Three Takeaways From Florida's 71-70 Loss To Kentucky

Florida dropped a heart-breaker to Kentucky on Saturday. Here are three things we learned.

New game, same old story. 

Florida basketball being apart of big comebacks this season isn't new. Kentucky's 18-point comeback win was just the newest edition of the Gators blowing a strong start. 

Florida now stands at 19-12 entering the SEC Tournament. A win over Kentucky would have solidified the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament, but instead, Florida has far less control of their fate.

This is obviously a gut-wrenching loss for Florida, but we did learn a few things, here are three:

Scottie Lewis is coming along

He made costly mistakes late, yes. Turnovers in crunch time like he made could be season-ending if they happen in a few weeks during the tournament. However, do not let that distract you from the fact that he played one of his best offensive games of the season. 

His offensive involvement as of late, paired with his exceptional defense should mean a special player should he choose to remain in Gainesville next season. The freshman from Eatontown, New Jersey, was by far the brightest spot on the floor for UF. 

These are the kinds of mistakes he should have been allowed to make earlier in the year. A few months ago, it felt as if Lewis was almost being held back by coach Mike White. It in a sense felt like he kept the star recruit on the floor for his defense, but felt uneasy about his offensive contribution. 

That uneasiness was warranted, as Lewis can sometimes be careless with the ball, but earlier in the year was the time for him to grow through those mistakes. Today, he committed two turnovers that cost the Gators late despite a phenomenal performance.

Offense or defense, can't have both

White's bread and butter as coach has always been on the defensive end of the floor. His early UF teams when he arrived in Gainesville were excellent defensive teams. Now? 

It flip-flops. 

You never really know. This team began the season weak offensively but strong on defense. It felt like a typical Mike White team. Then in the middle part of the year, the Gators began to finally score at a higher clip, but at the expense of the defense. 

Now it's back to square one. 

UF played a good enough game defensively Saturday to beat Kentucky. Ideally you want more than 70 at home but it was enough today without UK point guard Ashton Hagans directing the offense for the Wildcats. 

But once again, Florida disappointed. 

This Loss Is Inexcusable 

Forget the final minute. 

That was, obviously, not where this game was lost. You simply can't fork over an 18-point lead in the second half. The final minute at that point was almost immaterial. If you choke that hard with not even 12 minutes to play, you don't deserve to win. 

On top of that, Ashton Hagans is arguably UK's best overall player, and he missed the game. And considering the Gators played UK well in Lexington just two weeks ago, this game being in Gainesville really should have gone Florida’s way.

But it didn’t.

White's team blew a double-digit lead and falling to Mississippi State back in January. This game marks the second time this season at home that the Gators have choked away second-half leads of more than 10. 

White's inability to call a timeout during a funk, draw up something creative and easy to execute is killing Florida when it goes cold. If the jump shots stop falling, there's no offense. It never seems that he makes the right decision, if he makes a decision at all, to get his squad out of a funk.