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Well, we suspected this would be a tough game, and it absolutely was. The Georgia Bulldogs brought their A game today, and it was almost enough to end the undefeated run of the Kentucky Wildcats. Almost, but this isn’t horseshoes or global thermonuclear war.
I knew Georgia was a good team, and I knew this would be a game where they came at us with everything they had. They did that, and more. Mark Fox had an outstanding game plan, Nemanja Djurisic played the game of his life on senior night with his parents in the house, and the planets seemed perfectly aligned for a signature win. Georgia missed free throws, however, and that was ultimately their undoing. You have to do four things to beat Kentucky: Shoot well, rebound well, take care of the ball and make free throws. Georgia did only two of them, but they did both of them great. It was still not enough. Remarkable attempt, though, and kudos to the Dawgs and their fans for a noble effort and a great environment.
Final stats
Far from the Cats' best effort, but they got it done. UK overcame poor shooting by committing just three turnovers. pic.twitter.com/yvw9kLlg6A
— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) March 4, 2015
Observations
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What a gutsy game by Kentucky. They did not play well, but they never allowed themselves to get out of it and made huge plays down the stretch. This team is a winner, and no mistake.
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40% shooting is about as bad as Kentucky has shot all season. If you can’t beat Kentucky when they shoot under 45%, you just can’t beat them.
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Kentucky missed a tremendous number of easy shots. It was very frustrating.
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Another poor outing from the 3-point line, but frankly, not much was working on offense for the Wildcats tonight.
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Kentucky shot a solid free throw percentage, and I want to give a shout out to the big guys, particularly Dakari Johnson, for being so efficient from the stripe.
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The Wildcats took great care of the ball tonight, turning the ball over only 3 times the whole game. That really hurt Georgia, who despite not turning it over that much, made 11 miscues, a net 8 extra possessions for Kentucky.
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Georgia outscored Kentucky in the paint. That should never happen.
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Mark Fox may have shown other teams who have mobile big men how to play Kentucky. It didn’t win the game for him, though.
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Kentucky had only 8 assists tonight on 25 made field goals. 32% assists is the lowest number I can remember in a very long while for this UK team.
You have to say one thing about the Wildcats — no matter how bad they play, they always keep their poise and put themselves in a position to win, even when it looks unlikely like tonight. You can’t teach that. That is some of last season's NCAA Tournament experience from the Harrison twins and Willie Cauley-Stein coming out in the late game, and it was in the late game where the twins and WCS really showed their stuff.
Great win, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, no matter how tough it was.
30-0. That’s a nice, round number.