ATHENS — Georgia wasn’t exactly sure what it was in for when Marcus Thornton went down with a knee injury a couple of days before Christmas. Now that the Bulldogs are preparing to open SEC play, they know.
Thornton won’t be available for a while. The Bulldogs’ starting power forward from Westlake High is out for Saturday night’s conference opener against Alabama and good bit longer after that. Thornton underwent arthroscopic surgery Dec. 29. While there was no structural damage and he’s not out for the season, he is not expected back anytime soon.
“It all really depends on how quickly he can heal,” said coach Mark Fox, who has led the Bulldogs to a 9-5 record. “He’s not practicing, and he ain’t playing. It’s going to be a while.”
Thornton wasn’t tearing it up on offense — he had averaged 2.8 points and 5.8 rebounds — but his absence changes the Bulldogs’ makeup and rotation considerably. That’s especially problematic against a team like the Crimson Tide (11-3), who are getting Top 25 votes and features two of the better forwards in the league in JaMychal Green (15.3 points, 6.8 rebounds) and Tony Mitchell (15.1, 7.4).
Asked Friday what the expectations were heading into conference play, Fox said: “We’ve got to change it with the loss of Marcus, to be honest with you. He’s our most physical player and our leading rebounder.”
In the interim, freshman Nemi Djurisic (6-8, 230) has moved into the starting lineup and played admirably. He has averaged 5.9 points and 3.6 rebounds and scored 19 points with 12 rebounds in the two games since he became a starter (wins over Delaware State and Winthrop).
But the changes go beyond that. Thornton also doubled playing behind Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at small forward. With him sidelined, backup Connor Nolte has had to slide over to make up those minutes. Meanwhile, Georgia is still getting minimal offensive production from its frontcourt.
Sophomore center Donte’ Williams leads the way with 7.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. John Florveus, John Cannon and Tim Dixon are first-year players who average a combined three points and 24 minutes per game.
“For the most part we have a young team with a lot of guys new to the scene,” said Williams, a 6-foot-9, 220-pound sophomore. “It will be the first SEC game for a lot of them, but we’re going to get better with more experience, myself included.”
Accordingly, Georgia relies heavily on a backcourt that consists of guards Gerald Robinson, Dustin Ware and Vincent Williams and swingman Caldwell-Pope. The solid play of that group has gotten the Bulldogs through the tough times.
But those times are going to get only tougher against an SEC schedule that continues next week with road games at Florida and Vanderbilt.
“Marcus being out is definitely a huge blow to us,” said Ware, a senior who has averaged 8.9 points and 2.1 assists per game. “But I think the biggest thing is our big guys’ improvement. They’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the year. Sometimes stats can be misleading. Those guys are doing a lot of good things for us.”
The key for Georgia will be to slow the game and work for good shots on the perimeter. On defense the Bulldogs will have to make it a team effort to defend the paint and rebound.
“We have to play very intelligent basketball,” Fox said. “If you look at our turnovers, we’ve had some success taking care of the basketball as of late. That’s critical to our success. The issue inside is they’re just young physically and young in experience. They’re not finishing as many plays at this point as we’d like them to. But I will say in the last few days we’ve finished more post plays than we have all year.”
With the arrival of SEC play, it’s time to grow up.
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