When it comes to running down an NCAA tournament bid, college basketball aficionados always talk about quality wins. But just as important to a team’s cause is avoiding bad losses.
The Georgia Bulldogs just incurred one of the latter. They can ill afford many more.
Georgia (16-8, 7-5 SEC) is coming off a stinging 69-68 loss at the hands of Auburn (12-13, 4-8) before a sell-out crowd of 10,523 at Stegeman Coliseum. A defeat at the hands of South Carolina (12-12, 3-9) on Tuesday night would qualify as another bad one.
The Gamecocks beat Georgia by 17 just two weeks ago in Columbia, S.C. But the Bulldogs were playing then without Marcus Thornton, their leading scorer and rebounder. He’s back now and Georgia’s postseason hopes are on the line.
“I don’t think there’s pressure,” coach Mark Fox said of the Bulldogs’ tournament hopes. “I think it should be something that everybody enjoys. I mean, you’re in the hunt and you’ve got to embrace challenge and I think everyone — players, coaches, fans — everyone should enjoy the fact that you’re playing for something.”
Most of the season, Georgia has been considered one of the SEC’s best candidates to earn an NCAA invite. Even after the loss to Auburn, the Bulldogs dropped only from the low-20s in most RPI aggregations to the low-30s.
But the problem now is where Georgia sits within the league and who it has left on the schedule. The Bulldogs are now tied for fifth in the SEC with LSU (18-7, 7-5). The Tigers beat UGA in overtime in Baton Rouge on Jan. 10.
Of the four teams currently above them in the conference standings, Georgia has recorded wins against Ole Miss (17-8, 8-4) and Texas A&M (17-7, 8-4). It lost to No. 1 Kentucky and No. 18 Arkansas.
After Tuesday’s game, the Bulldogs have road trips awaiting to Alabama (Saturday) and Ole Miss (Feb. 25). Home games against Missouri (7-18, 1-11) and Kentucky are sandwiched between the regular-season finale at Auburn.
Aside from an upset win over the Wildcats, there are not a lot of opportunities for Georgia to dramatically improve its station.
“We don’t have to be perfect,” Fox said. “That’s not going to happen. You’re not going to win every game. You’re going to have some losses. Other teams are going to have losses, too. You’ve got to trust that at the end of the year, your body of work is going to be strong enough.
“You can’t worry about looking at the top of the mountain. You’ve just got to focus on the next step and that’s what we’ve focused on all year.”
Indeed, Georgia should do well to focus on its own play. Though they had won five of seven games before Saturday’s late-game disintegration against Auburn, the Bulldogs haven’t been sharp offensively for a while. They shot 37 percent against Auburn and 21 percent (4-for-19) from 3-point range.
“We’ve obviously been disjointed,” said Fox, who continues to play without starting small forward Juwan Parker (Achilles) and his backup, Kenny Paul Geno. “Marcus is still trying to get back in the groove post-concussion. … I don’t feel like we’ve been as cohesive of an offensive unit as we were earlier and part of that is that we’ve been moving guys around so much.”
Georgia will get no sympathy from its visitors. South Carolina beat postseason-candidate Alabama earlier this season, just as Auburn knocked off LSU two weeks ago.
“That happens in every other conference in America, where teams beat each other up, especially in February,” Gamecocks coach Frank Martin said. “… That’s why we all play harder schedules. All our numbers are a little bit better. “
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