The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; Georgia Bulldogs guard Blue Cain (0) drives past Kentucky Wildcats center Malachi Moreno (24) to the basket during the first half at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; Georgia Bulldogs guard Blue Cain (0) drives past Kentucky Wildcats center Malachi Moreno (24) to the basket during the first half at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Trent Noah (9) passes the ball during the first half against the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope yells to his players during the first half against the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mike White watches the first half of the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Stadium at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; Georgia Bulldogs forward Jack Wilkins (21), forward Dylan James (11), guard Jeremiah Wilkinson (5) and guard Jordan Ross (3) huddle together during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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The Kentucky Wildcats host the Georgia Bulldogs at Rupp Stadium. View photos
February 17, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; Georgia Bulldogs forward Kareem Stagg (1) shoots during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
LEXINGTON — Georgia was certainly no better than the Kentucky basketball team on Tuesday.
The Bulldogs have lost five of their past six games; the Wildcats are 4-2 over the same stretch, but have stumbled on their way to Florida State and Vanderbilt, two of the SEC’s best teams.
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But what could be more important than Tuesday’s record or the latest game?
Georgia is just more desperate, living life in a bubble as a club, and tryout Sunday would be a sweaty clubhouse if it were tomorrow.
Georgia brought energy and intensity. Kentucky can’t match that, either.
That left head coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats in a disappointing and unexpected 86-78 loss at Rupp Arena.
Kentucky (17-9, 8-5 SEC) did itself no favors in multiple areas.
Among them:
UK committed 13 turnovers, which Georgia (18-8, 6-7) converted into 22 points;
The Wildcats’ bench was barely visible, contributing just eight points, a far cry from Georgia’s reserves’ 29 points;
The most surprising thing is that Kentucky couldn’t find a way to limit Georgia’s 3-point shooting. UGA barely ranks in the top 300 nationally in three-point shooting, shooting just 31.7 percent from the field this season. But in Tuesday’s surprise victory, Georgia shot 45.2 percent (14 of 31) from 3-point range — not only its best performance against a conference opponent in 2025-26, but its highest percentage against conference opponents. any Power conference foes this season.
Tuesday was the Bulldogs’ first win in Lexington since 2009.
It was their third win over the Wildcats in the last four games. This is the second time Georgia has beaten Kentucky three times in four games. Another example is more than a century ago: after Britain won the first meeting on March 1, 1921, Georgia won the next three meetings.
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