‘Dawgs Take On South Carolina

Fresh off a road loss to Arkansas, Georgia looks to get in the win column for only the second time in seven conference games this afternoon against South Carolina. Tip off is at 1:00 p.m. Athens standard time (SEC Network).

The Hoop Hounds jumped out to a promising start on Tuesday in Walton Arena, leading for much of the first half. But once again that whole “two halves of good basketball” thing remained elusive, with the Razorbacks putting together an 18-8 run late to take a 70-60 win.

The Gamecocks come in 10-10 just like the ‘Dawgs. Unlike the ‘Dawgs they have put together an impressive 5-2 mark in conference play (though their last outing was a 92-70 thumping at the hands of #1 Tennessee). The ‘Cocks are led by senior forward Chris Silva, who’s averaging 13.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. The Gamecocks .425 field goal percentage and .314 three point percentages are actually lower than Georgia’s, and they’ve struggled to rebound the ball at times this year. One such game was a 20 point loss to Wofford in late November.

What I’m saying is in some ways this is a lot like looking in the mirror. While the visitors from Columbia would probably be a slight favorite, this is the kind of game the Red and Black really needs to win in February to demonstrate some sort of proof of concept on its program reboot under Coach Crean. Until later . . .

Go ‘Dawgs!!!