NCAAB Game Preview - Kentucky at Georgia

Sat Feb 18, 2017 6:00 PM EST

No. 13 Kentucky will be looking to hold on to a share of first place when the Wildcats face Georgia on Saturday in Athens, Ga.

"It's going to be a hard game," Wildcats coach John Calipari said. "It's been sold out for three months, four months. I saw the tape of them and Mississippi. It wasn't a packed stadium. Well, it's gonna be for this game. It doesn't matter how they've played; we know who they are and how they like to play. I imagine whatever that is, they'll be at their best."

This will be the second meeting between the two schools with Kentucky (21-5, 11-2 SEC) earning a 90-81 overtime victory over Georgia (15-11, 6-7) on Jan. 31 in Lexington, Ky.

Freshman guard Malik Monk's jumper with eight seconds left forced overtime and then the Wildcats outscored Georgia 14-5 in the extra period. Monk had eight of the Wildcats' 14 on the strength of two 3-point baskets.

Monk paced Kentucky that day with 37 points, his second highest total of the season, by hitting 7-of-11 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe was next with a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds. Forward Bam Adebayo added 12 points while fellow freshman De'Aaron Fox, who leads the SEC in assists, missed the game with the flu.

Georgia got 18 points and 13 rebounds from sophomore forward Derek Ogbeide, 23 points from senior guard J.J. Frazier and 22 from junior forward Yante Maten.

"You gotta keep a special eye on Maten," Calipari said. "Any time we just left and trapped -- and it happened against Tennessee and I saw it against Mississippi -- he's passing to the other big kid for dunks. So you've gotta be aware. You just can't leave people and go trap him because he's throwing it and the guy's dunking it. It's 100 percent that."

Kentucky is riding a three-game win streak heading into Saturday's game. After being drubbed by 20 points at Florida on Feb. 4, the Wildcats have now beaten LSU 92-85, Alabama 67-58 and Tennessee 83-58. The key Saturday will be continued improvement on defensive intensity and ball movement on offense.

"You play the same way," Calipari said. "You're pushing it, you're driving and you're moving. But it's not just ball movement because if you're moving the ball and people aren't moving, then you're going to play against a zone whether they're man or zone. So the ball's got to move. If it's zone, it's more shallow cuts than fully through cuts.

"We've got some stuff we're working on to just continue to get them to have that mindset, but if we don't teach it, we don't talk about it, we don't emphasize it they are not going to do it. They're 19 years old."

Georgia, for its part, has its own two-game win streak, 76-75 at Tennessee last Saturday and 79-72 over Mississippi State on Tuesday.

"The Tennessee game, their guard went nuts," Calipari said. "And Maten, he is what he is: 20 points a game. The other kid, Frazier, 20 points a game. The other guys are fighting like heck. Their big kids are rebounding. Their wings are rebounding slashers."

Kentucky is paced by Monk, whose 21.7 points per game average is tops in the SEC. Next comes Fox at 15.6, Briscoe, 13.8; and Adebayo at 12.7 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds.

As a team, Kentucky scored 89.1 points per game, best in the league and third-best in the nation. The Wildcats give up 73.1 points.

Georgia is led by Maten, who averages 19.4 points per game, third best in the SEC. Next comes Frazier at 16.6 and junior guard Juwan Parker at 9.6. Ogbeide is the Bulldogs' top rebounder at 7.3.

As a team, Georgia averages 72.4 points while giving up 69.5. On the down side, Georgia has an equal number of turnovers as assists, 362.

"It took us three weeks to get where we were, it's gonna take us time to get out of that," Calipari said. "And it's as much of mindsets and habits and all those kind of things. Competitiveness. Like, the second unit just went right after the first unit yesterday and won, and won two or three different times and the white had to run. That's what you want. You want them to compete in practice because that's what they're gonna have to do in a game."