Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is having a great season for Georgia. And that might be a big deal if the Bulldogs had even one player having even a decent year at the same time.
Instead, Georgia has played like “KCP and the 10 Dwarves.” And that’s not apt to get it done when the Bulldogs (6-9, 0-2 SEC) take their act to Columbia, Mo., Wednesday night to take on No. 17-ranked Missouri (12-3, 1-1).
“He needs some help around him,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said of Caldwell-Pope, who leads the Bulldogs in virtually every statistical category. “That’s one of the struggles of our team, finding a consistent second gun. I think he’s dealt with it pretty well. His maturity has allowed him to be a little more patient offensively. But it makes it harder when teams know he’s such a big part of what we do.”
To recite Caldwell-Pope's individual statistics is to describe a player on the way to an All-SEC season. The 6-foot-5 sophomore guard ranks among the league's top 10 in six different categories, including scoring (5th, 16.9 ppg), 3-pointers made (5th, 2.3 pg), 3-point shooting percentage (7th, .333), defensive rebounding (3rd, 5.4 pg), minutes played (33.4 pg) and free-throw shooting (10th, .761). He's also 12th in the SEC in overall rebounding (6.7 pg), almost unheard of for a shooting guard.
But the drop off after Caldwell-Pope is precipitous. Sophomore forward Nemanja Djurisic is the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer at 8.1 points per game and then is shooting only 36 percent from field. Freshman guard Charles Mann is next at 5.9 points per game and 6-9 sophomore Donte Williams is averaging only 5.7 points, or nearly two fewer than he did last year as a freshman.
As the Bulldogs found out in this past Saturday’s 72-61 loss to Mississippi State, no team can flourish as a one-man show. After scoring 14 points in the first half, Caldwell-Pope was limited to two in the second half and did not record another field goal as the State tightened its defensive focus.
So the Bulldogs continue their search for a Plan B offensive option.
“We do need some people to step up besides me,” said Caldwell-Pope, who has led Georgia in scoring in 14 of 15 games this season. “It takes time though. We do have a young team. We’ve got to keep improving and getting better.”
The Bulldogs thought they had two pretty good offensive options in Djurisic and Williams, but both have struggled this season. Williams has been suspended twice for a total of three games this season and hasn’t shown much develop outside of his ability to play above the rim. Djurisic’s accuracy has been both at close range and behind the arc, where he’s shooting 23.5 percent compared to 36.4 a year a go.
Djurisic, a 6-8 forward out of Montenegro, believes he’s the one who should be picking up the slack.
“I’m somebody who played a lot of minutes last year and has a lot of experience and I need to step up,” he said. “I need to find a way to score more, to help Kentavious more, especially when they pressure him the way they did in the second half the last game. I need to be somebody who takes some of that scoring responsibility and helps get the baggage of him a little bit.”
Djurisic feels like his offensive issues are mostly mental.
“(The coaches) say I’m trying so hard I may be over-trying things and over-thinking the way I need to score,” Djurisic said. “They want me just to play basketball and I’m trying. I feel like every day I’m getting closer. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to step up.”
Fox has tried everything he can to find a solution. The Bulldogs have had 10 different starting lineups in 15 games.
“We’re just trying to find the right combination,” Fox said. “That’s been a real struggle.”
Mizzou Arena is not known as a place where teams go to solve problems. But that’s what the Bulldogs will be doing on Wednesday.
“We still have a good team; we believe in ourselves,” Djurisic said. “We’re still practicing hard, whether we win or lose, and we’re getting better. Missouri is one of the best teams in the SEC. We know that. But have good players, too, and we’ll fight and give everything that we can.”
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