Georgia Bulldogs 69, Tennessee Volunteers 63: The (Slightly Delayed) Instantaneous Ill-Informed Roundball Wrapup
by T Kyle King on Feb 19, 2011 5:41 PM EST
in Georgia Bulldogs Basketball
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PrintIn many respects, Saturday’s contest at Thompson-Boling Arena was a typical game for the Georgia Bulldogs. The Red and Black leapt out to an early lead, building up a 22-7 advantage to open their critical showdown with the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville. Just as the Fox Hounds held John Jenkins in check in the early going against the Vanderbilt Commodores in last Wednesday night’s loss, so, too, did they keep Scotty Hopson off the board for almost eleven minutes.
Then, with equal predictability, Hopson went off, pouring in a career-best point tally that matched his jersey number (32) as the Big Orange came roaring back from their early deficit to move out in front by a 45-43 count. There, though, is where the Hoop Dogs deviated from the established script, because they did the darnedest thing.
Having taken a punch to the mouth, Georgia punched back, scoring 36 second-half points to Tennessee’s 38 in order to preserve the lead for the full 40 minutes of play. The Athenians kept punching back until they emerged victorious from a hostile arena with the 69-63 triumph that avenged their earlier loss to the Vols (in which, incidentally, they got absolutely hosed) and revived their fading hopes of receiving an NCAA Tournament bid.
Four Bulldogs finished in double figures, with the Red and Black obtaining 20 points from Jeremy Price, 15 from Travis Leslie, 12 from Dustin Ware, and 11 from Trey Thompkins. Georgia shot 40 per cent from beyond the arc (4 of 10), over 50 per cent from the field (24 of 47), and over 70 per cent from the free throw line (17 of 24). The latter tally included four clutch foul shots from Ware in the final 40 seconds. The Fox Hounds also carded nine steals to the Volunteers’ five and pulled down 37 rebounds to the Big Orange’s 28.
In short, Georgia deserved to win this game, and did. It’s pretty cool when that happens, but Mark Fox was far from satisfied, grousing afterwards that "we tried to make everything hard and we made none of it hard." Having correctly stated his case as a taskmaster that his team still had work to do, Coach Fox allowed himself the momentary indulgence of expressing his justified pleasure at the outcome when he stated on Twitter, "Good road win. I'm proud of our kids."
Yes it was, Coach, and so are we.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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The crossover drive and lay-in by Robinson with 1:10 left was the play of the game.
Maybe the play of the year for Georgia so far. We had to have a basket there and he created one out of nothing.
Barring a home upset by either of 2 really, really bad basketball teams in LSU and South Carolina… we’re in the tournament.
The and-one by Leslie to bring us back on top with around 5:00 to go
was pretty clutch, too, just because it got us back into the rhythm of making baskets toward the end of the game (a feat the team has struggled mightily with in recent games).
re: we're in...
I’m inclined to think that if we split win the remaining home games, lose the road ones, and then pull a bad loss against a lousy West team like Auburn or LSU in the SEC tournament’s first game, we could knock ourselves out.
I’d like to see a win at Florida or Alabama to completely cement it. 10-6, 21-9 with two good road wins against top-50 teams should do it no matter what happens in the tournament.
I'd like to see a win at Florida, too.
But mostly just because I hate Florida.
by vineyarddawg on Feb 19, 2011 8:47 PM EST up reply actions
Goes without saying
but it’s always great to say it anyway.
No doubt.
Like I said, barring an upset in one of the two home games, we’re in.
South Carolina and LSU are atrocious. Anything can happen in one college basketball game, but it would take career days from them (as Auburn had against us) to beat us.
Well, I'm slightly disagreeing.
I think we have to win the home games and one of the away games OR win the home games and win the first game of the SEC tournament.
Just win, baby.
I say get really hot and win out (22-8, 11-5). If I’m not mistaken, that puts us no worse than third in the East. Winning the conference tournament adds four more wins (I think). We’ll be somewhere close to .500 against the top 50 RPI (something like 16 games or so), depending on how the rest of the season and the SEC tournament shakes out, with a strong majority of those wins away from home. At that point, 13 March won’t be about being in or out, it’ll be about how high we get placed.
I like your attitude, NCT, . . .
. . . but, at this point, I think you’re just looking for excuses to end sentences with the word “baby.”
Go 'Dawgs!
We needed this victory on so many levels.
I did not think we would be able to maintain a lead, and we couldn’t. But I certainly did not anticipate coming back after Tennessee took the lead. Fighting through adversity like this could be just the ticket. In reading Will Shelton’s recap on RockyTopTalk, I absolutely agree that the Vols were poised to really put the hammer down after Goins stripped GR2 and dunked…and then did the kind of bonehead play that I’m traditionally lamenting from us. He got “T’d up” and in an instant their momentum was killed. And Rangers100 is absolutely correct about the incredible “something from nothing” drive by Robinson. I also thought Coach Fox made a terrific adjustment on a critical inbound pass against their trap (after Pearl called a interesting timeout to allow us to set something up). Ware hit the last 4 F/T down the stretch, which iced it.
I hope this game can be instill the kind of confidence that sets us up for a possible tourney run if we can get there. We can’t overlook the SEC West bottom dweller’s that are coming to town. Thursday night’s trip to Gainvesville could get interesting, especially if we don’t get a big lead ;-)
Hope Trey can get going. IMHO, I think his outside shot is suffering a bit because he’s taking too much time to stroke it. It’s like he’s aiming the ball or something. I cannot explain his low post play at this point.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
This is spot on. Good post.
"We are inclined to believe that if we have watched a football game or a baseball game, we have taken part in it." --John F. Kennedy
by Thinking Bulldog on Feb 19, 2011 7:19 PM EST up reply actions
As frustrating it is the way we blow leads, it is pretty obvious why this happens.
We have no bench.
That comes from not having enough depth. Depth is a curable problem if Mark Fox continues to recruit well.
Teams get and blow early leads like that in college basketball all the time.
Especially as road underdogs.
Just how the game goes.
I agree, Muckbeast, and the average minutes of Georgia's starters bear out your contention.
That said, your solution is equally accurate, which is why a tournament bid is so critical this year: Georgia basketball entered 2010 essentially in the same spot at which Florida football entered 1990, as a sleeping giant with all the assets necessary for success, including a location right on top of a huge natural recruiting pool of high school talent. If Mark Fox can tap into the Atlanta talent pool, this program can go places.
Suddenly, the Alabama game appears much more winnable and more than one victory in the SEC Tournament seems much less out of reach. This triumph was big in terms of the tourney, but it was huge in terms of program momentum. We may look back on this as Mark Fox’s hobnailed boot game.
Go 'Dawgs!
Wow
The win was the Bulldogs’ seventh on hostile courts this season, the most for a Georgia team in 16 years.
h/t UGASports.com
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
nice take! This would support Rangers100 takes.
(here comes a bunch of stats)
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Nope.
Pretty flukish small sample size thing.
We’ve gotten good breaks late in road games, bad breaks late in home games.
Also pretty impressive
When you consider that the two road losses were in that alternate universe gym at Vandy and at Rupp. Everywhere else we’ve won. Hope we can continue that on Thursday at the Joakim Noah Memorial Indoor Swamp and Crackhouse.
"If there's one thing worse than chlamydia, it's Florida." ~ Emma Stone, Easy A
by RedCrake on Feb 19, 2011 6:55 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
UGA - we give you hope, then we take it away.
I think I will just plan to lose. It’s working out a lot better that way.
(I would be giddy like a little kid if we won at the Joakim Noah Memorial Indoor Swamp and Crackhouse)
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Why, whatever made you think that Joakim Noah was on crack?
by vineyarddawg on Feb 19, 2011 8:53 PM EST up reply actions
I'm still convinced Diana Ross is his mama.
"If there's one thing worse than chlamydia, it's Florida." ~ Emma Stone, Easy A
by RedCrake on Feb 19, 2011 9:37 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Mark Fox actually has a solid career road record.
He has somewhere in the neighborhood of a two-thirds winning percentage on opponents’ home courts, and that’s taking into account last year’s aberrational (and abysmal) road record.
Go 'Dawgs!
Too bad we cant win at home on Tuesday.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
As I mentioned earlier on Twitter
This team has more wins on the road in the SEC than losses. The dubious buzzer beater by UT and the 35-foot prayer answered for UF are killing Georgia. This team needs a couple of even-up-the-karma dubious wins of its own. Imagine, if those two prayers aren’t answered in two Januray weeknight games by the enemy with the Stegasaurus rocking, this team would be 19-7 and tied for first place (w/tiebreaker) in the East.
"We are inclined to believe that if we have watched a football game or a baseball game, we have taken part in it." --John F. Kennedy
by Thinking Bulldog on Feb 19, 2011 7:25 PM EST up reply actions
I was just thinking that Thinking....
I would take one of the two actually. I want to say adversity builds character, but I am not sure yet with this team. But damn, UTs BS tip in and a half court shot is the differnce of 19-7.
We need a full court press for our next home game with the fans. I want to see CMF call everyone out and tell them the seats better be filled.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
A helluva lot better than his predecessor
—where even when we were decent we didn’t win on the road.
More Wow....
This team has won as many road games as the past 6 seasons combined.
"We are inclined to believe that if we have watched a football game or a baseball game, we have taken part in it." --John F. Kennedy
by Thinking Bulldog on Feb 19, 2011 7:20 PM EST up reply actions
Great win.
Let’s keep chugging along.
While I have been hard on this team of late, we’re 18-8 with 3-4 very winnable games left on our slate (including the SEC Tourney). Thus, we can easily have 21+ wins at the end of the year (I would feel more comfortable with 22). That’s very impressive, considering where the program has been the last few seasons.
Plus, assuming we beat LSU, we don’t have any bad losses on our schedule (although, we have a few maddening ones). This team has won every game that it should have won (mostly), and, finally, I feel we won a game that we shouldn’t have won.
Go Dawgs!
I am a fan of the Dawgs, Falcons, and Braves...oh...and tacos, but I like the other three more.
Let me clarify.
The way we played today, we definitely should have won. I just meant that going into today’s match-up, UT should have won the game—they didn’t. We stole one on the road…
I am a fan of the Dawgs, Falcons, and Braves...oh...and tacos, but I like the other three more.
GR2
I’d like to see what another year in the system does for Robinson. Right now the difference, even within games, between Good Gerald and Bad Gerald is wide enough for Jeremy Price to fit through.
Had to go out with about 6 minutes to go
…then checked back with TV and it was all about Nebraska’s stunning victory over Texas here. Had to get back to Dawgsports.com to get the final result.
Hate to say it but I was pretty surprised we won the way the game was going when I left it. Congrats Dogs. A win in Knocksville is always good in any sport,,,especially in one of the 2 (?) big sports.
Let’s win the rest
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the Dawgs of war; - Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1
A couple late games of UGA bubble-watching interest...
Illinois (RPI #38) tied @ Michigan State with 4 minutes left.
St. Mary’s (#40) down 9 vs. Utah State with 8 minutes left.
(UGA is RPI #39.)
Sweet.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Feb 19, 2011 11:13 PM EST up reply actions
The picture becoming clearer (still centered around 8-8, 9-7):
Feb. 8:
Feb. 13:
Before today’s games:
That Ken Pomeroy’s a smart feller.
Assuming UGA wins its 2 home games but loses its 2 road games...
then we also need UT to finish 2-2 in order for us to finish 4th in the East. Finishing 4th or better is huge because at 5th we would play a better SEC West team in the first round (i.e. not Auburn or LSU) and then get Florida in the 2nd round (assuming UF finishes 1st in the East).
At 4th we would get Auburn or LSU (whichever finishes 5th in the West) and then Alabama. Much better chance of winning 2 tournament games down that path.
Tennessee’s final 4 games are:
@ Vandy
Miss. State
@ SC
Kentucky
Tennessee holds the tiebreaker over us if we finish tied.
What are the tiebreakers?
I am a fan of the Dawgs, Falcons, and Braves...oh...and tacos, but I like the other three more.
by Jman781 on Feb 20, 2011 12:13 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Head to head then record against other East teams.
Not sure what comes after that, but we don’t get past any of those (assuming we beat LSU or Alabama).
Ah.
That answers the question I just put to you in the other thread.
Thanks for the enlightenment. While I don’t like the result, I have to say it does make sense.
Go 'Dawgs!
Concerning the West
It sucks. All of it. We should be able to beat any representative from it on a neutral court, including Bama. Who, quite frankly, we should be in Tuscaloosa. (I’ll be there.)
I have just one question:
HOW ’BOUT THEM DAWGS!!!!!!
"...maybe a couple bottle rockets/light the fuse/point it out the window and watch it/ okay, maybe not, nevermind/ let's be responsible/where's the moonshine?
by EdDawg on Feb 20, 2011 1:10 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
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