Five things you need to know from No. 20 Kentucky’s 79-62 loss to Georgia Tech
Five things you need to know from No. 20 Kentucky’s 79-62 loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Holiday Hoopsgiving at State Farm Arena in Atlanta:
1. Josh Pastner made John Calipari coaching-tree history. The Georgia Tech head man became the first former Calipari assistant to win head-to-head against the Kentucky coach.
Calipari is now 17-1 vs. ex-assistants.
Pastner was an assistant under Calipari for one season (2008-09) at Memphis.
2. Kentucky is painful to watch right now. At one point in the second half, ESPN game analyst Jimmy Dykes pointed out that UK’s performance “has to be hard to watch” if your allegiance is to the Big Blue Nation.
At least the struggling Cats finally hit some outside shots (8-of-19 treys), but the problem Sunday was turnovers. With 6:48 left in the game, UK had more miscues (20) than made field goals (18).
Kentucky finished with 21 turnovers and 22 made hoops.
Decision making, shot selection and floor recognition continue to be a struggle for the Cats. For the season, Kentucky’s assist/turnover ratio is a horrid 47 (assists) to 73 (turnovers).
It’s still early, but it certainly appears now that UK’s season depends on Calipari getting something figured out at point guard.
3. Olivier Sarr had a rough go. Post play is, obviously, somewhat dependent on good guard play (which, see above, Kentucky lacks), but Kentucky’s Sarr was almost invisible in Atlanta.
The Wake Forest transfer got only four shots, made only one, and finished with meager totals of six points and three rebounds.
UK needs more from its lone front-court veteran.
4. Bubba’s revenge. Early in the 2018-19 season, then-Virginia Military Institute guard Bubba Parham lit up Kentucky in Rupp Arena, hitting 10 of 16 three-point shots en route to 35 points.
In spite of Parham’s torrid shooting, however, UK won the game 92-82.
Now a Georgia Tech redshirt senior, Parham got some payback. The 5-foot-10, 162-pound guard hit seven of 10 shots, three of six treys and had 17 points and helped the Yellow Jackets get the victory over the Wildcats that VMI could not pull off in Rupp two seasons ago.
5. An old nemesis causes some new pain. Before Georgia Tech left the Southeastern Conference in 1964, Tech was a persistent thorn in the side of Adolph Rupp and UK.
From 1952-64, Georgia Tech Coach John “Whack” Hyder beat Kentucky nine times, including three times when the Wildcats were ranked No. 1, seven times when the Cats were ranked in the AP Top 20 and once (1957-58) when UK went on to win the NCAA title.
The most famous victory for Georgia Tech at Kentucky’s expense came on Jan. 8, 1955, when Hyder’s Yellow Jackets upset No. 1 Kentucky 59-58 in Memorial Coliseum to snap UK’s epic 129-game, home-court win streak.
Since Georgia Tech exited the SEC, Kentucky is now 8-3 vs. the Yellow Jackets.
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 7:03 PM.
