Georgia vs. Kansas State Preview/Open Thread.

After pulling out a skin-of-their-teeth win against Mercer in Stegeman Coliseum last week Mark Fox's charges travel to Manhattan, Kansas this afternoon for a rare weekday afternoon showdown with the 7-5 Kansas State Wildcats. This season has not necessarily gone according to script for K State, especially of late. While Georgia played some pretty ugly basketball in skating by Mercer, Bruce Weber's charges did them one better by absorbing a 58-56 home loss to Texas Southern in their last outing. Half the SEC (and Coach K) lost to Bob Hoffman's squad in the past couple of seasons. I don't know any way to justify a loss to a 3-10 SWAC squad.

All of this of course means that the boys from Manhattan are likely to come out wih a major chip on their shoulders for this one. They're a better basketball team than that loss indicates. In order to prevail Georgia's going to need to do the things they did during their strong win over Seton Hall, hustling on defense and exhibiting good shot selection, and also hit more free throws that they did during that close call against the Baptist Bears from Macon. Tipoff is at 4:00 p.m. eastern on ESPNU.

Go 'Dawgs!!!