Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s sneaky good win over Georgia
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 89-79 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday at Rupp Arena:
1. This was a good home and SEC win for the Wildcats
Georgia is no powerhouse. And, yes, John Calipari’s team handled the Bulldogs just two weeks ago in Athens. Still, overall, this was a good effort for the Cats, who led with one brief exception — the Bulldogs pulled in front 29-28 with 5:33 left in the first half — pretty much from start to finish.
Shining again versus his home-state school, point guard Ashton Hagans scored 23 points, dished nine assists and made four steals. Nick Richards had 20 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Immanuel Quickley scored 12 points and helped put the clamps on Georgia’s freshman star Anthony Edwards. (More on that later.) Kentucky shot 52.5 percent for the game, while holding Georgia to 34.3 percent in the first half.
I know, I know, the Bulldogs lost by 32 points (91-59) at Mississippi State on Saturday. In their most recent road game before that, Tom Crean’s club was blown out 82-60 at Auburn. You knew, however, that after those two road disasters, the Dawgs would be determined to show they were better than that. And for the most part, they did. “We battled,” said Crean afterward.
Kentucky joined the battle and ended up with its fifth SEC win in six games, and a sweep of the Dawgs.
2. When it counted, the Cats bottled up Georgia’s freshman star
Rated as the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2019 by some scouting services, the 6-foot-5 Edwards came into Rupp Arena averaging 19 points per game. He scored 23 in Georgia’s 78-69 loss to Kentucky back on Jan. 7 at Stegeman Coliseum.
Playing on UK’s home hardwood, however, the Atlanta native was blanked the entire first half, going 0-for-5 from the floor, including 0-for-2 from three-point land. After watching Tyrese Maxey joke while guarding Edwards in Athens — “Like it was an AAU game,” said Calipari — the Kentucky coach switched to Immanuel Quickley as the chief defender and kept that strategy in Lexington. And it worked.
True, Edwards woke up in the second half to score 16 points. “He did some really good things,” said Crean, but the Cats kept him under wraps in the first half when UK was setting the tone. On the night, Edwards ended up going 7-for-13, including 1-for-3 from three. He had five rebounds, but he also turned it over five times.
“It’s hard for young players, especially when everybody’s paying attention to you,” said Calipari of Edwards. “It’s like he’s playing a box and one and he still gets baskets. It tells you how good he is.”
3. Up next is a one-game break from conference play
We interrupt this SEC basketball season to bring you the SEC/Big 12 Challenge this Saturday. Kentucky’s assigned foe is Texas Tech, with the Wildcats traveling to Lubbock to take on the Red Raiders for a 6 p.m. game on ESPN.
The defending national runners-up are 12-6 this year with a 3-3 record in the Big 12 after a 65-54 loss at TCU on Tuesday night. In conference play, Chris Beard’s club has lost 57-52 to Baylor, now the No. 1 team in the land; 66-54 at West Virginia and by 11 at TCU. Its best win came over then No. 1 Louisville, 70-57 in the Jimmy V Classic in New York.
Even with Tuesday’s loss, Ken Pomeroy’s analytics have the Red Raiders ranked 24th in overall efficiency. Kentucky is 21st. Texas Tech is 86th in offensive efficiency, but eighth in defensive efficiency, the end of the floor where Beard’s teams tend to excel.
It’ll be a good challenge for the Cats, who knocked off Arkansas in Fayetteville last Saturday. It’s also a good chance to boost the resume. After all, February is not too far away. And we all know what comes after February.
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 11:16 PM.
