Georgia Bulldogs

No. 8 Kentucky comes into game with Georgia after two losses (Jan 31, 2017)

Published Jan. 30, 2017 8:39 p.m. ET

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AP

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- No. 8 Kentucky, which slipped four spots in the new Associated Press poll after consecutive losses to Tennessee and Kansas, looks to get back on track when Georgia visits Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.

The Wildcats are 17-4 overall and tied for first place in the Southeastern Conference at 7-1. Georgia (13-8, 4-4) is coming off a 59-57 win over Texas in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge.

"Georgia's good," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "I just watched their game with Texas and they had Texas A&M beat. We don't play and you'll get beat again. I think we'll be ready to play. How the game plays out I don't know. We'll see."

Calipari headed back to the drawing board with two points of emphasis: toughness and turnovers.

"Toughness is a skill, to be like a hard, scrappy player. That's a skill, just like ball-handling and shooting is a skill," Calipari said. "Fighting for rebounding, it's a skill. If passing and shooting and dribbling can be taught and mastered, then so can that other stuff. So you get in here and you make them fight each other.

"You put the guards and the bigs -- you put Tai (Wynyard) and Bam (Adebayo) against guys that don't want to fight and let them just maul them. And then you're like, 'OK, if you want to accept that and let go of the rope, then you can't be playing.' So figure out, 'How do I do this that I can withstand all this stuff.'"

Turnovers are more obvious, jumping off the boxscore.

"Turnovers lead to easy baskets on the other end," Calipari said. "We gave 21 points up last game from turnovers. Can't win a game that way. The other thing is it becomes a 50-50 ball and I'm fighting for my life.

"I figure out a way to go get those balls. Now, you may not get all of them, but you can't give them all of them. The toughness late in the game, mentally the toughness, physically, that's what I'm talking about."

Kentucky committed 17 turnovers in blowing a 12-point lead to lose to Kansas on Saturday.

"Casual play," Calipari said. "I showed them all 17. Aggressive turnovers don't lead to baskets on the other end. The casual turnovers, you're just dribbling it across and you lose it? The look-away pass to the wing when you didn't have to. What's the hardest play I can make? When a guy is open right there, throw it.

"This is all stuff that when you're coaching young kids that you have to go through and you have to reinforce. We went back to some of our older defensive drills just to get them in a different mindset."

Kentucky is led by freshman guard Malik Monk at 21.7 points per game. Freshman guard De'Aaron Fox checks in at 15.9, sophomore guard Isaiah Bricscoe at 14.0 and freshman forward Adebayo at 13.3.

Georgia is topped by junior forward Yante Maten, who averages 19.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Next come senior guard J.J. Frazier at 15.5 points and junior guard Juwan Parker at 9.7.

Monk and Maten rank Nos. 1 and 2 in the SEC in scoring.

"Maten has hurt us over the years simply by being physical," Calipari said. "So it's a tough matchup for us."

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