When is a 2-5 road record not so bad?

According to Georgia men’s basketball coach Dennis Felton, a record like that is not that bad when compared to other teams in the SEC.

After the Bulldogs (17-10, 8-6 SEC) defeated Mississippi State on Saturday, Felton disagreed with the notion that his team’s record away from home was not something to take pride in.

“We have two road wins in this league, and that puts us up there pretty high in this league with Florida and a couple other teams,” Felton said.

Florida, with a 5-2 record away from home, was the only team to have a road record over .500.

Only the Gators and the Kentucky Wildcats, with their three road wins, have more road wins in conference play than Georgia.

“We’ve been better than most on the road and we have one more opportunity to win one on the road,” Felton said.

That last opportunity will come tonight when the Bulldogs face off with Kentucky (19-9, 8-6) in Lexington, Ky.

In the last meeting, Georgia defeated the Wildcats in an 78-69 overtime thriller in Athens on Jan. 24.

Teams in any sport tend to win more at home, and that has definitely been the case in the SEC this season.

Home teams have a record of 59-21 in SEC games this season, a winning percentage of almost 74 percent.

“I think we’ve been as competitive as anybody in the league all year long, including on the road,” Felton said.

“The Ole Miss loss was the first time this season we got beat bad (on the road).”

In looking at Georgia’s road results this season, excluding the team’s 18-point loss to the Rebels last Wednesday and its 16-point loss at Florida Jan. 6, the Bulldogs have only lost by an average of six points in SEC road games.

Even in that early loss to the Gators, Georgia led at halftime and played Florida close until late in the second half.

In the end, most teams will face adversity on the road, and Georgia is no stranger to that difficulty.

“There’s always a difference going into a new environment,” Georgia senior guard Levi Stukes said. “You don’t practice on that court day in and day out.”

The Bulldogs have two games remaining before the SEC tournament, but Stukes claims that the team is only thinking about tonight’s matchup.

“We’re going against a Kentucky team that’s pretty much in the NCAA tournament,” Stukes said.

“We should take it one day at a time and hope that at the end of the day, Georgia is on top.”