Rating:

5.0 (3 votes)

Here is a fun debate. Which victory was bigger, beating Louisville or Florida? I will go with Florida for a couple of reasons. One, if Kentucky loses, they are out of the Top 25. Two, with all of the debate about this team not playing hard, they played really hard. And three, Darius Miller once again was a star.

"This was a huge game for us," says Cal who raised his voice saying huge. "This wasn't like some little game. This was a huge game."

Josh agrees with the value of beating Florida 76-68.

"I believe it is our biggest win," says Josh Harrellson who pulled down 12 rebounds.

Cal worries a lot. It goes with the territory.

"I've got a fragile team at times on the road and now you wonder, will they be fragile at home?" says Cal. "Let me tell you, the shoot around today was our best shoot around of the year."

Brandon Knight is excited about the rest of the season.

"As long as we play 40 minutes and execute, play defense, rebound and focus on those key things, I think we will be pretty good for the rest of the season," says Knight who had 6 assists with no turnovers."

Doron Lamb is a shooter. You don't often see his confidence go down.

"We got a lot of confidence now even though we lost the last game to Arkansas on the road that we should have won," says Lamb. "It happens. As long as we continue to win and try to win these last two games."

Darius Miller, who set a new career high with 22 last Saturday against South Carolina, broke it again with 24. Miller was not very good the first time Kentucky and Florida met, so Cal really challenged him.

"Basically he told me I was going to have to step up to win, for us to be a good team," says Miller. "I just tried to come out and play aggressive."

Chandler Parson is one of the best players in the SEC. He had 15 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists with only one turnover. Parsons believes this isn't the same team that Florida beat by two in Gainesville earlier this season.

"Yeah, 100%, they shoot the ball incredible here," says Parsons.

Cal is trying to tell True Blue fans that forget about the 8 losses.

"I think my team is as good as any in the country," says Cal who now has 500 wins.

The atmosphere at Rupp was big time, the effort by the Cats was better.

"People were diving on the floor, everybody was helping each other," says Josh Harrellson. "It looked like we had six guys out there a couple of times. When we do that, it's tough to beat us."

For weeks, I've believed that this team is close. It's possible, if you see this effort all the time, no longer will it be close.