Ever so slightly, the idea of having an opportunity to participate in some sort of postseason play is starting to enter the minds of Georgia’s basketball players.
If it’s up to coach Mark Fox — and at last check, it is — he’ll squash any mention he hears of it.
The Bulldogs (14-10, 8-4) have won four SEC games in a row and suddenly find themselves alone in third place in the conference. Only six games remain in the regular season and they face a tough challenge this week with road games at Tennessee (15-10, 6-6) on Tuesday night and South Carolina (10-15, 3-9) on Saturday. But if they can somehow continue to win more than they lose, they could be in line for an NIT bid come March.
“We’ve kind of probably thought about it,” said sophomore point guard Charles Mann, ever careful with his wording with Fox only yards away in the same room. “But we’ve got to keep it one game at a time. We don’t want to think too far and mess up what we’ve got going on now. We just want to take it one day at a time, one game at a time.”
Georgia, which started the season 1-4 and was 6-6 entering conference play, has already surpassed most expectations. A victory Tuesday would match the school’s longest SEC win streak under Fox. The Bulldogs have made it into postseason play just once under the fifth-year coach.
Georgia earned an NCAA tournament berth in 2011 behind junior stars Howard Thompkins and Travis Leslie. Both players declared for the NBA draft later that year and the Bulldogs haven’t been back since.
“I heard a couple of our guys talking about (the postseason) and that’s going to be the last of that,” Fox said before Georgia’s Monday afternoon practice. “We’re going to talk about Tennessee as soon as I get in that (locker) room and we’re going to get back to taking it one game at a time.”
Truthfully, the Bulldogs haven’t wavered much from what has proven to be a winning formula. They play very intense defense, have won the rebounding battle in virtually every conference game and attack the basket in hopes of getting to the foul line.
Only Kentucky has attempted more free throws in the league. Mann leads the way with 8.7 foul shots per game — 10.3 in SEC games — and he made 14 in a 61-60 win over Ole Miss last Saturday, including the game winner 1.5 seconds remaining
“We’re a bunch of hard-working kids,” Mann said. “We’re very talented. We’re probably underrated. We just work hard and are very humble. … Of course we want to have the postseason. But we want to continue to try to climb the charts and get second place, even first place. We just want to win the rest of the games and keep on playing, for pride, for whatever. We just want to win.”
It’s working for them at the moment.
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