My Favorite Kentucky vs. Florida Basketball Memories (And One That Sucked)
On the night of Friday, February 9, 2007, some friends and I joined a group of students outside of Rupp Arena to line up for the following day’s Kentucky game. The official line began at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning when security clocked in for the day, but the psychos gathered even earlier across High Street, in this case, the night before game day. Excitement was exceptionally high because the Wildcats were hosting No. 1 Florida, the NCAA defending champion, in a free t-shirt game at Rupp.
As I remember the wait to get in, the weather was awful, with below-freezing temperatures making the concrete beneath us feel like ice. Almanac.com’s historical weather data confirms my memory: the low temperature in Lexington, Kentucky, was 10 degrees that night. Of course, we dressed like dumb college kids, too. I think I wore jeans and a UK hoodie, certainly not the layers I needed for several hours in the cold. When some kind soul delivered early morning breakfast to the campout, I used the free McDonald’s breakfast burritos as feet and hand warmers. Thank you to whoever brought those.
Once fans were finally allowed inside, the hypothermia outside paid off as we were courtside in the eRupption Zone ahead of the biggest game on the schedule. We did it. We braved the elements and were rewarded with a spot up front for the Cats vs. Gators.
Everything went wrong from there. It started with Joakim Noah giving us the finger in warmups (after looking to see if any of his coaches were nearby) and ended with Kentucky hitting only three of 22 shots from outside in a loss. It was a horribly lousy shooting performance. Still, the Wildcats had a chance to tie the game in the end until Ramel Bradley‘s desperation three-pointer at the buzzer bounced off the front of the rim, giving Florida its fifth straight win over Kentucky and Noah the last laugh. I will add that he fouled out with six points, so obviously, we were in his head.
That story is a not-so-good Kentucky-Florida memory, even though I cherish those old eRupption Zone lines, campouts, and ticket lotteries in college, and hating Joakim Noah.
Now for some of my fondest Kentucky-Florida memories as we approach another SEC Saturday featuring the Cats and the Gators.
Nick Calathes missing free throws in 2009
To this day, Rupp Arena has never been louder than when Florida guard Nick Calathes stepped up to the free throw line with 0.6 seconds on the clock, needing to make all three of his tries to tie the February 10, 2009 game in Lexington. Jodie Meeks had just given Kentucky the lead by hitting an off-balance three-pointer as the shot clock expired and the game clock struck four seconds remaining in regulation. Down three, Calathes drew a senseless foul on his final three-point heave as time was expiring, sending him to the line with a chance to erase Meeks’ heroics and force overtime.
It was then that Rupp Arena understood the assignment.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, if you weren’t there that day, it is impossible to know just how loud that building was as 24,000+ people reached decibels we didn’t know were humanly possible. I think the crowd shook the 5/3 building down the street. I know we shook Calathes.
Calathes had 33 points and hit 11 of 12 free throws when his first try rattled in and out. Somehow, the crowd maintained the noise level for his second attempt, which missed long. The third, he missed intentionally to give the Gators one final unanswered prayer.
Pat Forde wrote on ESPN.com, “I’ve been attending games here for 21 years, and I’ve never heard it as loud as the moment when Florida’s splendid guard stepped to the line with three shots to tie. Not when Rex Chapman was soaring or Pitino’s Bombinos were scoring 100 points. Other longtime Rupp regulars concurred.”
Three years later, Anthony Davis‘ game-winning block tried to take the throne as Rupp Arena’s loudest moment, but the time between Calathes stepping to the line and that first shot missing its mark is the loudest I can recall Rupp. It felt like an earthquake in there.
Bogans and Fitch popping their jerseys in 2003
Another from before the Calipari era. In 2003, Tubby Smith took his second-ranked Wildcats down to Gainesville to play No. 3 Florida in the regular season finale, seeking a perfect 16-0 record in conference play. Keith Bogans and Gerald Fitch delivered, combining for 33 points in a 69-67 win.
As Kentucky’s two stars stood on the court waiting for their postgame TV interview, they reminded the O’Dome who runs the Southeastern Conference. The win snapped Florida’s 19-game home winning streak.
Willie Cauley-Stein’s dunk in 2015
Kentucky’s best moment on the road against Florida is, without question, high-flying Willie Cauley-Stein in 2015, the year Kentucky went undefeated in the regular season and Cauley-Stein nearly won the Naismith Player of the Year trophy.
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At Florida, Cauley-Stein caught a body in transition in a moment Florida’s Devin Robinson would love to redo. The sequence began when Andrew Harrison intercepted a pass around the perimeter to start Kentucky’s fast break, giving Cauley-Stein a full head of steam as he trailed Harrison by a couple of steps down the middle of the floor. Harrison hit Cauley-Stein in stride one step inside the free throw as he took off from two feet and punched it in one-handed over Robinson’s head.
It’s one of the best dunks in Kentucky’s history.
Rock Oliver’s reaction to Willie Cauley-Stein’s dunk in 2015
Co-starring in Willie Cauley-Stein’s dunk at Florida was Rock Oliver, UK’s strength and conditioning coach at the time, for his bench reaction to the dunk. Play back the clip and you can see Oliver raise his arms toward the crowd in the corner of the screen before ESPN gave him his own TV time:
The screenshot is still a popular meme in some of my group texts.
#FreeDoug in 2023
Last season, a group of unruly Florida fans came into Rupp Arena and upset one of our best defenders of the Big Blue Nation: Doug the Blue Coat. Doug’s Committee 101 post was in the front of the eRupption Zone, and he made a business decision by joining some of the UK students in giving one of the Florida fans the middle finger as the fan was being escorted out for bad behavior. The problem for Doug was that ESPN caught his middle finger on the broadcast.
SEC Tournament Championship in 2011
John Calipari won the SEC Tournament in his first season at Kentucky in 2009-10. The Wildcats were the No. 1 seed and had only two losses all season when John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, & Co. swept the competition in Nashville, as expected.
But the following season, Florida was the SEC’s top seed and the team to beat in Atlanta. At the same time, Kentucky entered the field as a No. 2 seed, losing six league games, including a split with Florida, in the regular season. Each side won their first two games of the 2011 postseason, setting up a Kentucky-Florida championship game on Sunday in the Georgia Dome.
In the rubber match finale, four of Kentucky’s starters reached double-figure scoring, including the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, Darius Miller, who started for the injured Doron Lamb. Miller scored 15 points in the title game, including two three-pointers in the second half to extend Kentucky’s lead beyond reach as the Cats won a second straight SEC trophy in Calipari’s first two seasons.
That Kentucky team went on to play in the Final Four.
EJ Montgomery’s putback in 2020
In the last game the 2019-20 team ever played, EJ Montgomery scored that season’s final basket to beat Florida in Gainesville. Montgomery’s game-winning tip was a cleanup of Keion Brooks‘ missed baseline attack, giving the Wildcats a 71-70 lead with 11 seconds to go. Before Montgomery’s putback, Brooks hit a floater on the previous possession to get within one. On the other end, Kentucky’s defense forced back-to-back turnovers to escape with the comeback victory.
Adding to the joy, Kentucky was able to win without point guard Ashton Hagans in uniform, and SEC Player of the Year Immanuel Quickley fouled out midway through the second half. Nick Richards co-starred with Brooks and Montgomery in the comeback, scoring 17 of his 19 points after halftime.
They had no idea it’d be their last game together. Nobody did.
Maybe some new Kentucky-Florida memories will be made in 2024?
(I’m not pulling an all-nighter on concrete again, though.)
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