The 2018 season was overall a disappointment for Mark Fox and Georgia basketball but they will try to put that behind them on Wednesday when they open play in the SEC Tournament against Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 16-14 record and a 7-11 mark in conference play. They enter the tournament as the 12th seed and face the unenviable task of having to win five straight days to capture the championship.

For Georgia it is only about focusing on the task at hand and that is a Commodores team that throttled them in the only regular season meeting between the two teams. That came in a stretch of eight losses in 10 games where the season went sideways for the Bulldogs.

If Georgia is to pull off a victory on Wednesday, they are going to have to be much more engaged defensively. Vanderbilt shot 55 percent from the field and knocked down 11 3-pointers in that win in Nashville. Riley LaChance and Saben Lee led the way with 19 points each. Yante Maten finished with 20, but the Bulldogs fell behind early and never really recovered.

The Bulldogs come in having suffered two straight emotional losses. One came on senior night in Athens when they watched a late lead slip away in the final moments against Texas A&M. A few nights later they wrapped up the season with a hard fought 66-61 loss on the road at Tennessee where again they had the lead but simply couldn’t make enough plays down the stretch to pull out a win. In that sense it will be interesting to see how Georgia responds.

Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on the SEC Network. The winner will advance to face Missouri on Thursday.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, March 7, 7 p.m. ET

Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri

TV: SEC Network

Streaming: SECN+

Radio: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network. Flagship: WSB AM 750 Atlanta