Aaron Bradshaw dagger three was 'pick your poison' moment for Todd Golden, Florida

Look, when you’re playing a team with five guys averaging at least 12 points per game and eight scoring at least 7.7, you’ve got to choose your battles. That was Florida’s dilemma when coming up with a gameplan for No. 6 Kentucky, specifically when looking to come up with stops down the stretch in the teams’ neck-and-neck battle in Gainesville on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the Gators chose wrong when deciding to leave Aaron Bradshaw open for a catch-and-shoot look with 1:27 to go. The guy who was essentially a non-factor through 31 minutes of the game and Kentucky’s eighth-leading scorer on the year drilled the dagger go-ahead 3-pointer, one that ultimately proved to be the game-winner.

“He was 2-3 from three going into the (game), so I put him in that Micah (Handlogten) category of guys who can make a shot,” Florida coach Todd Golden said after the loss. “But you’re sitting in that game, if you would have said, ‘Hey, they’re gonna need a three from their freshman big who has taken three attempts on the year to dagger you guys.’ You probably live with that as opposed to a Tre Mitchell post-up or Reed Sheppard catch-and-shoot three.

“You’re going up against a top-10 team in the country, you’ve got to pick your poison a little bit in what you’re willing to deal with. Credit to Bradshaw, that was a huge, huge shot. He beat us with that shot. I don’t think we beat ourselves by allowing that shot.”

Overall, Golden was pleased with his team’s gameplan and execution for the most part. He wanted Florida to limit assisted 3-pointers for Kentucky and the Wildcats finished with just six assists overall. That was a win. He also thought the Gators switched well, specifically on Mitchell in the middle ballscreen “because he’s such a good catch-and-shoot shooter” and finished just 0-2 from deep. Even in a 12-point, 10-rebound effort for the graduate senior, that’s a win.

But the Cats were too much to handle everywhere else, and when push came to shove, they simply won the one-on-one battles.

“I thought they made some really good one-on-one plays. … To their credit, I thought they did a really good job finishing tough layups around the rim. I would imagine they had the best two-point field goal percentage against us that anybody’s had all year,” he said. “There are only so many things you can do schematically at the end of the day with one-on-one defense. It comes down to, you know, are you physical enough? Are you able to keep them far enough away from the rim? Are you able to contest the shot hard enough?”

At the end of the day, Kentucky hit the daggers down the stretch that Florida couldn’t.

“They shot 45% from the field, too high of a percentage from two. I thought we did a good job limiting their threes and how good of shots they were able to get and they missed some free throws too,” Golden added. “Just one shot here, one turnover there is the difference. That’s the tough thing with a game like this, when one play can change the direction of the game.”

For a team that led nearly 29 minutes at home in a sold-out environment, that hurts.

“It was a missed opportunity, for sure,” Golden said.