Walter Connors

Down 18 with 4:34 to play in the first half, the Gators were desperately looking for answers.

Kentucky was scoring at will, while the Gators were giving up offensive rebounds, turning the ball over, and having a difficult time scoring.

The Gators closed the first half on a 13-5 run, to close the gap to 41-31, and gained some momentum heading to the locker room.

The Gators battled for most of the second half, eventually cutting the score to 62-60 with 5:35 to play.

However, in an eerily similar fashion to the first meeting, the Gators went cold after getting back into the game. Kentucky finished the game on a 12-6 run to knock off the Gators by eight.

Unfortunately, the Gators were plagued by poor shooting and single digit scoring from Erving Walker, Chandler Parsons, and Vernon Macklin, despite getting quality play off the bench from Erik Murphy and Ray Shipman who scored 11 points and 9 points, respectively.

Kentucky received balanced scoring, led by Darius Miller and Eric Bledsoe who scored 14 points each.

Kentucky essentially clinched a top seed in the NCAA Tournament, while the Gators will probably be left to sweat it out on Selection Sunday.

With that said, the Gators should make the dance, and despite the poor finish to the season, are a team that can make some noise. When they’re shooting the ball well, the Gators are a hard team to beat. Their biggest problem lately has been getting into a big hole early and then having to play their way back into the game.

For Kentucky, they have been stellar all season. They should make a deep run in the tournament, but I won’t be surprised if they are eliminated early. They aren’t a great free throw shooting team and they’re prone to giving up big runs when they fall asleep on defense. Cousins is still a player that Calipari has no control over, and it will be interesting to see how this team plays when they are tested for 40 minutes. Wall is a stud and will do everything he can to put this team on his back, but he can’t do it by himself.

It’s very likely that Wall, Patterson, and Cousins will leave for the NBA Draft, and Bledsoe might join them. Calipari will retool, but Kentucky fans might have to keep waiting if the Cats can’t win it all this year.

The SEC Tournament is ahead, but it’s March. The madness is beginning.

Saturday’s disappointing loss to Georgia left a bad taste in Florida’s mouth. Fortunately for the Gators, they only had to wait three days to get back on the court against a quality opponent.

Despite playing with high emotion on Senior Night, the Gators came up short 64-60.

Vernon Macklin had 21 points, but had little help from the rest of the Gator lineup. Chandler Parsons, Kenny Boynton, Erving Walker, and Alex Tyus combined for a dismal 24 points.

Dan Werner, the only senior on the Gator roster, played well and scored eight points.

Vanderbilt shot 43% from the field and 50% from three, including a 6-for-9 performance by John Jenkins.

Jenkins scored 18 points, while Jermaine Beal and A.J. Ogilvy added 13 and 16, respectively.

The Gators started slow and were down 20-8 early in the first half, but battled back with a strong run to end the half down only three.

However, for the first time this season, the Gators lost when leading with five minutes remaining.

After beating Tennessee on Tuesday, the Gators didn’t want to slip up at Georgia.

Unfortunately they did.

After trailing by double digits for the majority of the game, Chandler Parsons and Kenny Boynton lead a furious Gator comeback that came up just short.

Trailing by 15 with 9:45 to play, Parsons and Boynton took over. They scored 20 of the next 24 points and finished with 29 and 22 points, respectively.

After a shot clock violation on Georgia, Florida had the ball, down two, with 13 seconds left. They were unable to get a quality shot off as the ball was knocked out of bounds with .1 second to play. The ensuing lob was missed and Georgia claimed a 78-76 victory.

The Gators (20-9, 9-5) were rarely able to get a defensive stop during the first 30 minutes of the game as Georgia (13-14, 5-9) scored at will. The Bulldogs shot 57% from the field and 54% from three.

Trey Thompkins lead Georgia with 20 points and knocked down a handful of big shots down the stretch.

Despite the loss, the Gators still have a good chance to boost their NCAA Tournament hopes as they play Kentucky and Vanderbilt before the SEC Tournament.

The Gators likely needed one more quality win to secure an NCAA Tournament berth. Tonight’s win over Tennessee should do the trick.

Chandler Parsons and Erving Walker scored 19 points each to lead the Gators (20-8, 9-4) past Tennessee (20-7, 8-5) in Gainesville.

Both teams played well in the first half, with Tennessee on fire from behind the arc and the Gators dominating the paint. The Gators closed the first half on a 10-2 run to knot the score at 37.

From there, it was all Florida.

The Gators went on a 27-6 run to turn a close game into a rout, eventually leading 70-50 with 3:04 to play.

Vernon Macklin scored 13 points and dominated the Vols inside, while Parsons and Walker were active on the break and from behind the arc.

Scotty Hopson lead Tennessee with 20 points, but had little help from the rest of his team as the Gators were very active on defense. Florida held a 34-25 rebound advantage.

Wayne Chism, who dominated the Gators in the first meeting, spent most of the game in foul trouble, eventually fouling out with seven points and one rebound.

The Gators held Tennessee to 39% from the field while shooting 51%.

With tonight’s win, Florida jumped Tennessee in the SEC East standings, and the Gators still have an outside shot at winning the division and earning a bye in the SEC Tournament.

Poor free throw shooting has certainly cost the Gators a game or two this season.

Saturday’s season-best 25-for-27 free throw performance allowed the Gators (19-8, 8-4) to knock off Ole Miss (17-9, 5-7) in a battle of teams on the bubble.

Vernon Macklin scored a career-high 22 points while Erving Walker converted six consecutive free throws in the final 41 seconds to seal the win.

Chandler Parsons added 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists as the Gators took another step towards making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since they won back-to-back National Titles in 2005/2006 and 2006/2007.

In an out-of-conference match-up, Xavier (17-7, 8-2) dealt Florida (17-8, 6-4) a serious blow to their NCAA Tournament hopes.

The Gators were very flat in the first half despite playing at home against a quality opponent. Down as much as 16, the Gators got it going late in the first half and eventually tied it at 52 with 10:24 to play.

Once tied, Xavier went back to the game plan that built the 16-point, first half lead. They pounded the ball inside, knocked down a couple of threes, and made their free throws – unlike the Gators. Florida was 12-for-23 from the stripe and 4-for-16 from behind the arc.

Jason Love tallied a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Jordan Crawford had 18.

The Gators again had four starters in double figures, lead by Chandler Parsons 15, but as was the case Wednesday against South Carolina, it wasn’t enough.

Devan Downey scored 24 points to lead South Carolina past the Florida Gators 77-71 on Wednesday night.

The Gators led for most of the game, but turned the ball over 20 times, and made only one field goal during a six-minute stretch late in the second half.

Despite shooting 56% from the field, the Gators saw a 53-53 tie with seven minutes to play turn into a 67-57 deficit with one minute to play.

The Gamecocks finally got some offensive help from a player other than Downey as Brandis Raley-Ross and Sam Muldrow scored 20 points and 16 points, respectively.

The Gators had four starters in double figures, led by Erving Walker’s 20 and Chandler Parsons 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists.

The Gators (17-7, 6-4) go out-of-conference on Saturday to take on Xavier at home, while South Carolina (14-9, 5-4) travels to Georgia.

Vernon Macklin scored a career-high 20 points to lead the Florida Gators past Mississippi State 69-62.

Chandler Parsons added 18 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists.

Mississippi State’s duo of Ravern Johnson and Jarvis Varnado combined for 36 points, but it wasn’t enough to knock off the Gators at home.

Down 29-27 at the half, the Gators started the second half by pounding the ball inside to Macklin. Macklin scored the first 10 points of the second half for the Gators, including a few emphatic dunks that put the home crowd on their feet.

Despite being up 12 with 2:40 to play, the Gators had to make their free throws down the stretch as Mississippi State got hot from behind the arc cutting the lead to 5 with 1:10 to play.

The Gators moved to 17-6 overall and 6-3 in the SEC, while Mississippi State fell to 16-7 and 4-4 in the SEC.

Erving Walker scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half Thursday night to lead the Florida Gators (16-6, 5-3) past Alabama (13-9, 3-5) 66-65.

Despite getting 19 points from Alex Tyus, 15 from Kenny Boynton, 16 from Walker, and shooting 50% from the field, the Gators had a hard time closing out the Tide.

Leading 64-60 with 1:59 left, Anthony Brock stole the ball from Walker and scored after contact on the other end. After Brock knocked down the free throw, the Tide played tight defense and forced a poor shot by Walker. JaMychal Green got the rebound and eventually found Mikhail Torrance on the other end for the deuce to put the tide up 65-64.

After a Florida timeout, Walker again took a poor shot, but got lucky when Boynton was in position for the offensive rebound.

After another Florida timeout, Walker took the ball up top, blew by his defender, and scored to put the Gators up 66-65.

Torrance, who led all scorers with 22, missed a layup with 3 seconds left, and the Gators were able to deflect the following inbounds pass away to run out the clock.