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KSR Gameday: No. 6 Kentucky faces first SEC road test at Georgia

On3 imageby:Tyler Thompson•01/07/25•

MrsTylerKSR

Kentucky players shootaround at Georgia - Photo by Chet White, UK Athletics
Kentucky players shootaround at Georgia - Photo by Chet White, UK Athletics

Kentucky’s win over Florida was an exciting start to conference play. Now, it’s time for the No. 6 Cats to take the show on the road. Tonight, they’ll play the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, the Cats’ first taste of an SEC road environment.

Mike White’s Bulldogs are 12-2 this season, coming off a 12-point loss at No. 23 Ole Miss on Saturday. Their only other loss was also to a ranked team, then-No. 15 Marquette in a multi-team event in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving break. After that loss, the Bulldogs bounced back to beat Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad 66-63, their best win of the season. Georgia also beat Notre Dame by 19 in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 3.

Freshman forward Asa Newell leads the Bulldogs with 15.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Dakota Leffew, a grad transfer from St. Mary’s, is their best shooter, making 35 threes this season at a 40.3% clip. There’s a familiar name on Georgia’s roster: Somto Cyril. Cyril was Kentucky’s first commit in the 2024 class, but when John Calipari left for Arkansas, was released from his National Letter of Intent and decided to go to Georgia, which is close to OTE, where he played two seasons. The 6’11” 260 lbs. freshman is averaging 5.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 15.2 minutes per game.

The Bulldogs nicknamed themselves the “Dunkyard Dawgs” for all the dunks they throw down. Georgia ranks second nationally in percentage of made field goals that are dunks (18.6%), with Newell ranking third in the country with 35 slams. The Bulldogs also boast a top-30 defense, holding opponents to an average of 64.1 points per game. That defense will be put to the test vs. a Kentucky team averaging 90.2 points per game, which ranks behind only Alabama (91.1) nationally.

It’s another cold, snowy day across the Bluegrass. Some SEC basketball will be the perfect way to warm up tonight.

How to Watch, Listen

It’s time to settle into the Tuesday/Wednesday and Saturday SEC routine. Tonight’s game will feature a new announcing duo. Former Chicago White Sox play-by-play announcer John Schriffen and former Alabama forward Richard Hendrix will call the game on the SEC Network.

  • Time: 7 p.m. ET
  • Television: SEC Network (John Schriffen, Richard Hendrix)
  • Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Tom Leach, Goose Givens)
  • Online Radio: iHeart
  • Satellite Radio: Sirius 106 or 190
  • Live Stats: StatBroadcast

You can also follow the game via our new LIVE BLOG on the website, which will begin an hour before tip-off, or join the conversation on KSBoard. The KSR Pregame Show will begin 2.5 hours before tip, so 4:30 p.m. ET, on 630 WLAP and affiliates across the state.

Odds

Kentucky opened as a 2.5-point favorite on FanDuel. That line is currently holding this morning. The total is 154.5 points, with Kentucky’s team total at 78.5 points.

KenPom projects a very tight game, with Kentucky winning by one, 78-77. BartTorvik predicts the same score, giving the Cats just a 52% chance of victory.

A surprising injury to monitor

SEC play brings SEC availability/injury reports. A surprising name popped up on Kentucky’s on Monday night: Koby Brea. Brea is listed as “questionable” for tonight’s game. If you follow the SEC policy, that means he has a 50% chance of playing. We haven’t heard anything about a potential Brea injury (insert joke about burnt hands from his red-hot shooting performance vs. Florida), so hopefully it’s nothing major. Also on the availability report: Kerr Kriisa (out) and Georgia’s De’Shayne Montgomery (probable). We’ll get a final report 90 minutes before game time.

Speaking of Brea, he won SEC Co-Player of the Week honors on Monday, sharing the honor with Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier. Brea had a career performance vs. Florida, making 7 of 9 threes, which is the second most makes ever by a Kentucky player against the Gators and the second most against a top-10 team in program history. Brea ranks No. 1 nationally in three-point field-goal percentage (52.3%).

Georgia homecoming, win No. 200 for Pope?

There are some other storylines in play. Tonight is Kentucky associate coach Mark Fox’s first game back at Georgia, the school where he was the head coach from 2009-2018. Mark Pope was with Fox that first season, serving as Director of Basketball Operations, his first job in coaching.

If Kentucky wins, it’ll be Pope’s 200th victory as a head coach, the perfect way to celebrate another full-circle moment. Pope brings a 199-110 career record over ten seasons into the matchup.

Snow Day, Part 2

Kentucky made it to Athens safely, flying out of Lexington on Monday afternoon. The KSR road crew of Jack Pilgrim and Steven Peake are grounded as the roads around Louisville and the rest of the state continue to be treacherous. The Kentucky women’s basketball team pulled into Lexington Monday afternoon from their trip to Nashville to face Vanderbilt in one piece thanks to their bus driver Sandy.

Whatever is on the ground and roads won’t melt for a while, with temperatures not expected to get above freezing all week in most of the state. School will probably be out for most of the week as well, so Godspeed to all the parents as you embark on another snow day.

College Basketball on TV tonight

The first Tuesday of SEC play is a big one. At the same time Kentucky is playing Georgia, No. 1 Tennessee will be facing off vs. No. 8 Florida in Gainesville. In the 9 p.m. window, No. 2 Auburn plays at Texas, while No. 14 Mississippi State tries to fend off Memorial Magic at Vanderbilt. Lots of games to keep us entertained tonight.

TIME (ET)AWAYHOMETV/STREAMING
7:00 PMNo. 6 KentuckyGeorgiaSEC Network
7:00 PMNo. 1 TennesseeNo. 8 FloridaESPN2
7:00 PMPittsburghNo. 4 DukeESPN
7:00 PMArizonaNo. 21 West VirginiaESPN+
7:00 PMClemsonLouisvilleESPNU
8:00 PMUtahNo. 3 Iowa StateESPN+
8:00 PMGeorgetownNo. 7 MarquetteCBS Sports Network
8:00 PMCincinnatiBaylorESPN+
8:00 PMNebraskaIowaPeacock
9:00 PMNo. 2 AuburnTexasESPN2
9:00 PMNo. 14 Mississippi StateVanderbiltESPNU
9:00 PMNo. 24 MichiganNo. 22 UCLAPeacock
9:00 PMNo. 25 Utah StateSan Jose State
9:00 PMLSUMissouriSEC Network
9:00 PMSMUNorth CarolinaACC Network

Get in the mood with Daniel Hager’s supercut of plays from every Kentucky win over Georgia going back to 1995.

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2025-01-08