Against Florida, UK had a season-defining win within reach — and didn’t seize it
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK held Florida to 37.9% (29.2% 2nd half) but couldn’t finish
- Florida dominated the glass 50-29 and got 21 second-chance points
- Missed open threes and misc turnovers squandered UK’s chance
So much of what Kentucky needed to happen to stun Florida in Friday’s SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals happened.
Perhaps the best UK defensive effort of 2025-26 held the SEC regular season champions to 37.9% shooting, a frigid 29.2% in the second half.
Florida, not a great 3-point shooting team even when “on,” missed 17 of its 20 trey tries at Bridgestone Arena Friday.
After getting cooked by the Gators’ fast break, 24-4 in transition points, while losing 84-77 to UF last week at Rupp Arena, UK actually won fast break points 18-10 in Nashville.
Yet, with a win that could have altered the perception of this up-and-down Kentucky season and given the Cats genuine momentum to carry into next week’s NCAA Tournament right there to be claimed, Kentucky failed to seize it.
Pounding Kentucky 50-29 on the glass and winning the second-chance points 21-8, Florida (26-6, 16-2 SEC regular season) won a 71-63 grinder over UK (21-13, 10-8 SEC).
It was the 12th straight win for Florida. It was Kentucky’s third loss this season to the AP No. 4-rated Gators.
Florida became only the fourth SEC team ever to beat UK three times in one season, joining 1978-79 Tennessee, 2013-14 Florida and Alabama last season.
UK, which was playing its third game in three days after earning the No. 9 seed in the SEC tourney, shot 5 for 23 from 3-point range against the Gators and lamented its numerous misses on wide-open 3-point attempts.
“We had a lot of good looks,” Kentucky forward Mo Dioubate said afterward. “We normally make a lot of the shots we took today. If we had made them, we could have had a different result today.”
Said UK freshman guard Jasper Johnson: “Can’t make excuses. We’ve got to make shots.”
Along with the Cats’ errant shooting, it was the inability to keep Florida off the offensive glass that did in UK.
Florida starts the 6-foot-9 Thomas Haugh, 6-10 Reuben Chinyelu and the 6-11 Alex Condon on its frontline, while bringing the 7-2 Micah Handlogten off the bench.
On Friday, that towering foursome outrebounded Kentucky 36-29 all by themselves. Chinyelu and Condon each had 10 boards, while Haugh and Handlogten each claimed eight.
Often, the Florida bigs just kept tipping the ball until one of them could claim it.
As you handicap the NCAA Tournament, keep in mind: Teams that utilize three-guard alignments, such as Kentucky, are at a severe disadvantage in the paint against UF and its three bigs.
“They are always going to have one advantage (at one frontcourt position) because they play three bigs,” Dioubate said.
Florida’s length also had a big defensive impact, especially on Kentucky star Otega Oweh. When the hard-driving UK wing turned the corner Friday against the Gators, he was generally met before the rim by a wall of Florida big men.
The result was a 5-of-18 shooting performance for Oweh, who finished with only 10 points and also committed four of UK’s 12 turnovers.
“It’s not hard to get downhill (on Florida),” Oweh said. “It’s harder to finish just because, you know, they all just in the paint. They got some good shot blockers.”
Even with so much going wrong, Kentucky cut a 14-point Florida lead, 62-48 with 4:15 left in the game, to five, 66-61, on a Denzel Aberdeen 3-pointer with 1:20 remaining.
As the heavily pro-UK crowd in the Bridgestone Arena roared, Gators guard Xaivian Lee restored quiet by draining a 3-point dagger with 50 seconds left that put UF up 69-61 and essentially sealed the deal.
In the aftermath of another loss to Florida, Kentucky was left to regret what could have been.
A victory over Florida would have sent the Cats into the SEC tourney semifinals for only the third time since 2018. It would have kept alive Kentucky’s hopes of winning its first SEC Tournament title since that same year.
More importantly, only two days prior to Selection Sunday, it would have potentially given a turbo-charge to UK’s NCAA Tournament seeding.
It would have sent the Cats into March Madness with a victory over a team some see as the favorite to win a second-straight NCAA title.
UK would have entered NCAA tourney play with the confidence derived from having proven it could beat the best of the best.
A victory over Florida would also have given Mark Pope’s program a jolt of energy to take into what shapes up as a crucial transfer-portal recruiting season.
Yet, with such a consequential win right there to be grasped, Kentucky failed to take it.
So, with the NCAA Tournament now imminent, the 2025-26 Cats are down to their final chance to create a positive ending for what has been a rollercoaster of a season.
“We’ve got to turn the page. We’ve got a quick turnaround, obviously,” Oweh said, looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament. “We just gotta give it our all. No one wants to go home yet. Now, it’s really crunch time.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 6:58 PM.
