The Georgia Bulldogs deserve congratulations. With their win over Auburn this past Wednesday, they officially moved into the middle of the pack of the SEC.
Don’t laugh. That’s a lot better than they were just a week ago when they sat at the bottom of the league. The Bulldogs (9-11, 3-4 SEC) have won three of their last four games since losing a 17-point decision at Missouri on Jan. 16. So believe it or not, they’re now in a tie for sixth in the SEC.
But the slope back to the bottom remains close and steep and Georgia will need to fight to keep its footing. That starts with Saturday’s date with South Carolina in Columbia on Saturday.
The Gamecocks (12-8, 2-5) are coming off a 39-point loss at Florida and are one of five teams bunched together in a tie for last place. But just one game separates them from the Bulldogs and three other sixth-place teams. so teams continue to jockey for position.
“We’re trying to win the next game,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “There’s a big log-jam, so we’re aware of that and I’m sure the kids are aware of that. But the focus is still trying to win the next game. We’re trying to keep it as simple as we can for this group.”
The Bulldogs’ current position is as much a product of the schedule as anything. Due to a quirk in the new 14-team conference slate, Georgia had to play to play No. 4 Florida (17-2, 7-0) twice in two weeks. The Bulldogs also have already played on the road against Missouri (15-5, 4-3), which is still considered one of the top three or four teams in the conference.
But in the last two weeks, Georgia has logged wins over LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn. The Bulldogs were about to crawl out of the last-place bunch with a 57-49 win over the Tigers Wednesday night in Athens.
“I haven’t looked (at the standings) the last couple of weeks, but I knew between us and Auburn it was a big game and was going to be a big fight,” sophomore forward Nemanja Djurisic said. “We knew it was about who was going to move up in the standings. I haven’t checked exactly what place we are, but now we’re just focused on winning more games and keeping this up a little bit longer.”
The reality is there is not much separating Georgia and every other team in the league not called Gators. Just shy of the halfway point in in league play, Florida is without peers. It has won its seven conference games by an average margin of 28.3 points, which swells to 34.3 points in games at the O’Connell Center.
It’s no wonder that the Gators got one first-place vote in this week’s USA Today/Coaches’ Top 25 poll.
“It was mine,” Fox revealed on Friday. “I think they’re the best team in America right now. They can just beat you at both ends and right now. . . . Florida has defeated Wisconsin by double figures in Gainesville (74-56). Marquette is another team in the national rankings they’ve beaten by double-figures (82-49). But there are going to be a lot of people that get defeated in Gainesville by a wide margin.”
The Gators play host to 16th-ranked Ole Miss (17-2, 6-1) on Saturday. After that the challengers seem few. Even Kentucky (14-6, 5-2), which is rebuilding yet again, has shown some vulnerability this season.
The Bulldogs are worried about none of that. They’ll gladly take a narrow victory over a South Carolina team that is 1-2 on its home floor in SEC play. The Gamecocks beat Arkansas by 21 points but also lost to Vanderbilt by seven and Auburn by three.
“We’re not even halfway through and this is going to be a real grind," Fox said. "So we’ve really tried to put the focus on the smaller picture than the bigger picture. Let’s just take care of today’s assignments, let’s get ready for the next game, let’s play as well as we can play, then wrap it up and go on to the next one. I think it’s important that you develop the ability to do that.”
