ATHENS – Georgia finished the regular season fourth in the SEC and earned a double-bye in the SEC Tournament.
That’s great. So what?
As harsh as that sounds, that’s the deep-seated truth for the Lady Bulldogs. It’s what happens going forward that will define the 2020-21 team.
They know it, and they’ve embraced it.
“The goal is to get a trophy, get a ring,” said senior Jenna Staiti, the Lady Bulldogs’ leading scorer and rebounder.
Said Joni Taylor, reigning SEC coach of the year: “I know this team is confident and believes they can get to Sunday and win.”
For the Lady Bulldogs (18-5, 10-5 SEC), there remain significant mountains to climb to get there. It will start in their first game, Friday afternoon at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. As the tournament seedings worked out, Georgia will face Kentucky in the third round.
That’s either cruel fate or a fortuitous opportunity to vanquish a beast.
The fifth-seeded Wildcats (17-6), who defeated Florida 73-64 in the second round Thursday, have been a proverbial thorn in Georgia’s side of late, winning six of the past seven games in the series. Most recently, they saddled Georgia with a 62-58 defeat on Feb. 25 at Stegeman Coliseum.
While that loss didn’t ultimately cost the Lady Bulldogs their double-bye (UGA clinched it with a win over Florida and Kentucky’s loss to Ole Miss this past weekend), it knocked them down a spot that could have had them facing the Arkansas-Ole Miss winner rather than the Wildcats.
What makes Kentucky particularly tough is Rhyne Howard. The 6-foot-2 junior guard is the two-time reigning SEC player of the year. She averages 19.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. She had 27 in the win in Athens.
Should Georgia get past the Wildcats, No. 1-seeded Texas A&M (22-1, 13-1) likely will await. The Aggies are playing eighth-seeded LSU in the 11 a.m. game preceding Georgia-Kentucky. The Lady Bulldogs lost to A&M 60-48 on Jan. 31 in College Station.
If the Lady Bulldogs can get rolling, they’re definitely built for tournament success. Georgia is one of the deepest teams in the SEC, featuring nine players playing double-figure minutes and often playing more than that. UGA is the only SEC team to not have any player among the top 30 in the league in minutes played.
If they can get into a second or third game in a row scenario, such depth could make a difference. Of course, Taylor has the Lady Bulldogs hyper-focused on nothing but the first one.
“We know it’s going to be tough, and it’s not going to be easy,” Taylor said. “But I think we’ll be locked in and focused and play as long as we can. For us, hopefully Sunday that means playing for a championship and then also playing well as we go into the NCAA tournament in a few weeks.”
Said Staiti: “We know what to do, what know what to take care of, we know how to play. I think we’re in a really good position.”
