Storylines?  What storylines?  All ESPN just gave you for hours was how Kentucky is going to make a run at an undefeated season.

Which probably has nothing at all to do with the fact that in order to buy the broadcast rights to the SEC football (aka NFL Lite) games, they were forced to buy more of the basketball broadcast rights, and launch something called the SEC Academic Network.

If it weren't for UT's miraculous upset of Kansas (that Vols fans subsequently forgot thanks to Lane Kiffin), you'd really see a lot of suits at ESPN panicking over the money they just spent on this league.  Now, I believe the SEC will be tougher- some good young coaches in the West, South Carolina is dangerous, Vanderbilt and AJ Ogilvy could do some damage, and recent / traditional powers UT, UK, and UF could make varying degrees of noise in March- but it was evident during this entire telecast that ESPN's SEC promotional plan was &We bought Kentucky and the 11 dwarves! Play up the undefeated angle!&

But what of the game?

The Florida Gators lost to Kentucky 89-77.  The game probably shoudn't be described as &close&, but the margin was never as big as the final score indicated.  It was generally aroud 5-10 points, but UK had control the whole time.

We didn't get completely run out of our own gym.  But how much of that was due to Calipari's PRE-GAME statements that he saw this as an opportunity to get his backups some PT?  Against a coach with Final Four appearances that actually exist in the record books?

Wikipedia is hardly the best source, but it's the quickest way I could get information EVERY COLLEGE BASKETBALL FAN knows to be true.  Check out this quote:

He is one of only four coaches to direct two different colleges to a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the only head coach to have a Final Four appearance vacated by the NCAA at more than one school.

Kentucky was just better than us.  They have more, better players.  Sometimes, it doesn't take more analysis than that.

Who on Florida's roster will be on an NBA roster one day?  Kenny Boynton.  Kentucky has several, and the other guys are still better than what we could run out there.  There have been transfer issues, early departure issues, and injury issues.  We don't have the depth to run what Billy needs for this team.  We are prone to awful, horribly bad shooting streaks.  I love Walker for many reasons, but his readiness to lead us as the only point guard on the roster is not one of those reasons.  Erik Murphy and Ray Shipman are going to be good players, but they are not ready for the primetime.  But they play hard, and they compete until the end.

A five-point play.  A FIVE POINT PLAY.  That's what it came down to.  We pull even with around 5 minutes left, and a made shot, followed by a missed free throw and an offensive board, and a 3-pointer... a FIVE point play.  That took the momentum right out from under us.  As the lesser team, we could not allow something like that to happen.  And it did.  So we lost.  Remember, sometimes this sports analysis stuff really is easy.

What are the positives?

If it counts for anything, I like this team as guys.  I don't see bad attitudes, I don't see a lack of effort.  The maddening mental lapses in the half court offense are, well, maddening.  But I don't like them less as people because of it.  I haven't been able to say the same about the last two teams.

With our athleticism and length, we can disrupt a lot of teams.  Maybe not in the SEC, where, like it's football counterpart, athleticism and speed run rampant.  But we can make noise in March.  We are 2-0 in the ACC and 1-0 in the Big East.  But 0-2 in the SEC.

We need to find 9 conference wins.  Maybe 8.  And the Xavier win would be huge.  But we're 0-2.  You expect to lose to UK at home, and hope you can win the other 7 home games.  I think we win 6 of them (barring catastrophe).  That means we need to win at least 3 on the road.  Georgia is the obvious candidate, but no road games can be considered gimmes.  That means we have to get games like Alabama and Ole Miss, and get revenge for the disaster in Columbia a year ago.

This Kentucky team was better than us.  But relax, Gator fans.  It doesn't mean we're a bad team.