ATHENS — Georgia is playing for different things now. This is no longer about wins or conference standings or postseason seeding.
It’s about intangible goals, like improving on areas of weakness, like competing, like saving face.
“I think at this point it’s self-motivation, just not wanting to lose,” senior forward Braelen Bridges said. “Just wanting to be a winner and fighting until the end.”
The Bulldogs lost for the 16th time in 25 games with an 80-68 defeat against South Carolina in Athens on Saturday. They’re 6-19 overall and 1-11 in SEC play, solidly in last place.
They’ll take that resume with them to Baton Rouge on Wednesday (7 p.m., SEC Network) to face an LSU team (18-7, 6-6 SEC) that is playing for all that tangible stuff no longer in Georgia’s reach. The trek from there to a merciless end to the season remains treacherous.
Nobody wants to talk about it, but the possibility of Georgia not winning again is very real. Here’s some perspective if that should happen:
- There has been one other time the Bulldogs have won only one conference game since they started playing 10 or more in 1945. That was the 1955-56 season, when they were 1-13.
- The Bulldogs have had three two-win SEC seasons since the 1950s. The last two were 2005 (2-14) under Dennis Felton and 2019 (2-16) under current coach Tom Crean.
- The last time Georgia won only six games overall in a season was in 1973-74, when it went 6-20 under John Guthrie. The Bulldogs were 2-16 in league play that year.
Crean probably isn’t even aware of that, and even if he is, he’s certainly not thinking about it. At this point he’s just looking for small, intangible victories within the games themselves. Should a win be within reach at the end, all the better, and there have been a few close calls.
“I think you have to tell your team the truth, which I do,” Crean said. “I think you’ve also got to have a really strong belief, which I do. And those are really, really important things. The games? It’s getting harder and harder.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Bulldogs could be running out of gas at this point. Playing short-handed all season, they’ve been even more depleted of late. Georgia had only nine players in uniform against South Carolina on Saturday.
Not counting the early losses of P.J. Horne and Jailyn Ingram to knee injuries, the Bulldogs have had their full complement of 14 players for only six outings this season and have played six games with 10 or fewer players dressed out.
Georgia lost 6-foot-11 freshman Tyrone Baker for the season because of a broken hand sustained in practice Jan. 18. Junior Tyron McMillan (ankle) and 6-9 sophomore Josh Taylor (illness) both had to sit out against the Gamecocks. That left the Bulldogs woefully undersized against a team that already was significantly bigger.
“We have no size right now,” Crean said. “With Josh Taylor being sick, with Ty McMillan being out, those are guys that can spell Braelen a little bit. … In a situation like this, you need something from everybody, and it’s just a matter of guys having to play way too long.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Bulldogs would be completely lost if not for Bridges. The 6-11 senior from Union Grove High School, a transfer from Illinois-Chicago, has been the epitome of consistency. The team’s second-leading scorer (12.6 points per game) has posted double-digit scoring outputs in 19 of Georgia’s 25 games and has notched nine points in three of the other six outings. He is shooting a sizzling 62.2% from the field (122 of 196) and would lead the SEC and be ranked seventh nationally if he weren’t three buckets shy of meeting the NCAA’s minimum standard.
As opponents increasingly slant their defensive focus to Bridges, he’s getting better all the time at distributing the ball. He had four assists against the Gamecocks.
“For me, personally, it’s just to keep getting better every day, motivate my teammates to get ready for the next game and stay positive,” Bridges said.
Such intangible accomplishments are like wins when true victory is so hard to come by.
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