It’s not how you start the postseason. It’s how you finish.
Georgia and Georgia State rush into conference tournament week on a sprint, Georgia Tech with a distinct limp.
From Nashville to New Orleans to Greensboro, N.C., all the shots count a little more starting Tuesday.
Georgia: The Bulldogs got what they sought: the No. 3 seed in the SEC tournament and a double bye into the quarterfinals.
That was determined late Saturday night, when Vanderbilt’s victory over Ole Miss left four teams — Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M and Ole Miss — tied for third place in the SEC with 11-7 league records. Georgia prevailed in the four-way tiebreaker — winning percentage in games played among the tied teams — to claim the No. 3 seed.
The Bulldogs were 3-1 against the other teams in the tie.
Georgia will open tournament play at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville in Friday’s late game (approximately 9:40 p.m.) versus South Carolina, Missouri or Ole Miss. No. 11 seed South Carolina and No. 14 Missouri will meet in an opening-round game Wednesday, with the winner facing No. 6 Ole Miss on Thursday. Then the winner of that one will move on to face a rested Georgia in the quarterfinals.
“We’re going to play as hard as we can and get a win and try to get a championship,” Georgia guard J.J. Frazier said. “That’s just our mindset. That’s what the coaches have drilled in us from day one.”
The top two seeds in the tournament are No. 1 Kentucky (18-0 SEC) and No. 2 Arkansas (13-5 SEC). Georgia is in the opposite side of the bracket from Kentucky, meaning the Bulldogs can’t face the Wildcats before the tournament’s championship game.
If Georgia wins Friday night, it will play Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Arkansas in a semifinal game Saturday.
A concern for Georgia going into the conference tournament is the uncertain status of starting guard Kenny Gaines. The team’s second-leading scorer and best perimeter defender, Gaines missed the regular-season finale because of a sprained foot.
Georgia put itself in position for the tournament’s No. 3 seed by winning 64-61 at Auburn on Saturday, the Bulldogs’ 20th victory this season. That win also seemed to solidify Georgia as an expected NCAA tournament team. TIM TUCKER
Georgia State: After defeating Georgia Southern 72-55 on Saturday to repeat as the Sun Belt regular-season champ, the Panthers (22-9, 15-5) earned the top seed in the conference tournament.
The Panthers won’t play until the tournament’s semifinals at 2 p.m. Saturday. The four-day tournament will be played in New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena.
Georgia State will play one of three teams: fifth-seeded Texas Arlington (16-4, 10-10), eighth-seeded Texas State (13-16, 7-13), which meet in the tournament’s opening round, or fourth-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette (19-12, 13-7), which defeated the Panthers in the tournament finals last year.
The championship game will be at 1 p.m. Sunday and will be on televised on ESPN2. DOUG ROBERSON
Georgia Tech: For better or worse, Georgia Tech vs. Boston College has become a staple of the first day of the ACC tournament. The Yellow Jackets play their first-round game of the tournament against the Eagles for the third year in a row, facing off Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the Greensboro Coliseum.
The winner of the game between the Nos. 12 (Boston College) and 13 (Tech) seeds will play No. 5 seed North Carolina Wednesday at 2 p.m. The Jackets face enough of a challenge in playing Boston College without leading scorer Marcus Georges-Hunt, whose broken foot suffered last Tuesday ended his season.
In their recent tournament matchups, Boston College won in 2013 (84-64) and Tech evened the score in 2014 in overtime (73-70). Boston College won their only meeting this season, 64-62, at McCamish Pavilion. KEN SUGIURA
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