Kentucky basketball vs. Georgia all-time (26 different coaches, 20 different arenas)

(Updated through regular season matchups in 2017)

Georgia has been a bit of a strange opponent for the Wildcats in basketball.  They seem so difficult at times (even putting up quite a fight in Rupp), but their overall results Kentucky are easily the worst of any of the longtime "SEC East" foes.  Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Florida have all given UK much more consistent trouble.  That is NOT to say that we look forward to any trip to Athens.  It's always a physical battle.

Let's get to the numbers...

Kentucky is 123-26 overall against Georgia (82.6%).  Their only better marks against SEC opponents?  Missouri (100%), Ole Miss (89%), Auburn (83.6%), and MSU (82.9%).

The only opponents UK has played more than 149 games against?  Tennessee (222) and Vanderbilt (189).

Kentucky is 60-5 at home vs. Georgia (92.3%)

Rupp Arena: 35-4 (89.7%) - the only losses were in 1985, 2002, 2004 and 2009

Memorial Coliseum: 19-0 (100%)

Alumni Gymnasium: 6-0 (100%)

Buell Armory Gym: 0-1 (0%) - loss was in 1923

Kentucky is 42-17 on the road at Georgia (71.2%)

Stegeman Coliseum (since 1965): 35-14 (71.4%) - longest winning streak there is 7, longest losing streak is 3

Woodruff Hall (1926-1964): 7-2 (77.8%) - losses were in 1931 and 1950

Moss Auditorium (1925): 0-1 (0%)

Kentucky is 21-4 at neutral sites vs. Georgia (84%)

Jefferson County Armory (Louisville): 5-0 (100%) - SEC Tournament wins in 1943, 1944, and 1950, plus regular season wins in 1952 and 1956

Georgia Dome (Atlanta): 2-0 (100%) - 2004 and 2014 SEC Tournament games

The Omni (Atlanta): 2-0 (100%) - two regular season neutral site games in 1979 and 1988

The Pyramid (Memphis): 1-0 (100%) - 1997 SEC Tournament Title game

Bridgestone Arena (Nashville): 1-0 (100%) - 2016 SEC Tournament

Memorial Gymnasium (Nashville): 1-0 (100%) - 1984 SEC Tournament

Alumni Memorial Gymnasium (Knoxville): 1-0 (100%) - 1940 SEC Tournament Championship

Owensboro Sportscenter: 1-0 (100%) - 1954 regular season game

Municipal Auditorium (Columbus, Georgia): 1-0 (100%) - 1960 regular season

Pete Maravich Assembly Center (Baton Rouge): 1-0 (100%) - 1988 SEC Tournament Championship (vacated)

Alexander Memorial Coliseum (Atlanta): 2-1 (66.7%) - regular season wins in 1958 and 1962, and the "Tornado game" loss in the 2008 SEC Tournament

Atlanta Municipal Auditorium: 3-2 (60%) - won 1921 SIAA Tournament Championship, lost in 1925 Southern Conference Tournament, won in 1926 Southern Conference Tournament, won in 1928 Southern Conference Tournament, lost in 1929 Southern Conference Tournament

Freedom Hall: 0-1 (0%) - lost in December 1986 under Sutton

By type of game:

SEC regular season home: 59-4

SEC regular season road: 40-15

SEC regular season neutral: 8-1

SEC regular season overall: 106-20

Pre-SEC regular season home: 1-1

Pre-SEC regular season road: 2-2

Regular season overall: 109-23

SEC Tournament: 10-1

Southern Conference Tournament: 2-2

SIAA Conference Tournament: 1-0

Postseason overall: 13-3

By UK coach:

John Calipari: 13-2 (7-0 home, 4-2 road, 2-0 SECT)

Billy Gillispie: 3-2 (1-1 home, 2-0 road, 0-1 SECT)

Tubby Smith: 16-5 (8-2 home, 7-3 road, 1-0 SECT)

Rick Pitino: 15-2 (8-0 home, 6-2 road, 1-0 SECT)

Eddie Sutton: 6-3 (3-0 home, 1-2 road, 1-1 neutral, 1-0 SECT)

Joe B. Hall: 23-4 (12-1 home, 9-3 road, 1-0 neutral, 1-0 SECT)

Adolph Rupp: 41-4 (20-0 home, 11-4 road, 6-0 neutral, 4-0 SECT)

John Mauer: 3-1 (1-0 home, 1-0 road, 1-1 SoCon Tournament)

Ray Eklund (1926): 2-0 (1-0 road, 1-0 SoCon Tournament)

Clarence Applegran (1925): 0-2 (0-1 road, 0-1 SoCon Tournament)

George Buchheit (1921, 1923): 1-1 (0-1 home, 1-0 SIAA Tournament)

By opposing coach:

Mark Fox (since 2010): 2-13 against Kentucky (all against Calipari)

Pete Herrmann (interim '09): 1-0 against Kentucky (vs. Billy G)

Dennis Felton (2004-09): 4-9 against Kentucky (3-6 vs. Tubby, 1-3 vs. Billy G)

Jim Harrick (2000-03): 2-6 against Kentucky (all against Tubby)

Ron Jirsa (1998-99): 0-4 against Kentucky (all against Tubby)

Tubby Smith (1996-97): 0-5 against Kentucky (all against Pitino)

Hugh Durham (1979-95): 8-28 against Kentucky (2-10 vs. Pitino, 3-6 vs. Sutton, 3-12 vs. Hall)

John Guthrie (1974-78): 1-9 against Kentucky (all against Hall)

Ken Rosemond (1966-73): 2-14 against Kentucky (0-2 vs. Hall, 2-12 vs. Rupp)

Red Lawson (1952-65): 0-15 against Kentucky (all against Rupp)

Jim Whatley (1949-51): 0-4 against Kentucky (all against Rupp)

Ralph Jordan (1946-49): 0-4 against Kentucky (all against Rupp)

Elmer Lampe (1940-45): 0-7 against Kentucky (all against Rupp)

Harry Mehre (1931): 1-0 against Kentucky (vs. Rupp)

Herman Stegeman (1921-30): 4-6 against Kentucky (1-1 vs. Buchheit, 2-0 vs. Applegran, 0-2 vs. Eklund, 1-3 vs. Mauer)

Kentucky's records on Senior Day

This Thursday, the University of Kentucky will honor Darius Miller and Eloy Vargas, and then face the Georgia Bulldogs.


In the 108 final home games of each previous season, UK is 93-15 (86.1%).

In the 78 final home games since UK joined the SEC, UK is an absurd 74-4 (94.9%). 


In fact, UK won on 30 straight Senior Days (1933 through 1963, no season in 1952-53), and then topped that by winning on 32 straight Senior Days (1965 through 1996).


The vast majority of matchups have been with conference opponents, and among those teams, only Arkansas has never been scheduled on Senior Day.


With all that winning, the losses really stand out in your memory.  Who can forget the 1997 disappointment against Eddie Fogler's Gamecocks, allowing South Carolina to steal the regular season crown?  Or the 2009 loss to Georgia, which probably sealed Billy Gillispie's fate?


UK's most common opponents on Senior Day and their record against them:
Vanderbilt: 24-1
Tennessee: 13-1
Auburn: 7-0
Florida: 6-1
Mississippi State: 5-0
Centre: 4-1
Xavier: 4-0
Alabama: 4-0
LSU: 4-0
Georgia Tech: 4-0
Georgetown College: 3-1
Georgia: 3-1


UK's largest margins of victory on Senior Day:
1) +62, 2003 against Vanderbilt (106-44)
2) +47, 1995 against LSU (127-80)
3) +43, 1955 against Tennessee (104-61)
3) +43, 1946 against Xavier (83-40)
5) +39, 1974 against MSU (108-69)
6) +38, 1996 against Vanderbilt (101-63)
7) +37, 1947 against Georgia Tech (83-46)
8) +36, 1954 against Vanderbilt (100-64)
9) +35, 1972 against Auburn (102-67)
10) +33, 1949 against Vanderbilt (70-37)

Among other websites consulted, one of my main sources for this and many other posts is the peerless UK resource (and probably the best site of its kind for any sports team) known as "The Kentucky Basketball Statistics Project" operated by Jon Scott.  Available at http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/statistics.html 

Three interesting stats from last night's Kentucky-Tennessee game

1) UK shot 54% and UT only 28%.  

The 26% difference is the largest since a 29% advantage against Marist earlier this season.

For a bigger difference in an SEC regular season game, though, you have to go back to January 16th, 2007 when UK won 87-49 at South Carolina, and shot 63% to their 27%.

2) UK won by 25 points while only hitting a single three-point field goal (out of 10 attempts).

Over the years, the Wildcats' streak of games with a made three-pointer has had a number of similarly close calls.  The most recent was the SEC Tournament quarterfinal against Alabama on March 3rd, 2010, when they hit only 1 of 13.  Darnell Dodson hit that three.

The last regular season game with only 1 made three-pointer:
11/29/08 vs WVU (made 1 of 5, won by 11, Jodie Meeks hit the lone three)

The last SEC regular season game with only  1 made three-pointer:
2/12/08 at Vanderbilt (made 1 of 10, lost by 41, Ramel Bradley hit the lone three)

The last time UK made only 1 three-pointer, and won by 25 or more:
12/20/03 vs Indiana (made 1 of 8, won by 39, Kelenna Azubuike hit the lone three)

Finally, to meet all the criteria of last night's game (SEC, regular season, one made three-pointer, won by 25+):
2/1/97 vs Georgia (made 1 of 9, won by 25, Allen Edwards hit the lone three)

3) UK made 24 of 27 free throw attempts (89%).

The last superior performance (with at least 20 attempts) was against Georgia on 2009 Senior Day.  In spite of their ridiculous accuracy at the line (26-28, 93%), UK managed to lose to an atrocious team and assure Billy G of being fired after the season.

Earlier that same season (1/13/09), UK won by 18 at Tennessee in the infamous Jodie Meeks 54 game.  UK was 18 of 20 from the line (90%), with Jodie going 14 for 14.

19 points in the second half? Fewest since...

19 is the fewest points in any half since we scored 16 in the first half against West Virginia in 2008 (a game we came back to win).

And the fewest points in a second half since scoring 18 on our way to losing 46-45 at Michigan State in 2000.

Defensively, of course we had great success, only giving up 18 points to Georgia in the second half. We've topped that in two different first halves this year - 14 points by Radford in the first half, 15 by Penn State.

If I'm not mistaken, you have to go back to the same 2008 game against West Virginia to find a lower second half point total by an opponent (17).

To find a previous game where UK won in spite of scoring less than 19 points in a second half, you have to go back 31 years. UK did it twice in 1981:

12/29/81 against Notre Dame - Won 34-28 in OT after scoring 18 in the first half and only 5 in the second. 5 points is still our record low for any half in any game.

1/10/81 against Tennessee - Won 48-47 in spite of scoring 18 in the second half.

The relevant link from Jon Scott's site: http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/gamehalflowukoverall.html