Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s damaging 75-68 loss at Georgia
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Game day: Georgia 75, Kentucky 68
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Georgia in Athens, Ga.
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Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 75-68 loss to Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.:
1. Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament hopes take a major blow. Beating Georgia, a team on a three-game losing streak and losers of five of six entering the game, was not going to help UK’s March Madness aspirations much.
But losing to the Bulldogs is damaging in a big way.
Kentucky (16-9, 7-5 SEC) has now lost to two of the three SEC teams ranked lowest in the NET rankings. The Cats stacked their calamitous home-court loss vs. South Carolina (No. 271 in the NET) with a road defeat to the No. 129 team in the NET.
UK, which is only 1-7 in Quad 1 contests, simply could not afford to take an “L” in Athens.
With games remaining at Mississippi State (No. 47 in the NET), vs. Tennessee (No. 3), at Florida (No. 46), vs. Auburn (No. 32), vs. Vanderbilt (No. 99) and at Arkansas (No. 23), Kentucky still has chances to build an NCAA Tournament-worthy profile.
Based on the way the season has gone, there’s not much reason to think the Wildcats can do that.
2. Cats play with a depleted roster. Kentucky played without two of its top seven players, as veteran guards Sahvir Wheeler (ankle) and CJ Fredrick (rib) both missed the game with injuries.
The results of being short-handed rippled through UK’s losing effort.
Without Wheeler and Fredrick, Cason Wallace was Kentucky’s only remaining regular lead guard. Wallace picked up two fouls in the first first 3:25 of the game, played only eight minutes in the first half and never seemed to find an offensive comfort zone.
The 6-foot-4, 193-pound freshman was scoreless until tallying five points in the final minute of the game after UK’s fate was largely sealed.
Without Fredrick and Wheeler, senior wing Antonio Reeves played the entire 40 minutes Saturday. The 6-5, 200-pound Illinois State transfer carried UK offensively in the early stages of the game. When Reeves buried a trey with 13:51 left in the game, it was his 20th point.
He did not score again, however, as his shots down the stretch often clanged off the front of the rim. That at least suggests that Reeves’ legs were tired. Until Saturday, he had not played more than 31 minutes in a game this season.
3. Cats got the game under control, let it get away. Down 10, 42-32, at halftime after shooting 11 of 31 in the opening half, Kentucky unleashed a 20-6 run to open the second half and led 52-48 after Jacob Toppin buried a corner three-pointer with 11:53 left in the game.
But rather than taking full command of the game, Kentucky saw Georgia uncork a 7-0 run in response and seize a 55-52 lead.
Its momentum reversed, UK never seemed to recover.
4. Oscar’s bounce-back effort. UK star Oscar Tshiebwe entered Saturday’s contest off the worst two offensive games of his Kentucky career. In UK’s dispiriting 88-73 loss to Arkansas at Rupp Arena on Tuesday night, Tshiebwe took only six shots, made three, and finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
Tshiebwe struggled mightily to make shots in Kentucky’s 72-67 victory over Florida last Saturday at Rupp. The 6-foot-9, 255-pound senior finished 2 of 14 on field-goal attempts and had only four points. Tshiebwe did grab 15 rebounds and dole out three assists vs. the Gators.
On paper, Georgia seemed an ideal foe for a Tshiebwe “bounce-back” effort. In UK’s 85-71 victory over the Bulldogs in Lexington on Jan. 17, Tshiebwe scored a career-high 37 points and grabbed 24 boards. Tshiebwe hit 12 of 20 shots and 13 of 18 free throws in UK’s first contest this season vs. Coach Mike White’s Bulldogs.
While the Kentucky star did not match his tour de force vs. Georgia in Lexington, Tshiebwe was UK’s best player Saturday. The reigning national player of the year finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots. Tshiebwe made six of 11 shots and eight of nine free throws.
Where Georgia chose to play Tshiebwe, more or less, straight up and emphasized trying to shut down the remainder of the Wildcats in this season’s first meeting, the Bulldogs were running extra defenders at Tshiebwe and trapping him when he received entry passes Saturday.
In his two-year Kentucky career, Tshiebwe now has 951 points and 822 rebounds. He needs two boards to pass Bob Burrow (823) for 10th place on UK’s all-time rebounding list.
5. Calipari fails to gain on Ray Mears. With the loss, John Calipari’s record in SEC games fell to 180-59. Calipari still needs three more league victories to pass ex-Tennessee head man Ray Mears (182-76 from 1963 through 1977) for fifth all-time in wins in Southeastern Conference games.
The top four coaches in all-time SEC victories are: 1. Adolph Rupp 397; 2. Dale Brown 238; 3. Billy Donovan 200; 4. C.M. Newton 195.
This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 2:46 PM.
