Dogs To Visit Rupp For Late-Night Matchup

Tuesday, February 17

Lexington, Ky,

9:00

University of Georgia

Kentucky

February 16, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (17-8, 5-7 SEC) vs. Kentucky (17-8, 8-4)
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)
Streaming: SECN+
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network; Sirius 382 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix

The Starting 5

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.

Keeping An Eye On…

Entering Today's Game - 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

Entering Today's Game - 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-most 27 minutes during his first career start; however, Georgia dropped a 94-78 decision 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."

Stagg's Impact Takes Dramatic Upswing

Kareem Stagg's production has skyrocketed in the Bulldogs' two most recent outings.

The freshman from Chesapeake, Va., scored six points in just over 64 minutes of action in Georgia's first 10 SEC outings – easy to commute averages of 0.6 ppg and 6.4 mpg.

Since then, Stagg has scored 19 points (9.5 ppg) while logging 43 minutes (21.5 mpg), including his first SEC double-figure output at Oklahoma in a career-most 27 minutes of play.

After Consistent Nods, Dogs Shuffle Starting Lineup

Georgia's starting five was extremely consistent . . . for the first 22 games of the season.

During that span, the quintet of Blue Cain, Somto Cyril, Jordan Ross, Jeremiah Wilkinson and Kanon Catchings was only interrupted for three games.

The Bulldogs have sent different lineups for the opening tip for each of the last four games.

After using the aforementioned set of starters against Texas A&M, Justin Abson got his first career start at a Bulldog at LSU. He replaced Cyril, who missed practice most of the week with an illness. Dylan James got the nod against Florida when Jeremiah Wilkinson was a DNP. At Oklahoma, Marcus "Smurf" Millender and Kareem Stagg got their first starts of the season.

Cain is now the only Bulldog to start every game this season, extending his streak of consecutive nods to 66 games dating back to the last eight games of his freshman season.

Georgia Putting Up Points At A Record-Breaking Pace

The Bulldogs are well on their way to shattering the program's all-time scoring record.

Georgia is currently averaging 90.3 points per game 25 contests into the campaign, an extremely healthy 7.6 ppg better than the Bulldogs' current best-ever effort of 82.7 ppg en route to winning the 1990 SEC Championship.

Those Bulldogs scored 2,399 points over 29 games. By comparison, Georgia has already scored 2,258 points this season.

Dunkyard Dawgs Lead The Nation In Slams

According to BartTorvik.com, Georgia entered this week ranked No. 1 the nation in percentage of its field goals this season on dunks at 18.8 – 158 of 779 the Bulldogs' total FGs – as outlined below.

Somto Cyril's 66 dunks ranked No. 2 nationally and led all SEC players by a wide gap of 27 slams. Kareem Stagg was second among Bulldogs with 19 dunks; followed by Jake Wilkins with 17; Blue Cain, Kanon Catchings and Jeremiah Wilkinson all with 12; Justin Abson with 11; Blue Cain with 10; and Dylan James with seven.

Rank	Team	Pct.
Dunking It
1.	Georgia	18.8
2.	N. Carolina	17.3
3.	Arkansas	16.5
4.	Florida	15.9
5.	Duke	15.8
6.	Kansas	15.6
7.	Michigan	15.4
8.	Indiana	15.0
9.	Kentucky	14.5
	Louisville	14.5

Bulldogs Among Nation's Top Scoring Teams In Several Ways

Georgia entered this week ranked No. 6 in D-I in scoring offense at 90.3 points per game.

Much of Georgia's production has come either in a hurry or while standing still.

The Bulldogs lead the country in fastbreak points (21.6 ppg) and are No. 19 free throws made (18.9 ppg). That equates to roughly 45.3 percent (40.9 of 90.3 ppg) of Georgia's offensive output.

Georgia's scoring has been consistent.

In 50 halves of hoops, the Bulldogs scored 40 or more points 38 times, with 11 50-point periods and three segments of 60 or more points.

Georgia played 102 games in Mike White's first three seasons in Athens. The Bulldogs reached 90 points nine times and 100 points twice. In 25 games this season, Georgia has topped 90 points in 12 outings and surpassed the century mark in a school-record seven contests.

I Know That Dude(s)

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope began his college "coaching" career by serving as Georgia's Director of Basketball Operations during the 2009-10 season.

That also was the first season of current Kentucky associate coach Mark Fox's tenure as the Bulldogs' head coach. Fox led Georgia for nine seasons from 2009-18, compiling a 163-133 record with five postseason bids – two NCAAs and three NITs.

Abson, Cyril Supply Top Shot-Swatting Duo

Georgia is leading the nation in blocks per game entering this week at 6.6 swats per contest, largely due to two Bulldogs also being among the shot swatters in the country.

As of Monday, Somto Cyril led the SEC and was No. 10 nationally at 2.5 bpg and Justin Abson was at No. 3 in the league and No. 47 in the country at 1.8 bpg.

This is the third time in his career Abson has been a top-50 shot swatter. In his two seasons at Appalachian State before transferring to Georgia, he ranked No. 5 (2.8 bpg) nationally as a sophomore and No. 19 (2.2 bpg) as a freshman.

Kanon Takes Off In SEC Outings

Kanon Catchings' production has increased dramatically over the last 11 games.

After averaging 8.3 points while shooting 38.8 percent from the field and 24.2 percent from 3-point range in the first 14 games of the season, Catchings has upped each effort to 13.8 ppg, 44.9 FG pct. (53-of-118) and 44.6 3FG pct. (29-of-65) in the 11 most recent contests.

The sophomore from Brownsburg, Ind., notched four double-figure scoring tallies in the first 14 games before recording nine double-digit point performances his last 11 outings, including a pair of 20-point tallies.

Somto Surging On Blocks Ledgers

Somto Cyril, who was named to the 2026 Naismith Men's College Defensive Player of the Year Watch List the Atlanta Tipoff Club in January, is quickly climbing on Georgia's single-season and career leaders lists for blocked shots.

In 33 games last season, Cyril swatted 51 shots, which was then UGA's 11th-best tally and the second-most by a Georgia freshman.

In 25 contests this season, the Enugu, Nigeria native has already blocked 63 shots. That's the No. 7 season mark by a Bulldog and 31 off the school record.

Cyril's numbers are bolstered two career-high outputs in SEC play – six against Auburn and eight versus Arkansas.

Cyril's 113 total rejections rank No. 12 among Georgia's career leaders, five shy of the top-10.

Dogs' Dishing, Ball Control Considerably Better

Mike White has called the 2025-26 Bulldogs one of the better passing teams he's coached.

A year ago, the Bulldogs ranked No. 262 nationally in assists per game at 12.5 and No. 298 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 0.96. This season, Georgia entered this week well over 100 spots better in each stat – No. 142 in assists (14.6 apg) and No. 116 in assist-to-turnovers (1.31).

A large part of that is the performance of the four guards Georgia added via the transfer portal during the offseason – Justin Bailey, Marcus "Smurf" Millender, Jordan Ross and Jeremiah Wilkinson. That quartet has delivered a combined 214 passes-to-points while committing just 110 turnovers – equating to 8.6 apg and a stellar ratio of 1.95 assists-to-TOs.

Resilient Dogs Rally From Double-Digit Deficits

Georgia certainly didn't look like it was headed to a double-figure victory at LSU when the Bulldogs trailed by 15 points just after the midway point of the first half in Baton Rouge.

After falling behind 31-16, Georgia outscored the Tigers 67-40 the rest of the way.

That marked the fourth game this season the Bulldogs overcame a double-digit gap en route to a win, also doing so against Cincinnati, LIU and South Carolina. In two more outings – Clemson and Ole Miss – UGA recovered from 10+-point deficits to lead before eventually losing in overtime.

Double-Digit Dogs' Have Hit Double Figures

No less than 10 different Georgia Bulldogs recorded double-figure scoring outputs in the first five games of the season.

Those Bulldogs have now combined to produce 102 double-digit performances.

Blue Cain leads that pack at 20 contests, followed by Jeremiah Wilkinson with 19; Smurf Millender with 17; Kanon Catchings with 13; Somto Cyril with 11; Jordan Ross with seven; Jake Wilkins with five; Dylan James with four; Justin Bailey and Kareem Stagg both with three.

Seven of the aforementioned Bulldogs scored in double digits against Morehead State on Nov. 9. That marked the first time seven Bulldogs hit the 10-point plateau in a single game since a 99-72 decision over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 29, 1994 – a span of 979 contests.

Smurf's Game Gets Bigger

After a slow start early in the season, Marcus "Smurf" Millender has nearly doubled his production and shooting efficiency over the last 20 games.

After averaging 6.8 points in Georgia's first five games, Millender is contributing 13.3 ppg in the Bulldogs' last 20 outings. He connected on just 26.2 percent (11-of-42) overall and 21.7 percent (5-of-23) from 3-point range in the first five games, but has upped those tallies o 50.5 percent (92-of-182) overall and 41.1 percent (39-of-95) on 3-pointers thereafter.

Millender has now put up double-digit scoring tallies in 15 of 20 games and distributed five or more assists in seven of those contests.

The stretch includes two dramatic game winners. Millender canned a clutch 3-pointer with 11 seconds left against Xavier in the opening round of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic on Nov. 21 and converted a three-point play with 5.5 seconds left at Missouri on Jan. 20.

Millender Tops Millennium Mark; More Dogs Approaching 1,000

Houston native Marcus "Smurf" Millender reached 1,000 career points with approximately 30 family and friends on hand for his return to the Lone Star State at Texas on Jan. 24.

Millender scored his 1000 points at three different schools, with 309 as a freshman at South Alabama, 461 as a sophomore at UT San Antonio and 230 in his junior campaign as a Bulldog.

Blue Cain and Jeremiah Wilkinson also are on pace to reach 1,000 career points this season.

Cain and Wilkinson have scored 933 and 878 points, respectively. At their current averages, both Bulldogs would reach 1,000 points this season. Cain would become the first player to score 1,000 points exclusively for Georgia since Yante Maten reached that plateau on Jan. 4, 2017.

Cain Joins UGA's Free Throw Leaders

Blue Cain has met the minimums to be included in Georgia's single-season and career leaders in free throw percentage. He enters the LSU game ranked No. 3 in both season and career success rate among all Bulldogs.

The minimum to qualify for Georgia's single-season free throw percentage leaders is 50 made attempts, which Cain reached with two makes at South Carolina on Jan. 19. Cain is currently 59-of-66 and his 89.4 conversion rate is the third-best ever by a Bulldog.

The minimum to qualify for Georgia's career free throw leaders percentage leaders is 125 made attempts, which Cain achieved with two free throws at Florida on Jan. 6. Cain is now 135-of-162 and his 83.3 conversion rate is now the fifth-best ever by a Bulldog.

Dogs Play School-Record Fourth OT Outing

Georgia's overtime setback to Tennessee on Jan. 27 was its fourth 45-minute contest this season.

That ties Georgia's record for most OT games in a season. The Bulldogs have played four overtime outings eight different times, most recently in 2012-13. The other seasons were 2010-11, 1998-99, 1986-87, 1983-84, 1876-77 and 1959-60.

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