Georgia loss serves as serious wake-up call: 'Nothing is like being Kentucky on the road.'

The SEC is absolutely brutal this season. Nearly every team in the league is in contention to make the NCAA Tournament. The bottom half of the conference will be filled with talented and tough competitors. There will be no such thing as an easy win. That’s especially true on the road — and even more so when Kentucky is on the front of the opposition’s jersey.

It was just three days ago Kentucky beat a Florida team ranked No. 6 in the country by scoring 106 points inside Rupp Arena. The same Gators team came right back around and smacked top-ranked Tennessee by nearly thirty points in Gainesville on Tuesday. The same Kentucky team was just embarrassed by an unranked Georgia squad 82-69 on the road. From the rocking environment at Stegeman Coliseum to the 45 total foul calls in this game, the Wildcats simply couldn’t string any sort of momentum together.

When Kentucky comes to town, the stakes are always raised. Georgia brought out the t-shirts with the Wildcats making the trip down south. This was the first time that any of the players on Mark Pope‘s roster had encountered an SEC game away from Lexington. It will hopefully serve as a serious wake-up call that every road game (every SEC game, really) will be a 40-minute bloodbath.

“We’ve been on the road a whole lot in my career, but nothing is like being Kentucky on the road,” Fifth-year forward Andrew Carr, who finished with six points (2-7 FG) and five rebounds against Georgia, said postgame. “That comes as a privilege for us and something we gotta take seriously. And we haven’t really shown that yet on the road. We haven’t been our best on the road yet. We’re looking to try and bounce back and have another test at it on Saturday. Be able to respond and get better.”

There will be little time for Kentucky to sulk coming off this loss. Another road matchup in Starkville against No. 14 Mississippi State awaits this weekend. It will be another packed and rowdy crowd. UK can’t afford to continue to lie down and let the opponent strike first. At some point, they need to set the tone and play with more physicality than the other team from the opening tip.

“We’ve played two true road games and both of them have been spaces where we’re a little distractable,” Pope said postgame. “That’s a mountain we got to climb. There’s no reason to hide from that. We get another chance on Saturday in a massive game, a really challenging game. This game and this league is going to keep throwing challenges, and we gotta go answer them.”

There will be no questions about what is in store against Mississippi State. It will be another rough, physical battle with 95 percent of the arena cheering against the ‘Cats. If losing to Georgia the way they did doesn’t wake this team up moving forward, it could be a long stretch until March.