Instantaneous Georgia's SEC Basketball Tournament Recap: Missed it by that much

Well, I've long called supporting Georgia Men's Basketball a "Masochists Club", and today's game with LSU showed exactly why.

The first half was excruciating, as the Dawgs played "horribad", according to chuckdawg. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope slogged his way to 7 points, getting owned by a much shorter (more than 6" shorter) Andre Stringer, and the Dawgs ended the half mercifully down by 20, as LSU controlled the game in every way.

The second half saw things pick up, in a parellel with the season as a whole where Georgia started ugly but finished with flair and raised hopes of success. KCP showed why he was named the SEC Player of the Year, as he burned the rims for 17 points in the opening ten minutes of the second period, and Mark Fox's club cut the lead to 10. The sophomore wing would finish with a career-high 32 points, to go with 13 rebounds.

Led by Pope and freshman PG Charles Mann, the Dawgs kept steadily chipping away at the massive hole created in the first half. Mann drilled a big 3, his first since January, for his only field goal, and drew foul after foul on the Tigers, going 12 of 14 from the free throw line to finish his season with a 15 point, 5 rebound, 5 assist performance.

But in the end, it was too little, too late, again paralleling the season as a whole, as Pope missed a late 3, before Stringer snagged the rebound and hit a pair of free throws to put the Hoop Dawgs out of their misery. Stringer finished with 16 points and 4 big makes from 3 point land, while Shavon Coleman led the team in scoring with 24 points off the bench, and Johnny O'Bryant III owned the paint to the tune of 12 pts and 12 rebounds (although his 6 of 17 from the free throw line helped fuel the Dawgs comeback).

Aside from Mann, KCP, and Kenny Gaines, with the freshman chipping in 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks, the Dawgs got very little production. In 111 minutes combined on the floor from the other 8 who saw action, Mark Fox saw them give 10 points total on a mere 4 made field goals. It was ugly.

That should end the Dawgs' season. Now, we wait on Caldwell-Pope to make his decision on going to the NBA, and if Fox can add any spring signees to join Ludowici's JJ Frazier, and Tulsa, OK's Juwan Parker, in his incoming class.