ATHENS – There has been a lot of bad going on with Georgia basketball this season. There has been some good, too.
Lost among negative headlines about coaches’ altercations in the locker room and record losing streaks has been some excellent work by a few individuals. For instance:
- Senior guard Aaron Cook’s 152 assists stands No. 5 among Georgia’s all-time, single-season leaders. He needs three more to move past Sundiata Gaines (2007) into the No. 3 spot.
- Post player Braelen Bridges has proved to be among the more efficient offensive players in UGA history. His .635 shooting percentage this season ranks second all time, just ahead of Bob Lienhard (.632 in 1970) and not far behind Lavon Mercer (.643, 1979).
- Sophomore guard Kario Oquendo’s scoring average has jumped 6.9 points during SEC play. He’s averaging 18.4 points per game in-conference and has emerged as one of the league’s best offensive players.
None of that erases the cold, hard fact that Georgia (6-22, 1-14 SEC) remains in last place in the SEC by a considerable margin and stands three losses from logging the program’s worst season in seven decades. But as the Bulldogs prepare for Saturday’s home tilt against Florida (noon, ESPN2), it bears mentioning that some notable progress has been made on Georgia’s roster.
“That means they are getting better,” coach Tom Crean said before the Bulldogs took the court for practice Friday. “They come in every day with a work ethic and a style of play in a system that allows them to flourish, and that’s what we have to continue to do.”
In the meantime, Georgia assistant coach Wade Mason left the team after he was indefinitely suspended with pay last week. Mason’s suspension was the result of a complaint filed against him Feb. 17 by Brian Fish, the Bulldogs’ director of player development. The AJC learned from people with knowledge of the situation that Mason and Fish had some sort of altercation in the locker room at halftime of Georgia’s 84-65 loss to LSU on Feb. 16.
As the Bulldogs prepared for Saturday’s game against Florida, Crean said he knew of no new developments in the investigation, which is being conducted independently by UGA’s human-resources department.
In the meantime, Georgia’s coaching staff is carrying on short-handed. The NCAA allows three full-time assistant coaches for Division I teams.
“I think we’ve been pretty good in that area,” Crean said. “The biggest thing is it creates more preparation responsibilities for the staff, especially for (assistant) Steve McClain. That’s the biggest area right now, but we just make adjustments as we go. … We’re just dealing with it as best we can.”
There is no denying that Georgia’s primary players have showed continued improvement throughout the season. Nowhere is that more evident that with Oquendo. A 6-4 sophomore guard from Titusville, Fla., who transferred to UGA from Florida Southwestern State, Oquendo has shown dramatic offensive progress in SEC play.
After scoring 33 points Tuesday night against Texas A&M in College Station – the best individual output since freshman Anthony Edwards scored 37 against Michigan State in 2019 -- Oquendo’s conference average increased to 18.4 per game. That represents an improvement of 6.9 points per outing over his performance during the non-conference schedule, when he was averaging 11.4 per outing. That’s the most dramatic increase of any SEC player.
“The improvement level he’s had is tremendous,” Crean said. “He’s really, really getting better in a lot of ways. His numbers outside of rebounding are similar to Anthony’s. I’m not comparing him to Anthony, but in the sense of just improving and being able to make plays and attack the rim is obviously pretty unique.”
The Bulldogs will need Oquendo and the rest of the Bulldogs to play at a high level against Florida to avoid losing a ninth consecutive game Saturday. Georgia gave the Gators (17-11, 7-8) a good battle in Gainesville on Feb. 9 before wilting in the final minutes for a 72-63 loss. The Bulldogs couldn’t make any stops late in that game and had no answer for Myreon Jones, who came off the bench to score a game-high 23 points on 7-of-11 3-point shooting.
“We’ve got to do a great, great job of attacking and handling their pressure,” Crean said. “When we did that at Florida, we were successful, and when we didn’t, we turned it over and gave them opportunities.”
With three regular-season games and an SEC Tournament appearance remaining, Georgia’s script for Year 4 under Crean has been cast. However, he said the players are as motivated as ever to capture what would be only the second SEC win of the year. Not since the 1955-56 season have the Bulldogs won only a single conference game.
“They’re so focused on that, that I’ve got to make sure they stay locked in on how we go about that process,” Crean said. “I know they want to win; everybody wants to win. But you can want to win too bad. What I don’t want is them playing tight.”
