First Scouting Report: Against Georgia, UK seeks to derail the SEC’s surprise team
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Game day: No. 8 Kentucky 90, Mississippi State 77
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi State in Rupp Arena.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 8 Kentucky (13-3, 3-1 SEC) will face Georgia (13-4, 3-1 SEC) on Saturday, Jan. 20, at Rupp Arena (capacity 20,545) at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
The game will tip off at 6 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by the SEC Network.
In its most recent game, Georgia won at South Carolina 74-69 on Tuesday night.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Georgia 131-28.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 21-4 vs. the Bulldogs.
Georgia coach Mike White is 5-11 vs. Kentucky. White is 1-1 vs. UK at Georgia; he was 4-10 vs. the Cats as Florida head man (2015-2022).
Most recent meeting
Kario Oquendo had 21 points and hit 10 of 12 free throws and Justin Hill had 15 points, six assists and two steals as Georgia defeated Kentucky 75-68 on Feb. 11, 2023, at Stegeman Coliseum on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens.
Oscar Tshiebwe, 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Antonio Reeves, 20 points and six boards, paced UK.
How the teams fared at the foul line, where Georgia hit 25 of 29 free throws compared to Kentucky’s 11 of 13, was decisive in the outcome.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET rankings have Kentucky No. 18, Georgia No. 78.
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Kentucky is No. 19 and Georgia No. 67.
Know your foe
1. Could playing Kentucky on the road be an advantage for ... Georgia? The Bulldogs will come to Lexington a perfect 3-0 in true road games. In the ACC/SEC Challenge, Georgia traveled to Tallahassee and beat Florida State 68-66.
In SEC play, the Dawgs have won at Missouri, 75-68, and at South Carolina, 74-69.
Georgia’s only conference loss to date came in Athens, an 85-79 defeat to Tennessee in a wild game in which UT lost all of a 14-point lead and Georgia lost after leading by 11.
2. Georgia is winning with balance, as the Bulldogs have seven players averaging between 6.6 and 12.8 points a game.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound senior, is the Dawgs’ leading scorer at 12.4 points a game. Abdur-Rahim is especially effective from behind the 3-point arc (41.5%) and on the foul line (88.9%).
Noah Thomasson, a 6-4, 210-pound transfer who has also played for Houston Christian and Niagara, is averaging 12.4 points and making 36.4% of his 3-point tries.
The Bulldogs also have three players averaging between 9.2 and 9.8 points per game.
3. Georgia’s success to date must come as a surprise to voters in the SEC preseason media poll — in which the Bulldogs were picked to finish 12th in the 14-team Southeastern Conference, ahead of only LSU and South Carolina.
With five wins over Kentucky in his coaching career, Bulldogs head man Mike White has the third-most wins over the Wildcats among active SEC coaches.
Only Tennessee’’s Rick Barnes (11-11) and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl (10-17) among current Southeastern Conference head men have more victories over UK than White.
This story was originally published January 17, 2024 at 9:00 PM.
