Miller's 30 give UK 69-56 win
Like they always say: When you're hot, you're hot; and when you're not, you get beat by 13 on your home floor
By TCP editor/publisher Oscar Combs
GAINESVILLE. Fla.  When you're hot you're hot, when you're not. you're not.
Such was the story of Derrick Miller and his Kentucky Wildcats as they destroyed a Florida team, which definitely was anything but hot, last Thursday at the O'Connell Center by a score of 69-56.
In fact, the beating was far worse than the score indicated as Miller went on one of his patented scoring sprees late in the first half and early in the second period to bury the home-standing Gators in front of Florida's largest home crowd (11,751) of the season.
The 40 minutes of action before the live cameras of ESPN clearly illustrated the various ways of playing fundamental basketball and how not to play it.
It was a case of exploitation by the Wildcats as they often appeared to be running routine drills against a Florida defense which appeared to be going through the motions all night.
The victory accomplished several positive objectives for Eddie Sutton's 'Cats. Such as:
?It snapped a three-game losing streak against the Gators, including a stunning homecourt loss to Florida at Rupp Arena last season.
?It gave the Wildcats their first true road victory of the season, a victory over a team on its home floor. And the 'Cats did it with convincing authority.
?It enabled UK to race off to a perfect 3-0 league record, once again establishing the Big Blue as a team to be reckoned with in what appears to be a wide-open race, at least for second place behind Tennessee.
?It gave the Wildcats a new-found boost of confidence in facing hostile crowds. O'Connell ranks with the very toughest student crowds in the nation, but the Gator students were in no mood to slur the 'Cats, what with all the rumor mills boiling to the top around Gainesville concerning possible drug involvement among former Florida players.
FLORIDA, MUCH LIKE UK, has been a mystery team all season. There has, however, been a difference in that Kentucky is much younger and is not stablized in the middle with a veteran Ail-American like Dwayne Schintzius.
This particular night, Schintzius took the night off. Oh, he scored 20 points and yes, he had 13 rebounds, but most of those statistics were posted long after the game had been decided.
The contest was billed as a matchup between two outstanding front lines in the Southeastern Conference. It didn't quite live up to the marque preview.
It was more a standoff inside, but did Kentucky's guards come to play. UK's guards outscored Florida's backcourt aces 41 to 20 and therein was the game.
Miller was the big reason why UK raced away from the Gators late in the first half to take a 34-26 halftime lead. Kentucky's stingy defense coupled with Florida's less-than-enthusiastic approach to the game prevented the Gators from scoring a single point the last 3:51 of the first half.
That's when Kelly McKinnon gave the Gators their last lead of the game at 26-25.
Backup center Mike Scott gave UK the lead back at 27-26 with a short jumper and Miller followed with five straight points to give UK a 32-26 lead. LeRon Ellis, who enjoyed a very productive evening against the more experienced Schintzius. canned a shot from the lane and UK was off and running at 34-26.
Kentucky quickly opened the flood gates in the second half, almost as if the Gators just wanted to punch out the time clock and head home.
OF COURSE, UK'S GAME had more than a little to do with Florida's frustration. The score quickly went to 42-31, then 49-33 and then 53-35 before Kentucky became a little reckless and unglued.
A game plan to play patient and get the ball in the hands of the hot scorer worked to Defection for the 'Cats. Nifty passing and easy buckets were major reasons why the "Cats hit a blazing 61 percent from the field and scored almost at will.
During the Kentucky blitz, it was Miller once again who provided the offense spark, scoring the first 10 points of the second half on his way to a 30-point outburst.
Sutton was happy, to say the least.
"Our team executed the game plan," said Sutton, with a smile and an arm around his star Derrick Miller at the postgame press conference. "This was a good victory. After we won the last two, I wasn't sure how we would play in a hostile environment. In my opinion, this is as tough a place to play as there is in the league."
Sullon s.iul he had lectured his team about playing in such a hostile arena, but n was a hostile crowd which realh never arrived, at least vocally.
"We tried to take the crowd out of the game," said Sutton. "We decided to do thai with a patient offense. It's important to play with patience when you play like we do. I think it makes the other team nervous like, if they miss a shot, they think: 'Oh no. here we go again. We have to play defense tbi another 20 or 30 seconds.'
For Miller, it was a game of redemption.
"It was especially sweet for me because I had never scored a point against Florida before," said Miller. "It's easy to keep track of your points if you never scored one."
In fact. Miller didn't even see action against Florida last season in the two UK losses.
And did he know a great individual performance was in the offing.'
"My first shot was a good one. my second shot was a bad one." confessed Miller "After the second one. I got in a rhythm."
Sutton, standing nearby, interjected: "Tell them what I did to you after that second one."
"YOU SNATCHED AT MI." Miller responded. "After that, I did what you said to me." Which was jack it up even more.
And that he did.
As encouraging as the victory was for Kentucky, the Gators were equally disappointed, especially their star center. ^^^^
"I don't think it was Kentucky shutting us (Continued on page 26)
BOX SCORE: * UNOFFICIAL FINAL  l;io: Kentucky
25
42
NAME
Hitler Sutton
Ellis
Hanson Hills
TOTAL FG FG FGA 11 / 14 4 / 7
3-POINT FG FGA 3 / 4
1 / 2
Date: 01-12-89 SitesSainesville, Fla. RE B
4/8 0/0
12 D. Feldhaus 50 H. Scott TEAM
-tdtats
3 / 5
3 / 7
0 / 0
1 / 2
0 / 0
1 / I
0 / 0
0 / 0
FT 5 2
2
1
2
0 0
FTA 7 6
4
2 2
2 0
26 / 43-m-U-2t
Tl PF
2
1
TP
30 11
i io: i
i
7 ! 1
9 1 1
0 ! 1
2 ! 0
TO 1 1
BLK 0 0
nih
37
38
37
37 35
13 3
Percentages:
Gaie.....
Period 1 Period 2
FG
26/ 43 60.52 3-PT 13/ 27 48.11 13/ 16 81.32
5 20 25 14   69   12   12-2-T~m
5 Deadball Rebounds 5/ 7 71.42   FT     12/ 23 52.22 3/ 4 75.02 5/  8 62.52
2/  3 66.72 7/ 15 46.72
lean Florida
NO. NAME 20 Garcia 23 Lett
33 Schintzius
32 Chataan 50 Davis
25 Hogan 41 Kerr
44 McKinnon TEAM
-ttjtats
Percentages:
TOTAL FG FG FGA 2 / 9 2 / 9	3-PDINT FG FGA 2 / 8 1 / 7
8 / 20	0 / 0
2 / 7 I / 1	0 / 0 0 / 0
3 / 4 1 / 1	2 / 3 0/0
1 / 1	0 / 0
20 / 52	5 / ib
Gaie---	- FG
FT
0 0
0
TT
FTA 0
3
5
4 4
REB
0 ! D i Ti PF
"T~
TP 6 5
TO 5 5
13   2   20 1  2 2
1 ! 1
2 ! 2
I
o: o l
BLK
0
0
1
0
2
0 0
S HIN
0 30 5 33
0   0 0
0 2
39
39 30
17 7
5
"t9"   lb 18 34 18   5t   t3   t9     3-12w
4 Deadball Rebounds
20/ 52 38.52 3-PT.     5/ 18 27.82   FT 11/ 19 57.92
Period  1 10/ 24 41.72 2/  7 28.61 4/ 8 50.02
Period 2 10/ 28 35.72 3/ 11  27.32 7/ 11 63.62
OFFICIALS: Hike Tanko,Larry Nare,Sonny Holies Technicals: None
STUHt BV PERIODS-
Kentucky 34 35  69 Florida   26   30   56
Produced by the University of Florida Stat Crew with FINAL III - a Product ol LEXICON SPORTS'-
UK-Florida play-by-play				
lime	Ken!in k\	S< on	Florida	
17:54		1	Schinlizus 8 It.. IT	
i' k.	I Mills 8 li. bank	1 2-3		
li, 41	Sutton 21 it.	5-3		
16 12		5-5	( hitman 9 n	
14 	I (anson layup	M		
14 42		I 7.7	V hinli/us 10 II	
l-i 09		7-9	Davis dunli	
12:54		'in	Chamvn it, fta	
	[Ellis 16 ft	910		
12:19	Sutton layup	11-10		
11 59		II 11	liti|tan 21 it.	
11		11-15	ken lavup	
11:01		11-16	Iserr FT, FTA	
BOi27	Feldhaus 6 n.	11 Id		
i 	Mills Ft. FT	15-16		
8:40		15-18	Schinlzius 6 II	
7:55			Chatman 16 it	
	Mills 23 II	18-2I		
-<>_		18-21	Cama 24 ft	
  12	Miller 12 rt.	20 21		
6 04	Miller 23 ft			
4 10			Chatman FTA. FT	
4:05 Miller 11 fr.		25-24		
1 51		25-26	McKinnon 18 it	
1 '7 SCOtt b II.		27-26		
2:55 Miller FT, FTA				
'. 51	Miller layup	30-26		
1:11	Miller FT, FT	32-26		
		34-26		
				
HAH		(4 21,		
18:59	Miller 23 ft	17-26		
18:17	Miller 17 ft.			
17:48		19-29	Liil 23 ft.	
17:04	Miller 22 ft.	42-29		
15:2)			tetl layup. FTA. FTA	
14 1..		44-31		
nil		45-31		
1 ) 08	Miller layup	47-31		
12:58		47-33	Schintzius dunk	
11:42	Miller 8 ft.	49-33		
11:09		4') 15		
10:51	Hanson follow	51-35		
10:04	Mills 11 ft.	53-35		
| 9:47		53-38	Hogan 22 ft.	
>):01	Ellis FT, FT			
8:54		55-40	Schintzius FT, FT	
8:07		55-43	Garcia 24 II.	
| 7:50	Sutfon layup	57-43		
1 7:35	Miller layup			
7 20			Davis FT. FTA	
1 7:06	Hanson layup	61-44		
4:2')	Ellis 9 ft.			
4:14			Schinlzius FTA, FT	
3:36			Schintzius 6 ft. hook	
2:55		53-49J	Si hinlzius 7 ft. hook	
2:24	163-511		Davis FT, FT	
2:12	Sutton FT, FTA	64-51		
1:57		5*33	Schinlzius lip in	
1:55	Sutlon FT, FTA	55-53		
1:35	Ellis layup	57-53		
1:22		57-56!	Hogan 16 ft., IT	
1:13	Miller FT, FT I	)9-56i		
FINAL ,,9.56				
'     Pause i 'wi				
S35SS