ATHENS – Playing before a record turnout of 60 former men’s basketball lettermen, the Georgia Bulldogs moved a step closer Saturday to locking down the school’s worst SEC season in the past 66 years.
Georgia’s 13th loss in 14 conference games came at home against Ole Miss, 85-68. The Rebels (13-14, 4-10 SEC) represented perhaps its best chance to break a losing streak that now stands at seven games. There are four games remaining, starting on the road at Texas A&M on Tuesday and home against Florida on Saturday.
In their fourth season under coach Tom Crean, the Bulldogs (6-21, 1-13) are assured now of being among the bottom four seeds in next month’s SEC tournament in Tampa. Saturday’s loss came two days after an assistant coach was suspended for having a physical altercation with a staff administrator during halftime of Wednesday’s game against LSU in Baton Rouge. The incident was first reported by the AJC.
The Bulldogs insist none of that has been a distraction.
“No,” Crean said after the game. “Obviously it’s an unfortunate situation that we’re dealing with. But it was all handled correctly, and we try to keep our focus on basketball. Unfortunately, today we just didn’t play well.”
Assistant coach Wade Mason was suspended Thursday after UGA learned of a physical altercation with Brian Fish, the director of player personnel, in the halftime locker room at LSU on Wednesday. There was no word from UGA on Saturday as to if or when Mason might return.
“I’m just going to refer everything back to (UGA’s) statement and just leave it at that,” Crean said. “I hope you guys understand.”
The statement from UGA:
“There have been various media reports related to UGA Athletics personnel ranging from completely inaccurate to incomplete and premature. The incident in question was reported properly as required by university policies and is under review. We will comment if and when appropriate.”
On the court, the facts remain that Georgia is in last place in the 14-team league and now trail the Rebels by four games for 13th place. That means Georgia will play in one of the two “play-in games” Wednesday night of the tournament.
Georgia has had only one other time that it won only a single SEC game in a full season. That was when the 1955-56 team finished 1-13. A few of those former players were recognized during the halftime ceremony recognizing the basketball lettermen.
Also, in the group of lettermen in attendance were Jumaine Jones, who led the SEC in scoring in 1999, and Hugh Durham, who remains the coach with the most wins in Georgia basketball history. So, it hasn’t always been this way for the Bulldogs.
“We have to get better fast,” former All-SEC guard D.A. Layne said.
Credit: Tony Walsh/UGAAA
Credit: Tony Walsh/UGAAA
Georgia junior Jaxon Etter said the players were thinking about neither records of infamy nor the events that have unfolded the past few days.
“That’s not a conversation we want to have,” Etter said. “We try to stay positive, stay upbeat and look forward to the next game and try to win the next game. That’s all we care about.”
Adding insult to misery, the Rebels were led by former Bulldog Ty Fagan. He had a game-high 20 points along with four steals. Fagan was one of numerous Georgia players that left the team after last season.
“It’s frustrating that we lost,” Crean said of Fagan’s performance. “But he did a good job, and he’s a good player.”
Georgia was led by Braelen Bridges with 17 and Kario Oquendo added 14.
The Bulldogs’ primary undoing was the same it has been most of the season. They committed 13 turnovers, which actually isn’t bad for them. But the Rebels scored 20 points off of those, mostly on fast-break layups.
The game followed the script of a lot of others this season. That is, the Bulldogs actually hung tough for much of the game. But another second-half drought proved too much to overcome. Georgia went from up three with two minutes remaining in the first half to down eight one minute after halftime. A prolonged second-half run would see the Rebels get ahead by as many as 20 points. The teams were simply playing out the string over the final seven minutes.
“We didn’t win, but that wasn’t the result of work or attention to detail,” Crean said. “Unfortunately we didn’t defend the way we needed to defend.”
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