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Georgia had lost its previous two games to Florida and Oklahoma by a combined 34 points but Georgia coach Mike White still felt his team had a lot of momentum offensively going into Tuesday’s game at Kentucky.
He turned out to be correct as Georgia beat host UK 86-78 after losing five of its previous six games.
“Our execution with our continuities the last two games has been very good. It doesn’t hurt when you add (leading scorer) Jeremiah (Wilkinson) to the lineup, another talented scorer and playmaker (who had missed two games with an injury) as well and a guy that’s hard to keep out of the paint,” White said.
“We did a lot of good things offensively in Norman (in the Oklahoma loss): the shot selection throughout the game, the ball movement, the decisions with the ball. We had a few sloppy possessions, but overall, it was a pretty good offensive game.
“We wanted to have some carryover and just compete at a different level, rebound at a different level, defend shooters at a higher level. We played with a ton of intensity, and I thought our guys from the jump really sat down and defended.”
White did think his team had been “inefficient defensively” in prior games but that changed against Kentucky. Georgia’s physicality was cited by UK coach Mark Pope as well as UK players as one key to the Bulldogs’ win but White felt all his team did was match Kentucky’s play.
“I just thought offensively, we cut hard, we shared it, we made good decisions, we flew to the offensive glass. I don’t think there was just one guy that played great. I thought that we had eight or 10 guys play well and defensively, we were really connected,” White said. “They hit some hard shots down the stretch. They obviously made it really interesting.
“They’re very difficult to defend, but the way that we were throwing bodies around with some of our wall-ups, some of the turnovers that we caused, just overall physicality was a big factor for us.We’re not the most physical team in the league, but to a certain extent, I thought we matched a lot of theirs.
“They got 15 offensive rebounds, and we got 15. Even some of their offensive rebounds, we were in there fighting. We were in for the most part, did a better job.”
Collin Chandler hit six 3-pointers against Georgia but felt Georgia’s physical play was the difference in the game.
“They came in and really imposed their will early and they were very physical, which really is every team that we face. I think we dealt with it pretty well after the first two possessions of the game and I think, again, we let their physicality dictate what we were doing a little bit,” Chandler said. “I think credit to them. They did a good job.”
9 Responses
Good for Georgia to get the win. This game punched there ticket to the NCAA tournament. If they win Saturday then they might end up being a higher seed than us. I can see Georgia being a 10 seed in the tournament and Kentucky being a 7-8 seed. Which means we will probably play a team like Georgia in the first game of the tournament. This game was a indicator of just what we are looking like right now. So if the tournament started and that was our first game our season would be over. If we are hoping for 20 win seasons and crossing our fingers to make it to just the sweet 16 you don't think that is a problem? From a historical perspective we average a sweet 16 appearance or better. The last 8-9 years the sweet 16 is the best we have done. It's the worst stretch EVER in Kentucky basketball history. Historically we make a final 4 run every 5 years. We haven't been to the final since 2015. So this year will be 11 years since we've made a final 4 run. The worst stretch in Kentucky history. Popes first two years almost mirror Billy Gillespie's first two years. The problem is Billy didn't have the transfer portal or where you can pay players. I honestly think Billy would have done much better at Kentucky if he had the portal and could pay players. So Mark Pope might be the worst hire in Kentucky history. If we don't score a last second basket against LSU we would have also lost that game. If we would have lost that game we would be 6th in the conference right now with a must win game our next game. If we would have lost that game we would have to win 3 out of the last 4 to just win 20 games. We should be able to get at least 20-21 regular season wins this year. Billy G went 18-11 in the regular season. Not much worse than what we will end up. Next year is a make or break year for Pope. It will be a final 4 year or nothing. I would tell him this better be the best off-season you ever had. You better have a roster on the floor that can compete for a national championship or you gotta roll. No more chances. Last year win or go back to Utah. He better persuade all the good players on this team to come back. Or he will be fighting for his job. He will enter next year on the hot seat unless we have some major changes this year. Unless he wins out and has a elite 8 run this year he should enter next year sitting on a pretty hot seat. This year is the last year he can afford to lose games. Like I said nowadays you get 2-3 years to win and win big. Especially at a Blueblood. We are the only blue blood that is struggling this year. Kansas is doing good. North Carolina is doing good. Duke is Duke they are never bad. If they had a year like this and last year there coach probably wouldn't make it a third year. We turned down Dusty May and he went to Michigan and look at Michigan. Wow.
Larry V…..Sir, how close are we to losing our "most wins" title to KU? When that happens we have no chance of recovering with Self staying and Pope in place.
Georgia played as a team on both ends of the floor; we did not. Georgia wanted this win more than we did pure and simple. The Georgia team played for the name on front of their jerseys; we played for the name on the back of our jerseys. Pope got severely outcoached by White. These things in combination will get us beat every time. This season is going to crash and burn leaving us as a middle of the pack team in the SEC. We will most likely be a one and done in both tourneys. That is what we had come to expect from Calipari; he did the honorable thing and left. Hopefully, Pope will do the same. It is time for us to find a better fit for the men's head basketball coaching job at Kentucky.
Barry, I agree with you about finding a better fit for the head coaching job.
But believe the only reason Pope has the job is because he is the only
coach in the country who wanted it. Am afraid Kentucky will never find the
right person for the job. Can't even imagine who that would be.
Nobody wanted to follow Calapari. Someone good will want to follow Pope.
Agree…think the pool would be bigger than "no one". My guess is still that Bruce P would be up for a final challenge before totally retiring. Supposedly he was very interested before and who would have a better resume than him? Anyone who can be wild enough to stand bare chested and in full orange paint would realize that Blue would be more pleasing. Seems to be building external influence that Pope not qualified. All the other blue bloods are performing/recruiting at a much higher level. This is NOT UK basketball.
Larry give us Your take on this story today in “A Sea of Blue” where Mark Pope gives a discouraging update on Jayden Quaintance.
Pope needs to stop talking about JQ. He bet the farm on him being ready to play this year and now does not own the farm.
This is not the early 2000s anymore heck Georgia beat Arkansas also this year now any given night you can lose to anyone with NIL everyone has a good team , back when Calapari took over Kentucky we got all the talent nobody else could and we where dominant for a reason come post covid there is a reason cal started losing games not because he fell off but because everyone got better and caught up everyone talks bad about pope but he has the same ecxact record as calapari does at Arkansas except pope has 5 top 10 wins and calapari has none
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