississippi State 87-75 Saturday) Tuesday night. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. EST and be telecast by ESPN.
Florida (17-9, 9-4 SEC entering the Kentucky game) will return home to face LSU on Wednesday at 9 p.m. in a game telecast by ESPN2.
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 8:24 PM.
