Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Lead Georgia over Kentucky

College Hoops Player of the Day for Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Kentucky Wildcats may have finally played themselves right out of the NCAA tournament, losing badly in a critical spot, at unranked Georgia, 72-62.

The Wildcats dropped their second straight game and fourth of their last seven. Beyond Thursday night's loss, they host #11 Florida as they wrap up their regular season. Kentucky is 11-6 in the SEC, but sinking fast.

From the opposite perspective, the Bulldogs have been playing better of late, winning three of their last four, their only loss a 63-62 defeat at Vanderbilt last week.

Georgia's fate may be improved or denied dependent on how they fare in their season finale, when Alabama comes calling on Saturday, and how well they perform in the SEC tourney. The Bulldogs have reached respectability with a 9-8 conference mark, but a couple of wins in the post-season would go a long way toward receiving an NCAA bid as the selection committee will be taking five - possibly six - teams from the SEC.

Georgia was led by 6'5" sophomore, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who didn't shoot very well, making just six of 19 shots from the field, including going 2-for-7 from the three-point line, but he made up for his misses at the foul line, where he was 10-for-11. He also was a major factor on the boards, where he swiped 10 rebounds, three on the offensive end. His 24-point, 10-rebound effort was Caldwell-Pope's sixth double-double of the season.

NOTABLE: When a team wins by 15 points and shoots 37%, there's a good bet that the game was a Big Ten match-up, and an even better chance that the winner was Michigan State, where toughness and defense are core principles of coach Tom Izzo's success. The #10 Spartans absolutely spanked #22 Wisconsin, 58-43, holding the Badgers to just 29% from the field and 17% (4-for-23) from beyond the arc.

The game wasn't even as close as the score indicates. after 30 minutes of play, the Badgers were still in the 20s, and only Michigan State relaxing with a huge lead made the score respectable.

Road Wins, Close Games Reveal Quality

UCLA, LSU latest victims in Top 25

The Top 25 took a beating this weekend and it will be interesting to see which teams get dumped wholesale. My list of teams that should not be represented in the Top 25 includes Indiana, LSU, Clemson, Arizona, Air Force and Alabama.

Replacing them in random spots would be Georgetown, Virginia, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Texas, and Stanford. I figure any team capable of beating the #3 team (UCLA), as Stanford did last night, deserves some props. And that's where today's coverage begins...

Stanford 75 UCLA 68 - The #3 UCLA Bruins blew a 12-point halftime lead, giving up 50 2nd half points to the Cardinal, as Stanford notched its third win over a ranked team in the last four tries.

Stanford's outstanding sophomore forward, Lawrence Hill, scored 22 points and classmate Anthony Goods rained down 20 more, hitting 4 of 7 from beyond the 3-point line. It was somewhat of an off-shooting night for UCLA, though much of that could be attributed to Stanford's defense. The Bruins shot just 43% and hit only 5 of 16 (31%) threes.

Stanford beat then #22 Washington State, 71-68, on January 13, and this week took care of both sides of Los Angeles, beating USC, 61-50 on Thursday and finishing the task with their win over the Bruins. The Cardinal improved to 14-5. All three of the recent wins over ranked teams were on the Cardinal home court. Sandwiched in between was a 66-59 loss at Oregon, who now is tied with UCLA at 7-2 atop the Pac-10.

Georgia 57 LSU 54 - LSU was the other Top 25 team to lose on the road Sunday. The #21 Tigers fell victim to a last-second three-pointer by Levi Stukes, who led the Bulldogs with 16. The loss was the third straight for the Tigers. They previously were defeated by Arkansas and the streaking Vanderbilt Commodores.

Meanwhile, Georgia has won four of its last five, and is tied with Kentucky and Vandy for 2nd place in the SEC East at 5-2, all chasing Florida and their 6-0 conference record.

Wisconsin 57 Iowa 46 - Alando Tucker scored nearly half his team's points - 27 - leading the Badgers to their 21st win and an impressive 7-0 in Big 10 play. Tucker was phenomenal, hitting 11-14 shots from the field, including 2 of 5 3-pointers. The rest of the team was only 9-29 as the Hawkeyes harassed shooters all day but could not stop the determined Tucker. Wisconsin has won 17 straight and next plays at Indiana on Jan. 31.

Virginia 64 Clemson 63 - J. R. Reynolds led all scorers with 18 points and the Cavaliers stunned #19 Clemson at home. Virginia scored the final 15 points of the game, overcoming a seemingly insurmountable 16-point lead when Jason Cain scored his only basket of the game on a tip-in with 15.5 seconds remaining. The Tigers, who less than 4 weeks ago were 17-0, have dropped 4 of their last 5 since then.

Other Top 25 winners included #10 Duke, who held serve at home over Boston College, 75-61. The win was Duke's fifth straight.

Road winners were #15 Marquette at South Florida, 70-68, and #24 Virginia Tech, which delivered a 73-65 win at Georgia Tech.