By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
NASHVILLE — Georgia is on a roll and Kentucky will have to beat the Bulldogs for a third time this season to pull off a rare three-peat in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Although the eighth-ranked Wildcats (26-5) swept the Bulldogs during the regular season by a combined margin of 14 points, it took overtime for Kentucky to beat the Bulldogs 90-81 on Jan. 31 at home and the Wildcats rallied for an 82-77 triumph over Georgia (19-13) more than two weeks ago in Athens.
Kentucky has won two straight tournament titles and carries an eight-game winning streak into the tourney opener, but Wildcats coach John Calipari said the Wildcats can’t overlook the Bulldogs, who are attempting to make an impression on the NCAA Tournament selection committee this weekend.
“We’re just worried about winning one game — this first one,” the Kentucky coach said. “And it’s going to be a very hard game for us. We know that.”
Georgia (19-13) earned a ticket to the quarterfinals following a 59-57 victory over Tennessee Thursday in the first of four second-round games at Bridgestone Arena. Following the five-point loss to Kentucky, the Bulldogs won four of their last five regular-season games.
Calipari predicts his team’s third encounter against the Bulldogs will “be a war” similar to the first two games this season.
“When you look at al these games (in the SEC), they’re all going to be decided late in the game, because our league (is good),” the Kentucky coach said. “We have 11 teams in the Top 100 (RPI) and six in the Top 50.It’s going to be a heck of a tournament for people to watch.”
Like Kentucky, Georgia, which overcame eight ties and 12 lead changes to fend off the Volunteers to open the tourney, hasn’t had much time to dwell on the previous two games between the two conference foes, but plans to treat the third matchup the same as the first two encounters.
“The previous matchups are totally different from now,” said Georgia guard J.J. Frazier, who scored a career-high 36 points in his last outing against the Wildcats. “We got to go back and watch them and prepare, you know, because we have a different team since Yante (Maten) been out a couple games. Got to go back and prepare and see what we got to do.”
In addition to overcoming slow starts, Kentucky’s main point of emphasis will be slowing down the 5-foot-10 Frazer, who averaged 27.7 points in the team’s last seven regular-season games. Frazier had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the win over the Vols Thursday.
“He’s a good player,” Calipari said. “I mean, you look at our league, he’s one of the best in the league.”
Like Frazier, Georgia coach Mark Fox said the first two games against Kentucky “will have obviously nothing to do with tomorrow.” Fox admitted he hasn’t watched the Wildcats since the five-point setback in Athens last month.
“We’ve had a couple games in row with Kentucky that have been great games, but we haven’t been over the hump,” he said. “We have to do some difficult things. Our team is way different right now, too. We’ll have to come up with a obviously a new plan.”
Kentucky has the same idea in mind in its postseason opener and wants to use the conference tournament as a stepping stone to the Big Dance.
“This tournament is our way of getting ready,” Calipari said. “It’s our way of getting ready and every one of these teams is capable of beating us. We know that. This is about, how are we getting in a frame of mind of how you’re going to have to play in another week.”
Gametracker: Kentucky vs. Georgia, SEC Tournament, 1 p.m. Friday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter