Georgia fans who show up for Saturday’s nationally-televised game against South Carolina at Stegeman Coliseum (2 p.m., CBS) might consider rooting against the home team. The Bulldogs seem to play their best in hostile arenas.
In narrow losses at Arkansas this past Thursday night and Ole Miss last weekend, the Bulldogs took to the brink two teams that had been nearly unbeatable on their home courts all season. And if not for the fickle fate of a couple of officiating calls – and non-calls – at the end of those contests, Georgia would be coming in as winners of seven of its last eight games, including five straight on the road.
As it is, the Bulldogs (12-14, 6-7 SEC) have lost three straight. And if they want to finish in the upper half of the SEC, they desperately need to get back on the winning track against a vulnerable South Carolina team (13-13, 3-10) it already beat in Columbia.
“Our team has probably played better on the road than at home, to tell the truth,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “I don’t know if I’ve really looked into (the reasons why), but we’ve enjoyed playing in hostile territory.”
Georgia’s 67-56 win over the Gamecocks on Feb. 2 came in the middle of a five-game winning streak. The Bulldogs could have made it six straight in their last home game on Feb. 12. But after leading Alabama by a point with 2:21 to play, the Crimson Tide outscored Georgia 12-4 the rest of the way.
The Bulldogs have felt nothing but heartache since.
“I don’t think we’re playing much different,” Fox said of the five-game winning streak. “I thought we played really well at Ole Miss and I thought we played really well the second half (against Arkansas).”
Georgia had a poor first half against the Razorbacks. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was scoreless and the Bulldogs made just four field goals en route to trailing by 10 at halftime. But they rallied in the second half and had a chance to win the game.
Arkansas’ B.J. Young appeared to get away with a travel when he made the go-ahead shot with five seconds to go and Georgia’s Vincent Williams missed a length-of-the floor lay-up attempt as the buzzer sounded in a 62-60 loss.
The Bulldogs were victimized by a pair of calls that resulted in a five-point possession for Ole Miss late in the game last weekend. Donte Williams also appeared to be fouled on what could have been the game-winning shot with nine-tenths of a second remaining. Instead the game went into overtime and Georgia lost by 10.
Arkansas and Ole Miss are a combined 29-2 at home this season. Certainly there must be some solace for the Bulldogs in being competitive enough to be in position to win at those places.
“I walked out of there as mad as I’ve probably been in a long time,” Fox said, still hoarse Friday from all the screaming he’d done the previous night. “Is that a positive? I don’t know. Hopefully we can take the pluses and learn from them and become a better team. But I’m not happy with two last-second losses.”
Fox is hoping the Bulldogs’ fan can produce as raucous an environment as they’ve played in the last two games. CBS targeted Saturday’s game against the Gamecocks for a nationally-televised broadcast. They arrive at a time that Georgia finds itself on a precipice in its season. This would appear the most winnable of remaining games against Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.
“It will be a ton of exposure,” Fox said of the CBS coverage. “How we play is going to determine a large part of what that exposure is. But also our fans have a lot to do with what that exposure is because we need to be able to showcase the environment. So we need their help.”
Even if that’s to show up and root against them.
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