Sold-out arena awaits No. 12 Kentucky at Georgia

No. 12 Kentucky looks to continue its climb back to the top when the Wildcats travel to Georgia on Tuesday night.

Kentucky opened the season at No. 1, but plummeted after a blowout loss to Duke in the first game. The Wildcats sank as low as No. 19 before leaping to No. 12 this week with two consecutive SEC wins.

UK (12-3, 2-1 SEC) posted home wins over Texas A&M and Vanderbilt last week. Kentucky lost its only conference road game, a 77-75 defeat at Alabama.

Georgia, under first-year coach Tom Crean, has beaten Vanderbilt but suffered blowout losses to SEC frontrunners Tennessee and Auburn. The Bulldogs (9-6, 1-2) have won their only conference home game, and Stegeman Coliseum is sold out for the Kentucky game.

The school announced this will be the first of six consecutive home sellouts.

"I thought there were years where all we did was go to Georgia. I was like, 'Do we ever get them at home?'" Kentucky coach John Calipari said Monday.

"It's always sold out. Somebody told me it's been sold out since June. It's a date marked on the calendar for the whole town. They're going to be ready to play and you have to be ready. With that being said, all the games are close, tough, hard-fought games. I would expect this to be the same."

The teams have one common opponent. Kentucky defeated Vanderbilt 56-47. Georgia knocked off the Commodores 82-63.

"We've gotten better this week, and we had moments where we showed that today," Crean said after the Auburn loss on Saturday. "But we had moments where we didn't. It is a process we have to continue to learn from."

Crean knows the areas in which Georgia must improve against Kentucky.

"Hustle points," Crean said. "The points off turnovers and the second-chance points."

Another challenge for Georgia will be keeping Kentucky off the glass. The Wildcats allow opponents only 28 rebounds per game, winning the board battle by an average of 10 each night.

"Kentucky brings a whole other level of length and rebounding," Crean said.

Kentucky features four dominant big men -- PJ Washington, Reid Travis, EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards.

"The advantage we have with the number we have, you're not pressured to play great because if you just don't play great, we'll play somebody else and we'll be fine," Calipari said.

"But you have to perform when they get their minutes and they get in. We can't do it for you and you can't make the excuse, 'Well, if I played more or I didn't play last game.' Don't. Just play."

One key player in the game is Kentucky point guard Ashton Hagans, who leads the team in steals. The freshman from Cartersville, Ga., originally committed to Georgia but switched after the school fired coach Mark Fox.

Calipari was asked on the SEC coaches teleconference with the media about being able to "flip" Hagans from Georgia to UK.

"We didn't get him to flip," Calipari said.

"You changed your coach. It had nothing to do with us. If you didn't change your coach, he would be at Georgia. But you changed your coach and then the family called us and said, 'Would you have an interest?' Yeah, we would. That's how it played out. I'm happy he's with us."

For that reason, Calipari expects a tough night in Athens for Hagans.

"It's a hard game for him to go back," Calipari said. "My guess is that he's going to get mauled by their fans. That's my guess. Then that becomes, does that inspire him? Does that rattle him? None of us know. Let's see."

--Field Level Media