Georgia has won five of its last six games and will carry a four-game winning streak into Saturday evening’s game against Texas A&M.
Generally, the theory has been that the Bulldogs’ turnaround from an 0-3 start in SEC play has been because Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is finally getting some help scoring the basketball. And that has certainly has been true as Georgia has had at least one other double-figure scorer besides Caldwell-Pope in three of the last five victories.
But the one constant for the Bulldogs (11-10, 5-4 SEC) since SEC began has been its defense. In fact, as Georgia enters the second half of the conference schedule, it has earned a reputation as one of the best defensive teams in the league.
“It’s the reason we’re winning,” Caldwell-Pope stated flatly. “You have to stop teams from scoring the ball and we do that pretty well.”
Statistics validate Caldwell-Pope’s claim. As the Bulldogs prepare for the Aggies, they’re sitting at third in the SEC in field goal percentage defense (.398) and fifth in points allowed (61.4). They’re fourth overall in scoring defense when the stats are quantified by league-games only.
“We certainly have been very good defensively,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We have a lot of versatile parts. Really, before we lost Marcus (Thornton, to a knee injury), we had a really, really dynamic defensive lineup we could put together. We’ve missed him, but (John) Florveus and (Tim) Dixon and Donte (Williams) are very mobile big players and can cover away from the goal. And Charles (Mann) and Kentavious and Kenny (Gaines) are all long, athletic guys. So we just cover ground pretty well.”
In the five SEC games Georgia has won, only Tennessee has scored more than 60 points and the Vols managed only 62 Wednesday. The Bulldogs have held those opponents to a combined shooting percentage of 35.8, including 30.8 from 3-point range. Only Tennessee managed to better than 40 percent (46.2) but the Bulldogs held it to 27 percent (3-for-11) from beyond the arc.
That’s important when you’re averaging just 60 points a game yourself.
“The reason why we’ve held in there with our offensive struggles is because of our defense,” sophomore forward Nemanja Djurisic said. “We’re able to make enough stops to give ourselves a second chance, to try again. Defense has been the key for us and we all know that. We’re a good defensive team.”
The Bulldogs will need to keep that up Saturday. The Aggies (14-8, 4-5), who are making their first-ever appearance in Athens, have one of the SEC's best offensive players inElston Turner. Texas A&M is coming off a 70-68 home victory over No. 21 Missouri on Thursday.
Also, the Aggies will be looking to redeem themselves for a 59-52 loss to the Bulldogs on January 26 in College Station. Georgia held them to 34 percent shooting in that game.
“A&M is good," Fox said emphatically. "They’ve already won in Rupp Arena. Elston Turner is a terrific player. Up front the other Turner (Ray) is big and physical. This is a team that is a good road team, a good basketball team, they shoot free throws well, they have good interior play, they have good perimeter play. This is a good basketball team.
"We had to play terrific in College Station to win and we’ll have to do the same thing here."
NOTES: Georgia is hoping to get more out of Donte Williams in Saturday's game. He was limited to 4 points and 4 rebounds while playing sparingly against Tennessee due to an illness. . . . With the Bulldogs coming home for a two-game stand on a four-game winning streak, Fox is hoping for a better crowd at Stegeman Coliseum. "These kids have committed themselves to this school," Fox said. "They all graduate, they're good citizens and they're playing their tails off for Georgia. I think people appreciate that and hopefully they'll show their appreciation by coming to the game."
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