Georgia/Texas Basketball Preview: Well, Somebody’s Gotta Win

Georgia and Texas will square off this afternoon in a basketball game pitting a pair of hard luck losers against each other in the annual SEC/Big XII Challenge.

The Bulldogs (9-9, 1-5 SEC) are losers of four in a row and five of their last six since beginning conference play. Georgia has continued to struggle to find consistent guard play, and Coach Tom Crean thought he might have begun to for,ulate an answer over the last two games when junior Jordan Harris got the start at point guard. However Harris collided with forward Nic Claxton in the waning minutes of Georgia’s 92-82 loss to LSU on Wednesday night and remains questionable for today.

Claxton suffered a bloodied lip but appears to have cleared concussion protocol and should start today. Georgia actually outscored the Bayou Bengals in the second half of that game with Harris at the point, and shot the ball better than they had in the prior couple of losses. But as we’ve said over and over again in this space over the past couple of weeks, the ‘Dawgs remain a model of inconsistency. When they actually put two good halves of basketball together they’re going to be a good basketball team. But until then the Hoop Hounds are vulnerable to just about everyone.

That includes the Texas Longhorns. The Burnt Orange (11-8, 3-4 Big XII) have lost four out of five, most recently dropping a 65-61 game to TCU. But all of those losses have been by 6 points or less, including a 68-62 loss to #8 Texas Tech and a close 80-78 loss to #7 Kansas. They sandwiched in a win over #20 Oklahoma. In short, both of these teams have played a lot of basketball against very good teams, and have (mostly) held their own. Somebody’s gotta win, right?

Tipoff is at 2:00 p.m. Athens time, with television coverage on ESPN2. Until then . . .

Go ‘Dawgs!!!