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MBB: UGA Travels to UK Tonight

Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET

Venue: Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center (20,050)

Location: Lexington, Ky..

TV: ESPN (Tom Hart, play-by-play; Dane Bradshaw, analyst)

Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 382 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)

The Starting Five

• Georgia visits Rupp Arena and the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday evening, looking to improve the Bulldogs’ solid 4-3 road record during the 2025-26 campaign.

• After using the same starting five for 19 of the season’s first 22 outings, Georgia has used different lineups in each of its last four outings, including Kareem Stagg’s first career start at Oklahoma

• Freshman Kareem Stagg has seen his PT and production skyrocket over the past two games. After averaging 0.6 ppg in 6.4 mpg in the first 10 SEC dates, he’s scoring 9.5 ppg in 21.5 mpg in the last two.

• Georgia entered this week leading the nation in percentage of field goals that are dunks at 18.8 percent (158 of 779 FGs). Somto Cyril paces the “Dunkyard Dawgs” with 66 rim-rattling finishes, which as of Monday ranked No. 2 nationally and was 27 more than any other SEC player.

• Kanon Catchings’ production has increased considerably over the last 11 games. He averaged 8.3 ppg in the first 14 games, but is contributing 13.8 ppg thereafter, including nine double-digit outings. 

Among UGA’s Career Leaders

Blue Cain is…

• 2 3-pointers from No. 16 Terrance Woodbury

• 10 3-pointers from No. 15 Jabri Abdur-Rahim

• 27 3-point attempts from No. 12 Ray Harrison

Somto Cyril is…

• 3 blocks from No. 11 Trey Thompkins

• 5 blocks from No. 10 Chris Daniels

• 6 blocks from No. 9 Marcus Thornton

• 9 blocks from co-No. 7 Willie Anderson and Nicolas Clayton

Among UGA’s Season Leaders

Somto Cyril is…

• 13 blocks from No. 6 Lavon Mercer (’80)

The Opening Tip

Georgia treks to Rupp Arena to face Kentucky on Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. looking to continue a solid record away from Athens on this season. 

The Bulldogs at 6-4 away from Stegeman Coliseum – 4-3 mark in true road outings – a ledger that was initiated with a 107-73 thumping of Florida State in the ACC/Challenge and has continued with SEC victories at South Carolina, Missouri and LSU.

Georgia’s statistical resume for the 2025-26 campaign is quite impressive.

As of Monday, the Bulldogs led all 365 D-I programs in fastbreak points (21.6 ppg) and blocks (6.6 bpg) and also ranked in the top-10 in scoring offense (No. 7 at 90.3 ppg) and bench points (No. 10 at 34.3 ppg). 

Reinforcing Georgia’s pace of play, the Bulldogs entered this week also ranked in the top 10 of the oft-used metric KenPom.com in both adjusted tempo (No. 9 at 72.5) and average offensive possession length (No. 9 at 15.2).

In addition to playing at a Georgia has a deep rotations playing at a pace among the country’s quickest. Eleven Bulldogs are averaging double-figure minutes and they have combined to record 102 double-figure scoring outputs this season. Jeremiah Wilkinson is averaging a team-high 17.1 ppg, while Blue Cain is contributing 13.6 ppg, Marcus “Smurf” Millender is chipping in 12.0 ppg and Kanon Catchings is adding 10.8 ppg.

Scouting The Wildcats

Kentucky enters Tuesday night’s game with a 17-8 overall record and an 8-4 mark in league play. The Wildcats had their three-game losing streak snapped with a 92-83 setback at No. 14 Florida last weekend.

Otega Oweh paces Kentucky on the offensive end, averaging 17.0 ppg, while Denzel Aberdeen is scoring at a double-digit clip of 12.5 ppg. Four more Wildcats contribute 8.0 ppg or more – Collin Chandler at 9.7 ppg, Malachi Moreno 8.5 ppg, Mouhamed Diobate at 8.4 ppg and Jaland Lowe at 8.0 ppg.

Series History With Kentucky

Kentucky owns a 132-29 advantage in the all-time series between UGA and UK.

Last season on Jan. 7 in Athens, current Atlanta Hawk Asa Newell’s thorough and efficient linescore led Georgia to an 82-69 upset of No. 6/7 Kentucky at a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum.

Newell, who was the No. 23 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, paced four Bulldogs in double figures with 17 points, on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range, and a 5-of-8 effort at the line.

A Newell 3-pointer at the first-half horn capped a 22-9 surge covering 6:17 to put the Bulldogs up 47-34 at the intermission. Kentucky pulled within five points with 12:07 remaining, but Georgia responded with four unanswered points and maintained a three-possession lead for the remainder of the evening.

The win represented Georgia’s highest over a ranked foe since defeating No. 5 Kentucky, 65-57, on Jan. 17, 2004, and its highest over a ranked opponent at Stegeman Coliseum since beating No. 3 Georgia Tech, 83-80 in double overtime, on Jan. 3, 2004.

In the Bulldogs’ last trip to Rupp Arena on Jan. 20, 2024, Georgia could not overcome a hot-shooting Kentucky squad in a 105-96 setback at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats converted 61.9 percent from the floor and 56.0 percent from 3-point range en route to the win.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim knocked down a career-high seven 3-pointers while exploding for 34 points, the most by a Bulldog since Anthony Edwards’ 35-point evening against South Carolina in 2020.

Last Time Out

Blue Cain scored a game-high 20 points and freshman Kareem Stagg added 10 points in a career-high 27 minutes during his first career start; however, Georgia lost 94-78 at Oklahoma last Saturday.

The Bulldogs blistered the Lloyd Noble Center nets in the first half, shooting 70.8 percent from the field while securing a 43-41 halftime lead. The Sooners were equally impressive after the intermission en route to their second straight league win (also at Vanderbilt on Feb. 7).

“Early second half, they got it going,” head coach Mike White said. “Their crowd got involved. All of a sudden, they picked it up a little bit defensively. We made a couple of substitutions. We had a couple of really poor offensive possessions that led to some open threes for them in transition, and that was it.”

WBB: Dawgs are Back in the Top 25

Fresh off a victory against No. 5 Vanderbilt, the Georgia Lady Bulldog basketball team is back in the Associated Press Top 25 with a No. 24 national ranking.

The Lady Bulldogs boast a 20-6 overall record with three wins against top 20 teams — the most for the program in the regular season since the 2010-11 campaign. 

This past week, the Lady Bulldogs became the quickest Georgia team to reach 20 wins in eight years. The latest triumph came against fifth-ranked Vanderbilt, marking Georgia’s first victory over a top-5 opponent at Stegeman Coliseum since 2010.

Sophomore guard Dani Carnegie leads the Lady Bulldogs in scoring and is coming off a 29-point effort against the Commodores. Carnegie is fourth in the SEC in scoring during league games with 20.3 ppg. Junior guard Rylie Theuerkauf has scored in double figures in six-straight contests, including back-to-back 20-point efforts at Missouri and Mississippi State. 

Georgia returns to Stegeman Coliseum this Thursday for another top 25 showdown against No. 10 Oklahoma. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. on the SEC Network. Tickets are available on GeorgiaDogs.com. 

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