College basketball has now entered its second act for this season, the days of conference play.  It’s all about the family from now through March.  In the three-act paradigm, the second act is where you find conflict and confrontation as things move toward the third act’s resolution.  Like characters in a play, it’s in this middle section where teams find what they’re made of.  It’s conference play that will determine how we (and the NCAA Selection Committee) as observers will judge them.  On Saturday afternoon, Georgia (8-5) comes knocking at Rupp Arena to face Kentucky (15-0) in the first conference tilt for both sides.  We all know about the Wildcats and what they bring to the table.  To keep this one interesting, Georgia’s going to have to do a couple of things.  First (and rather intuitively), they’ve got to step up the defense.  The Bulldogs rank 126th in the nation in FG% defense (42%) while Kentucky is shooting a blistering 50.2% (6th nationally).  Second, Georgia has to forget that they’re 8-5 (which isn’t bad, really) and that the Wildcats are 15-0, and concentrate on the fact that they’re both 0-0…in conference.  They must realize that the first game of the SEC season represents a new beginning, and come in with the mindset that they can play with anyone in the country.  It starts at 4pm ET, and we’ll start things off here about 15 minutes before tipoff.  We hope you’ll join us! Read the rest of this entry »