ATHENS – “Be early. Be loud.”
That is the urgent pleading of Georgia basketball to the school’s student body sent out via social media Friday. The Bulldogs are imploring students to come out in as great a number as possible Saturday for the men’s regular-season finale against Alabama.
Overall attendance is still capped at 1,638 in Georgia’s 10,523-seat arena. But a greater percentage of the seats will go to the players’ classmates, who also will be relocated to better locations in Stegeman Coliseum to watch the 2 p.m. nationally televised game against No. 8 Alabama (CBS).
The Bulldogs (14-10, 7-10 SEC) are going to need all the help they can get against the Crimson Tide (20-6, 15-2). The regular-season champs beat Georgia 115-82 three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa. How much of a 33-point deficit a bunch of screaming collegians might be able to make up remains to be seen. Then, again, that’s not entirely the point.
“We want it to be a reward for our students for what they’ve gone through and continue to go through,” Georgia coach Tom Crean said. “It certainly hasn’t been the numbers we’ve had the last couple of years. But the quality of passion and energy that’s been in here even through it’s been in smaller numbers has been excellent. So, it’s a chance to thank them, CBS, a lot things.”
The Bulldogs established home attendance and sellout records each of the past two seasons under Crean. Obviously, that trend could not continue during the pandemic, which has brought limited, socially distanced seating for all sporting events. But Georgia has been very successful in its home arena this season
Truly, though, what happens on the court and not outside of it is what most concerns Georgia at this point. The Bulldogs have shown improvement over Crean’s first two seasons. But then this latest squad also has been frighteningly inconsistent all season. In conference play, Georgia has lost by 18 or more points five times, including twice by 30 or more. Only one of those defeats was at home, and that was 91-70 to South Carolina on Saturday in what would have been the regular-season finale.
Instead, because of multiple cancellations across the league this season, the SEC added a game to everybody’s schedule. Georgia, which otherwise would have played a makeup road game against a struggling Texas A&M squad, instead drew the SEC’s regular-season champion, to whom it lost by 33 points only a short while ago.
Crean insists it was a good trade.
“If there’s any game in this league that you’d want to play it’d be them after the way we played there,” Crean said in a video conference call Friday. “It just happens to be Alabama. We did not play that well. … The bottom line is, as a competitor, you want to play this game. no doubt about it. And if you’re not looking forward to it, it’d probably be a good idea to stay in the locker room or sit somewhere I can’t find you, because you want to compete against a team that’s that good and especially one that played as good as they did against is the first time.”
Now comes the hard part. How to play Bama better.
The good news: Georgia couldn’t play much worse. The Bulldogs shot 10.5% (2-for-19) from 3-point range, were significantly out-rebounded and allowed the Crimson Tide to shoot 64.3% for the game and 69.2% in the second half.
Point guard Sahvir Wheeler struggled to get the offense in sync and committed four turnovers to three assists. Freshman K.D. Johnson led the way with 24 points, but many of them came in garbage time, which was most of the second half.
“I believe we can beat anybody in this league, I truly do,” said senior guard Justin Kier, who scored only three points in 24 points in Tuscaloosa. “I believe in our coaching staff and our teammates and our whole entire organization. I believe all the work we’ve put in is going to slow.”
It’s certainly not impossible. The Bulldogs have avenged big losses before. Twice they’ve done so against Florida in the same season. In 1963, Georgia defeated the Gators 79-77 in Athens after losing to them by 32 in Gainesville. The Bulldogs’ 2011-12 team also executed a 36-point home-and-away swing when they beat Florida 76-72 after losing the away game by 22.
One slight advantage is Georgia did not play a game this week. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide played on Tuesday night, beating rival Auburn 70-58 in Tuscaloosa.
Moreover, it’s simply going to take much better focus, effort and execution for the Bulldogs to pull off something only they believe can be done.
“We’ve got to guard the ball better, first and foremost,” Crean said. “I’d like to say we have to shooter better, too, and we do. We couldn’t throw it in the ocean that day. … There were a couple of places in the game if just a couple of things go right it changes the flow of the game. Too many times it went with them rather than us.”
This time the Bulldogs will have 650 students on their side. That’s almost twice as many as has been the norm this season (330).
Perhaps that’s just enough.
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