South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Freshman flourish
After first-half struggles, Bradshaw comes alive as Wildcats beat Gators in SEC opener
GAINESVILLE — For all the trials and tribulations, the struggles and shortcomings, that Kentucky exhibited Saturday afternoon inside the Exactech Arena at Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, the end result will take paramount importance.
As will the player who played a large part in delivering it.
Freshman center Aaron Bradshaw hit a dead-eye 3 from the top of the key with 1 minute, 27 seconds to go in a game that was tied at 76-all to lift John Calipari’s No. 6-ranked Wildcats to an eventual 87-85 win over Florida in both teams’ Southeastern Conference opener.
Bradshaw — who managed only one rebound as his statistic of note in 10 minutes of first-half action — came alive following the halftime break. The freshman had 10 points and six rebounds in 15 second-half minutes, with no moment bigger than the 3 with less than 90 seconds left that spurred “C-A-T-S, Cats, Cats, Cats” and “Go Big Blue” chants throughout a lively O’Dome that had been filled with fans clad in orange T-shirts.
That Kentucky was still within a stone’s throw of a quality Florida team after the Cats had six assists against nine turnovers for the game was one thing. But that the Cats won the game anyway given these marks, along with plenty of turbulence along the way from its young team, was another.
And don’t forget the fact that for Bradshaw’s result-changing shot, the quintet of UK players on the floor were four freshmen and fifth-year Antonio Reeves.
As alluded to above, Kentucky (11-2, 1-0) didn’t exactly come out ready to play to begin its SEC schedule. With all due respect to December’s rivalry matchup at Louisville, Saturday afternoon was the first true road contest of the season for these Cats. And while the O’Dome wasn’t filled to the brim, it was plenty loud enough as Kentucky struggled, and consequently trailed, for the vast majority of the way.
Along with Bradshaw, plenty of his freshman teammates also had issues. Guard Rob Dillingham (1-for-4 shooting, four turnovers, zero assists) didn’t put his best foot forward in the opening 20 minutes.
Neither did Justin Edwards with just four points and one rebound after 20 minutes. D.J. Wagner had two points and one rebound in the first half. Even the ever-steady presence of Reed Sheppard (five points, four rebounds, two assists, one turnover) was somewhat muted during the opening half.
This was coupled with an energetic performance from the host Gators (10-4, 0-1), who shot 8-for20 (40%) from 3-point range in the opening half while Kentucky was ice-cold from distance, making just one of its 10 first-half attempts from 3-point range.
The only reason the Wildcats remained within striking distance at halftime (Florida led 45-37) was thanks to the two most-experienced players on the roster: Fifthyears Tre Mitchell (12 points, eight rebounds) and Reeves (nine points) were effective enough.
Mitchell in particular was, as he often has been this season, a hub of offensive activity for the Cats, even while playing through plenty of physical contact and at one point even sporting some cotton cloth in his nostrils after a hit to the face.
Mitchell was far less effective in the second half, and limped off the court with an apparent lowerbody injury with 1:38 to play with, right before Bradshaw’s heroics took place.
Still, the day’s work for the former UMass, Texas and West Virginia big man totaled a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double. He also did his part in riling up the Florida student section with several “too small” gestures toward Gator bigs in the first half.
Part of UK’s first-half shortcomings included failing to properly take advantage of Florida sophomore guard Riley Kugel (11 first-half points) getting into foul trouble: Kugel picked up his third foul with 11:18 to go in the first half, before checking back into the game with 6:15 to go and adding four more points and a rebound without picking up what would have been a costly fourth foul.
Wagner, along with several of his freshman teammates, woke up in the second half though, and helped power UK back to take a brief lead with 15:22 to go in the game.
A more-than three-minute scoring drought then followed, which was more than enough for Florida to reestablish a lead that grew to as many as seven points.
Both teams also became mired in foul trouble as the second half progressed, but continued scoring from Wagner and Reeves helped lift Kentucky back into the game.
And the Cats hung around long enough for Bradshaw to take advantage of his big moment.
Another big reason why Kentucky found itself within striking distance down the stretch centered around shooting variance:
Florida went 8 for 20 (40%) on 3-pointers in the first half, and 1 for 11 (9.1%) on 3-pointers in the second half.
Kentucky went 1 for 10 (10%) on 3-pointers in the first half, and 4 for 10 (40%) on 3-pointers in the second half.
While neither team had a banner day from the foul line Saturday, the Cats via Ugonna Onyenso, Bradshaw and especially Sheppard made enough to get to the buzzer and begin the pursuit of a 50th SEC regular-season title with a win.
It also ended up being a historically good comeback win by the Wildcats.
The last time UK rallied from a halftime deficit of eight points or more on the road was on March 7, 2020, also at Florida. Down 40-30 at the half in that game, Kentucky won 71-70 on an EJ Montgomery tip-in.
In fact, since that contest, UK had been 2-13 across all games in which the Wildcats were down at least eight points at halftime.
Big Z back with UK, while Thiero misses second straight game:
Kentucky opened SEC play shorthanded on Saturday afternoon in Gainesville.
Sophomore Adou Thiero missed the Cats’ SEC opener with “general soreness,” according to the program. Calipari announced that Thiero wouldn’t play during UK’s pregame radio show.
Thiero is considered day-to-day with the injury. This was the same listed injury and injury return status Kentucky announced when Thiero was held out of Kentucky’s Dec. 29 home win over Illinois State.
This marked the third time this season that Thiero has been kept out of a game.
Thiero also missed UK’s second game of the season against Texas A&M-Commerce while in concussion protocol.
Thiero has averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game this season for UK, statistics which include a 16-point, 13-rebound effort against then-No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic and a fourblock outing against then-No. 9 North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic.
Saturday also saw freshman center Zvonomir Ivisic back with the Kentucky team after an extended holiday break to return home to Europe. While Ivisic was back on the UK bench, he is still awaiting an NCAA ruling regarding his eligibility to play.
UK freshman Jordan Burks walked into the O’Dome on Saturday wearing a “FREE BIG Z” shirt, and several members of the UK team posed for photos with the shirt during pregame warmups.