“We cried, hugged and we came back here to work.”
That was Georgia coach Mark Fox’s description of the scene at his house at about 6:15 Sunday evening. That’s when the Bulldogs, gathered in the coach’s basement for an NCAA tournament selection party, saw their named pop up on the television screen during the CBS broadcast.
“Trust me, everyone jumped at the same time,” senior forward Nemanja Djurisic said. “The second it went up, there were a lot of laughs and hugs.”
Fox had assured everyone on the team that UGA was in. Still, the room went bananas upon the official announcement.
“We were excited but we were nervous at the same time,” sophomore guard J.J. Frazier said. “They kept telling us, ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry.’ But just the adrenalin leading up to that point, it was just a moment that you’ll never forget. It just means a lot.”
Not long after the exhilaration subsided, the reality of the task at hand landed. Georgia (21-11) drew the No. 10 seed in the East Regional in Charlotte and will face seventh-seeded Michigan State (23-11) on Friday at 12:40 p.m.
The Spartans are no strangers to the NCAA’s annual invitational and have played for and won national championships. On Sunday, Michigan State pushed No. 1 seed Wisconsin (30-3) to the brink before finally losing the Big Ten tournament championship game in overtime, 80-69. The Bulldogs finished in a tie for third in the SEC and were knocked out the SEC tournament semifinals on Saturday by Arkansas.
“I’m really proud of our team for earning an invitation to the tournament,” Fox said in a news conference at Stegeman Coliseum. “This group made a commitment a long time ago to a way of functioning and working and doing things right and … today they were rewarded with a trip to the tournament. I’m extremely proud of them.”
This will be the Bulldogs’ 12th NCAA appearance and first since 2011. Fox also led them to that last one four years ago, when Georgia fell to Washington 68-65 — also as a 10 seed in Charlotte — to finish the season 21-12.
Georgia senior Marcus Thornton is the only member of the team that played in that game. He was medically redshirted after his third knee surgery three years ago.
“Obviously, Washington was an extremely talented team at the time,” Thornton said. “But that was ‘11 and I really can’t remember exactly how we felt. But this team is very much excited about the opportunity. We’re determined to go and win some games.”
There are some interesting crossovers in this game. Matt Bucklin, a former UGA player who is Georgia’s basketball operations coordinator, is the nephew of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. And Izzo and Fox are very good friends.
Yante Maten, a freshman forward for the Bulldogs, was Mr. Basketball in Michigan in high school and chose UGA over the Spartans, even though his mother graduated from school there.
“I thought, ‘What are the chances of that?,” Maten said with a laugh. “I got a lot of text messages. People were saying, ‘I wish I could see your face right now.’ It’s been pretty crazy. I’m sure it will be a good game.”
Fox is hopeful for going a little deeper in Charlotte this time. He believes Georgia’s fan base can help.
”One of the things, as we build our program, is having a strong fan base and a consistent fan base,” Fox said. “Ultimately we want to have a fan base that will roll their sleeves up and fight for you. Our fans did that for us many times this year. Hopefully, we’ll have enough that are willing to come to Charlotte and be willing to sweat with us.”
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