Kentucky - 106 (Head Coach: Rick Pitino) - [Final Rank 2nd by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	3pt FG	3pt FGA	FT	FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	Ast	St	BS	TO	Pts
Jamal Mashburn	36	5	13	0	4	2	3	4	5	9	4	7	1	0	3	12
Jared Prickett	33	9	12	0	0	4	6	6	5	11	2	3	0	0	3	22
Rodney Dent	23	2	5	0	0	1	3	3	2	5	4	0	0	1	1	5
Travis Ford	31	5	9	4	7	5	6	1	1	2	3	6	1	0	2	19
Dale Brown	23	4	10	3	7	1	2	1	5	6	5	1	0	0	7	12
Tony Delk	11	3	5	0	0	0	1	1	2	3	2	0	0	0	1	6
Andre Riddick	3	0	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Rodrick Rhodes	9	3	4	1	1	1	3	1	0	1	3	1	0	0	3	8
Jeff Brassow	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Nehemiah Braddy	15	2	3	2	3	1	2	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	7
Aminu Timberlake	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gimel Martinez	13	4	6	0	0	2	2	1	3	4	3	1	0	0	0	10
Todd Svoboda	1	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Team								4	4	8
Totals	200	38	70	11	23	19	30	22	29	51	27	22	2	1	20	106

Florida State - 81 (Head Coach: Pat Kennedy) - [Final Rank 11th by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	3pt FG	3pt FGA	FT	FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	Ast	St	BS	TO	Pts
Bob Sura	31	5	13	0	4	7	10	0	0	0	3	0	1	0	2	17
Doug Edwards (*)	27	4	8	2	5	5	6	3	4	7	5	3	1	1	2	15
Rodney Dobard	37	7	12	0	0	2	2	1	1	2	3	2	0	1	0	16
Sam Cassell	35	3	11	2	3	8	10	1	1	2	5	0	3	0	4	16
Charlie Ward (*)	35	1	7	0	6	3	5	0	1	1	4	7	4	0	0	5
Lorenzo Hands	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scott Shepherd	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Derrick Carroll	18	4	4	1	1	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	9
Byron Wells	4	1	3	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	3
Maurice Robinson	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	1	0
Team								1	7	8
Totals	200	25	61	5	20	26	35	8	17	25	24	14	9	2	10	81

Game Writeup - Courtesy of Dr. Jeffrey Neil Burch; Dr. J's UK Newsletter, Vol. 2 No. 35. (All Rights Reserved)

And the Beat Goes On!:

In a slightly closer effort than their previous games, Kentucky managed to subdue the Seminoles by a 106-81 count. UK didn't build quite as big a lead early (they did manage to streak out to a 15-8 lead, but FSU cut into it immediately), and had to wait until the second half to build their large winning margin. UK arrived only 23 minutes before the start of the game due to becoming stuck in traffic - there was some speculation by the announcers that the incident might have prevented them from getting off to a faster start than they did. In the end, it didn't seem to matter. Sports Illustrated's pick of UK as the #1 team at the end of the season is looking less and less silly every day.

Rodrick Rhodes showed us a play you don't see every day. As he was in the process of inbounding the basketball, there was no one open, but there were a couple of Wake players who had their backs towards Rodrick. He proceeded to bounce the ball off their backsides and into his hands (all perfectly legal, as long as *someone* touches the ball during inbounding) for an easy layup.

Al McGuire continued his litany of nonsensical comments when he said that a blown call against Prickett during an attempt to keep the ball inbounds was actually a good call (Prickett didn't move, and the camera clearly showed that he was at least 6 or 7 inches inside the court). Jared Prickett had the game of his life, scoring 22 points and grabbing eleven rebounds, many on the offensive glass.

FSU went on an 11-0 spurt when UK ballhandling became poor and the Cats fumbled with many silly turnovers. This gave FSU a 1 point lead, but it didn't last long, as Dale Brown hit a 3 pointer about 30 seconds later. Brown was left unguarded outside for much of the game, and he hit well from there. FSU stayed close, however, by throwing over the top of the UK press, and it scored several layups in this way before Pitino backed off of it.

Officiating was reasonably good, but there were a couple of dumb calls. Sophomore guard Bob Sura ran right over Mashburn while bringing the ball up the court, yet it was Jamal who was called for a block. It was FSU, however, which developed early foul trouble on several of its key players. Travis Ford also got into some foul trouble by picking up his 3rd in the first half (going for a steal which was all but impossible), but UK played relatively well without him.

Junior Braddy seemed to spark UK in the final minutes of the first half, and Sam Cassell of FSU picked up his 3rd foul. A 3 pointer by Rhodes helped UK to a 8 point halftime lead (Rodrick missed a shot on a nice drive which would have increased the lead even more).

The second half was all Kentucky, as UK surged to a 14 point lead in the first 4 minutes. Mashburn picked up his 3rd foul early, but the Wildcats demonstrated once again their ability to play well for long stretches with some of their key people in foul trouble. Both Mash and Dent missed spectacular dunks, but UK was so far ahead that the misses didn't really matter. Kentucky's dominance of the boards was a critical factor in this game - at one point UK had a 29-9 lead in rebounds.

Travis Ford continued to hit well from 3 point range, which drew criticism from Al McGuire against FSU. Al never did mention how to stop Kentucky from doing this - the outside screens set by Mash, Dent, Riddick, and Prickett are so good that it is hard to get around them without committing too many players, whereupon the inside opens up. McGuire also seemed to forget that no team this season has really managed to shut UK down on the outside.

FSU stars Sura and Cassell were held to zero field goals in the second half until the 6 minute mark, whereupon Sura hit one. Towards the end of the game, FSU appeared simply to be going through the motions.

Crowd favorite Todd Svoboda played in the game's final minute, and he hit a 3 point shot at the buzzer to the delight of the fans and players, to provide the final margin. This win is Kentucky's 10th in a row since the Tennessee loss, and its second game in a row scoring over 100 points (UK did this earlier in the season, passing the century mark against Alabama and LSU). The UK bench outscored the FSU bench 36-12. Travis Ford was named MVP of the Southeastern Regional.

Riddick scored both his points from the free throw line!

Rodney Dent attempts a dunk over FSU's Rodney Dobard (#34)

Jamal Mashburn lays it in over FSU's Bob Sura (#3)

FSU's Charlie Ward (#21) secures the rebound ahead of Jared Prickett (#32) and Rodney Dent

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