Thud!

Fourteen first half points told you all that you needed to know in what can only be described as a huge disappointment on Senior Night as Georgia flopped at home to Missouri, 64-39.

The Dawgs bricked and bricked often. They bricked as if they were building a brick Dawg House. Even the bricks were bricks, with some bricks never hitting the rim. Too harsh? It was bricktacular! On the night, Georgia shot 25% from the field, was three of twenty from beyond the arc (15%? Yes, 15%). They did manage to only commit 11 turnovers, which was an improvement over their season average of 15.9 per contest. Hooray! In turnovers-per-game, Georgia is ranked 333rd out of 351 D1 schools playing the sport.

I don’t want to slam these guys too badly, and to some degree I understand why things went as badly as they did. Rayshaun Hammonds is out of action for the rest of this season which might only be 2 more games - Saturday vs. South Carolina and a 1st-round rematch vs. Mizzou next week. Certainly this hurt, but for much of the night most of these kids sleepwalked through the paces. It wasn’t pretty, yet I watched the whole thing.

“We both set basketball back to start the game.” - Tom Crean

Nicolas Claxton “led” the way with 9 points and 10 rebounds for the Red ‘n Bleak Black. JoJo Toppin got to play some and had 6 hustle points for the highlight of the game (other than the buzzer going off at 0:00). His initial scoring was a 3-pointer that broke an 0-for-15 string of derpitude.

Again, the crowd showed up and if you were there in person, kudos to ‘ya. You certainly deserved better, and better days are coming. But in the here and now, it’s about as stinky as yesterday’s diapers.

There is good news. Tom Crean can recruit a little bit and seems to have enough energy to power a small Caribbean Island. The bad news is this: Unless we march out a new iteration of the Fab 5 on the court next fall, this will take a bit more time to get going and the Conference has really become a tough league.

I think we all can say we have collectively witnessed some bad basketball over the years, and this season was right down there among the worst. There is immediate help on the way for next season (a certain 5-Star guard), with some other really talented guys on-board, too, with a few more surprises possible before it’s all said and done.

I do think this season might be the bottom. It’ll get better. How soon is the bigger question, but it will. Patience will be rewarded and we are a patient lot.

Now that I’ve vented a little bit, a sincere thank-you to Mike Edwards, Christian Harrison, Derek Ogbeide, Turtle Jackson, Connor O’Neill, and E’Torrian Wilridge.. They’ve been through a lot. Best wishes always...

And As Always, GO DAWGS!