Cats Drop to 4th-Ranked Gators 71-63 in SEC Tourney; Travis Perry Shines for Ole Miss
- Mar 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 13
By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
NASHVILLE -- Some leftovers from the 2026 SEC Tournament.
--It was not a surprise to see Kentucky, playing its third game in three days, drop to favored Florida 71-63 Friday afternoon. And the Cats were crushed on the boards with the Gators outrebounding UK by a 50-29 margin.
Said Kentucky coach Mark Pope, whose Cats now have 21-13 mark, "Frustrating night for us. I thought our competitive spirit was great. We got beat up on the glass in a massive way. We were in some foul trouble, trying to manage some foul issues. We ended up being small. Even when we were big, it was hard for us on the glass. Credit Florida for that. They did a tremendous job on the glass.
"I thought our guys didn't play well. We couldn't make a shot (hitting 35.6 percent). We couldn't grab a rebound. Florida (is) a good team. Give them some credit there. They challenge you in transition. They challenge you on the glass."
UK's Mo Dioubate thought the Cats could've done a better job with rebounding. "That's where I feel like if there had been a big difference in the game if we had rebounded more. We just got to be better."
Kentucky will play in the NCAA Tournament next week. "We'll regroup and go home, then get ready for the NCAA Tournament," said Pope.
Asked if Kentucky's three games in the SEC Tournament had any impact on UK's seeding in the Big Dance, Pope said, "We spend zero time on that. Things out of your control. We don't spend any time. We're just trying to get ourselves to playing the best basketball we can. I think we gained a ton of experience in the last three days. It's important for us. I'm proud of the way our guys
competed the last three days. I thought we have so much. You're just trying to steal every lesson you can. We had a lot of lessons from the last few days that we'll take with us and make a huge push in the tournament."
Kentucky is projected to get a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In NCAA's Net Rankings, UK is No. 26 as of Thursday, March 12.
--Obviously, Florida coach Todd Golden doesn't like Kentucky. You can tell with his controversial comments and actions. In a postgame interview with ESPN, Golden said, "In the three games that we played these guys, they haven't led one minute."
Golden is in his fourth year as the Gator boss. He previously was the head coach at San Francisco.
--It was nice to see former Kentucky Wildcat Travis Perry doing well in this week's SEC Tournament, leading his No. 15-seed Ole Miss Rebels to stunning upsets over No. 10 seed Texas (76-66), No. 7 seed Georgia (76-72) and No. 2 seed Alabama (80-79) going into Saturday's semifinals.
Against Georgia, Perry gunned in 4 of 8 three-pointers for 16 points in 30 minutes of action. The 6-foot-1 sophomore guard from Lyon County High School transferred to Ole Miss after his freshman year at Kentucky. During the 2024-25 season, he started four games for the Wildcats with a season-high12 points against Alabama.
In mid-December, Perry hit a collegiate career-high 21 points with 5 three-pointers against North Carolina State.
On UK fans cheering for him in the SEC Tournament, Perry, who is the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys' basketball history, said, "it's always good to have support. Kentucky fans travel well to Nashville.
"The mindset is always to go out there and play for my teammates. I'm really happy where I'm at. I'm really happy playing with Malik (Dia) every day, playing for Coach (Chris) Beard. The mindset is to come out there and figure out a way to help my team win. That's something that probably makes my mom really happy over there hearing that stuff. But for me, I'm just focused on trying to do anything I can to help us win."
In addition to shooting, Perry, who plays hard, is working on other parts of the game like rebounding and play-making.
"I think that's something I've continued to try to work on," he said after his team's victory over Georgia. "There's been ups and downs this season with that. I talked with Coach Beard right before we came down here. We knew what the mission was, we want to win one game at a time. For us to win, I feel like I had to come out there and do more than just shoot the ball. You're not always going to shoot the ball well. So just trying to impact the game any way I can.
"They've been on me all year about being a little bit more nasty, a little bit more physical all around the game. I feel like tonight I finally got a good bruise from Somto (Cyril) there. That helped a little bit for my case of being nasty. But that's just been the main thing, just trying to impact the game without scoring the ball."
As you may know, Perry got hit on the head by Somto for a flagrant 2 foul in the second half and the 6-foot-11 center was ejected from the game.
Said Beard, "Travis Perry is a sophomore in college basketball. Played a role last year at his previous school. The idea for him at Ole Miss was to play a bigger role. Travis is not a soft player. He's a physical guy. He's a competitor.
"But in the game of basketball, there's going to be plays and possessions where you have to play with that kind of strength. We've been encouraging Travis from one day to initiate the contact, don't run from it. I think tonight's stat with him getting six rebounds (against Georgia) speaks for itself.
"Obviously he took a big-time pop there on the flagrant. No, Travis has got some nasty in him. It's just kind of a deal where we're trying to pull it out of him slowly but surely."
Asked about Somto's flagrant 2 foul, Georgia coach Mike White said, "Whew, I just know what my staff told me. I haven't had a chance to see it. I hate it for him. I'll say this, too. I'm sorry. Whatever contact was made to, I think it was Perry, his head or face or what have you. I hate that for him, as well."
--On losing to Kentucky 78-72 on Thursday, Missouri Coach Dennis Gates had this to say:
"We may not have gotten off to a great start. Obviously, Kentucky had a home-court advantage here in the conference tournament. But their fans showed up, created an environment where we had to kind of get through the little wrinkles that stopped us, turnovers being the most important. Once we got settled into the game, I thought we were able to get some things going."
--Going into a possible (but unlikely) appearance in the NCAA Tournament, Auburn first-year coach Steven Pearl, a former Vols player, and his team have a 17-16 mark. His No. 12 seed Tigers lost to Tennessee 72-62 on Thursday after beating Mississippi State in the first round.
"I played at Tennessee for five years," said Pearl who played for his dad, Bruce. "I put a lot of time into that program. I poured a lot with my work and everything I could do to try and help that fan base be proud. I'm really happy that Coach (Rick) Barnes got that thing in a position and a place that it is right now.
"In my shoes, you look down the sideline, it's Cal, it's Barnes, it's Todd Golden, some of the best names. Then you look at our non-conference, Kelvin Sampson, Matt Painter. Steven Pearl is on the other end. It's crazy.
"Coach Barnes is a competitor. We've had two hard-fought games against them. He knows what it looks like better than anybody. Hopefully the people that are making these decisions heard some of the things that he said. We have a team that is capable of winning games and deserves to be in the tournament. He's been a great friend to my dad. They have always been very close. He's been a great resource to me. I have a lot of respect and I appreciate Coach Barnes very much."
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including newly published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.
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