Kentucky Falls to Georgia 82-69

The Cats opened SEC play with a massive win at home over the Florida Gators, but the first road game of conference plays had a much different result. Kentucky fell to the Georgia Bulldogs 82-69 in an all-systems-failure type of night. At 1-1 now in SEC play, Kentucky will need to steal a game on the road to compete for the conference title come March. Pope took his first lump of the new year, and a couple of areas stood out as to why Kentucky struggled in Athens.

Another Poor Shooting Night

Kentucky came into the game second in the conference in points per game but failed to reach the 70 mark for the third time this season. A putrid 0.958 points per possession was the exact opposite of the 1.514 number put up in Rupp over the weekend. Kentucky has struggled handling physicality all year because they struggle to finish through contact. The Cats finished 16-27 on layups and dunks while only earning nineteen free throws because they avoid contact around the rim. Lamont Butler scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the first half while adding 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 steals. Outside of Butler, only Otega Oweh (12 points on 3-13 FG, 0-3 3Pt) and Brandon Garrison (13 points on 5-8 FG, 1-1 3PT) reached double digits for the Cats. A 24% night from deep is going to lead to a lot of low scoring outputs, and tonight was another example of that.

Foul Trouble

The refs were abysmal, but Kentucky would have put the Bulldogs at the line with the best of the best in stripes. Georgia got up 38 free throw attempts and made 29 of them to give themselves a cushion on the scoreboard. Andrew Carr, Ainsley Almonor, Jaxson Robinson, and Amari Williams all picked up four fouls on the road due to the higher intensity Georgia brought. Kentucky was out of position on ball screens, they couldn’t catch the ball in rhythm, and they were crushed on the boards because Georgia players beat them to the spot consistently. Otega Oweh picking up two fouls in the first five minutes and Williams getting his fourth early in the second half threw off the rotations and gameplan Pope had coming into the game. The Cats quickly need to figure out how to counteract physicality because the blueprint for beating them is clear.

Kentucky got smacked in the mouth and didn’t know how to respond. Some of the players did not handle the SEC environment well mentally, something BBN did not expect with an older team. The depth of the SEC is a blessing and a curse for Kentucky as they drop one against a bottom half team, but they have plenty of chances to get that win back coming up. The quest for redemption starts Saturday in Starkville at 8:30 PM and their ability to handle physicality will be tested in a big way. That game sucked.