Goose eggs all the way across.
That’s what Georgia’s Rayshaun Hammonds had on his stat line at halftime of Tuesday’s game at Missouri. Well, with the exception of minutes played. The junior forward had 15 minutes in that box.
All the rest – zeroes.
Nobody was too concerned about it at the time as the Bulldogs had a seemingly comfortable 42-30 lead over the struggling Missouri Tigers at that point. That margin would grow to 20 points with 13:30 to play.
We all know what happened next. Georgia was outscored by 23 the rest of the way and lost 72-69 in the worst collapse/greatest comeback in an SEC game this season. Worse, the loss was the fourth in a row and sixth in January for the Bulldogs (11-8, 1-5 SEC).
This is not to pin Georgia’s recent demise on Hammonds. It simply illustrates that the Bulldogs’ basketball personality this season is too fragile to endure such a significant drop-off in production from one of the team’s leaders and key contributors. Same for seniors Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris, same for freshman Anthony Edwards.
“A game we shouldn’t have lost at all,” said Georgia guard Donnell Gresham, a graduate transfer from Northeastern. “It’s tough to lose like that, but we all know we’re more than capable of winning in the SEC. We’ve just got to finish and close out.”
Back at home at Stegeman Coliseum, the Bulldogs hope to get well against Texas A&M (10-9, 4-3) on Saturday (1 p.m., SEC Network). They’ll have a special audience on hand as members of Georgia’s 1990 team – the last to win an SEC championship at UGA -- will be recognized at center court on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of that feat. In all, more than 100 former players, coaches and managers will be in town, including Hugh Durham, who has the most wins in school history and led the Bulldogs to that SEC title and all of the program’s greatest accomplishments.
An SEC title was not thought to be too lofty a goal for the latest edition of the Bulldogs at this season’s outset. But that seems ridiculously far-fetched at this juncture, still three games shy of the halfway point of conference play.
Like perhaps no other team in the league, the Bulldogs have to have a teamwork attitude to succeed. Those in key roles, such as Hammonds, can ill-afford to think even subconsciously, “Well, I’m off today; somebody else will have to pick us up.”
This group needs every ounce of strain from every individual on every night lest they be all right with going winless the rest of the way.
“We’ve hit a rough patch; there’s no doubt about it,” said second-year coach Tom Crean, who is now 3-22 in SEC games at Georgia. “The biggest thing is we just can’t allow ourselves to lose confidence. We’ve just got to get over the hump. Right?”
But that might be easier said that done.
As has been emphasized all season, Georgia is the fourth-youngest team in Division I basketball, with 10 newcomers and nine freshmen on a 13-player roster. Likewise, the Bulldogs are lacking consistency across the board.
Edwards, projected as an NBA lottery pick when he signed with UGA, leads the nation’s freshmen with a scoring average of 18.9 points per game. But he has been wildly inefficient in accumulating those points. He comes in shooting 40 percent from the field, 30 percent from 3-point range and 73 percent from the free-throw line and has attempted more shots (119) that all but one player in the league (Arkansas’ Jimmy Whitt with 122).
“We need him to get better,” Crean said of Edwards. “We’re trying to teach him, help him grow every day, help him see what’s there and trying to help him understand that it’s not that complicated. ‘If the rim is there, go get it; if the shot is there, take it; if the pass is there, make it.’ Really for him it’s just sustaining intensity and concentration longer.”
That shouldn’t be an issue for Hammonds. The 6-foot-9, 235-pound junior has played in 81 college games, starting 72 of them. Yet after averaging 14.8 points over a four-SEC-game stretch in January, he’s averaged 2.0 in the past two.
That includes the aforementioned goose egg against Missouri – on 0-for-1 shooting with two rebounds, four fouls and a turnover. How does that even happen for an SEC standout with supposed NBA aspirations?
“He’s just got to be more aggressive, and I think he will be,” Crean said. “That’s what we’ve got to focus on. We’ve got to keep him moving and not over-dwell on that. … But like I say to the players all the time: ‘You’ve got to be a participant in your own rescue.’ He’s got to step back up and go, and I’m confident that he will.”
Don’t expect the Aggies to be accommodating. They feature one of the SEC’s best big men in senior Josh Nebo, who averages 12 points, seven rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game. Texas A&M is coached by Buzz Williams, who assisted Crean for one year at Marquette before succeeding him there as head coach when Crean left for Indiana.
“Without question one of the hardest-playing teams we’ll see,” Crean said of A&M. “I’m well aware of what kind of coach and leader Buzz is. He’s got those guys playing hard.”
Perhaps Crean can get his Georgia team to match, if for but one game.
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