Throw another trophy in the case back in Lexington. UK finished off Florida by a cool 16 points in the SEC final. Just another notch in the belt for a program that has now won its conference tournament for the 27th time.
The next closest school?
Who cares!
Astounding is just about the only way to describe the growth of this particular edition of the Wildcats over the last several weeks. UK absolutely kicked the Gators on Sunday, making the regular season champs look like mere afterthoughts in the Georgia Dome. Florida is a far better team than they showed against the Cats, but some terrifyingly tenacious D and an off shooting day, particularly for the Gator backcourt, made the result rather anticlimactic.
UK built a solid 10-12 point lead fairly early and Florida had to chase it all afternoon. In the second half, with the game becoming quite stagnant, Darius Miller threw in a couple of three pointers to kick start the offense for the Cats down the stretch, and Florida never could get over the hump. Those were two huge treys for Mr. Miller, as it seemed that Kentucky had been stuck on a scoreboard total of 45 for quite awhile.
Miller was deservedly named Most Outstanding Player, but the team really did click on just about all cylinders in the Peach State. I would maintain that Terrence Jones was far less than his best, but he still contributed to the victories, along with fellow freshman Brandon Knight, and honestly everybody in Blue did a ton of growing up in a 3-day span.
What a great way for Josh Harrellson to go out...SEC tournament champion, again! What a relief to see Doron Lamb suffering no major after affects of what looked to be a severe ankle sprain. (Liggins too, for that matter.) What momentum for this team heading into the NCAA tournament.
So Kentucky has turned in a 25-win season, a nice shiny trophy, and now hopes to make 2011 even more memorable in the next few weeks. It's another great day to be a Wildcat.
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