Washington — Like most freshmen, Zac Swansey has struggled at times with different aspects of his game. But one thing he has never struggled with is his willingness to take shots.

Swansey made two of the biggest ones of the season thus far. His runner in the lane followed by a spinning 3-pointer lifted the Bulldogs to an overtime win over Kentucky in the SEC tournament semifinals.

"Obviously we wouldn't be here if Zac didn't hit that great shot," Georgia coach Dennis Felton said. "But I'm not shocked he hit it. Zac is extremely competitive. He's a guy that doesn't have a problem losing himself in the competition. When you do that you don't have time to be worried or nervous or not confident."

The Dunwoody High grad said he has always been the type of player who wants to take the game-winning shot.

"It's hard to play this game if you don't have that mentality," he said. "If you don't play wide open the whole time it's hard for you to be successful. You can't worry about making mistakes. You just go out and play hard. That's the way my dad taught me to play the game early. You've got to let whatever happens, happen."

Swansey signed with Georgia expecting to be a role player behind Sundiata Gaines. But that was before Mike Mercer was dismissed from the team and fellow guard Billy Humphrey was sidelined first with an injury and later after he was suspended.

Swansey started four games at the point in February and famously relieved a fouled-out Gaines for the final 13 and 6 minutes of the quarters and semis in the SEC tournament. He played in all 33 games this season, averaging 16.6 minutes, 4.1 points and 1.8 assists.

"Zac has played a much, much more significant role than anyone thought going into the season," Felton said. "But in the tournament he stepped up in a major way when we lost the player we could least afford."

Fine substitute

Georgia tried to schedule a game against somebody in New York so that senior Sundiata Gaines would get a chance to play in front of the homefolks. The Bulldogs did a similar thing for fellow senior Dave Bliss when they played at Wisconsin.

But a potential date with Duke in New York fell through, and Georgia wasn't able to fanagle anything else.

That's OK with Gaines. Washington in the NCAA tournament will do just fine.

"You always want to play a game in your hometown, but unfortunately that didn't work out," said Gaines, the Bulldogs' heralded point guard. "But I'll take playing the NCAA tournament here over that. A lot of my family is coming down from New York, and I have some family in the D.C. area as well. So it's all good."

Feeling at home

At times Felton looked like a rock star making his way through the Verizon Center. Everywhere he went people were stopping him to talk or take his picture or sign an autograph.

Felton graduated from nearby Howard University and spent at least part of his childhood on nearby Andrews Air Force Base.

"I've seen all kinds of people I knew at Howard and that are still at Howard," said Felton, who was profiled in The Washington Post and Washington-based USA Today. "I saw one guy I used to play ball with almost daily there at Andrews Air Force Base where my dad was stationed. That's a gym I did a lot of growing up in."

The problem for Felton is he has been more than a little preoccupied with some little thing called the NCAA tournament. So his recall hasn't been the best

"I can't remember names," he said with a laugh. "I remember a lot of faces."

Etc.

Felton isn't the only Howard alum coaching a team in this tournament. Coach Milan Brown's Mount Saint Mary's team won the play-in game Tuesday night. ... It would behoove the Bulldogs to keep the game in the 50-point range. They're 7-0 when opponents score in that range. Georgia is also 7-0 when it shoots 50 percent or better 4-0 when it scores 80-89 points. ... This will be Georgia's second game against Xavier. The two teams first met in 1983 when former coach Hugh Durham arranged a game against the Musketeers in Athens in December 1983 so that Vern Fleming could go against his identical twin Victor. Victor won the battle by outscoring his brother 21-2, but the Dogs won the war 73-70.