Can they Force the Upset and Turn Some Happy Fans?
For the semi-finals match-up this afternoon of Georgia vs. Kentucky in the post-regular season SEC conference basketball tournament, I’m not holding a tremendous amount of hope in the Bulldogs chances. But at the same time, I’m not completely dismissive of what Georgia may be able to do as the two teams tip off at 3:30pm at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN. For these respective teams to have advanced to where they are required previous victories in the last few days of conference tournament play which for UGA came against Mississippi State on Thursday with a score of 79-69 and a close 66-65 free throw finale against 3rd seeded South Carolina last night.
Kentucky being one of the top four teams in the tournament based upon conference standings at the end of the regular season received a first round bye. They entered the tournament as a 2 seed only behind Texas A & M who had an impressively unexpected 24-7 overall season record ranked 17th nationally coincidentally only one spot behind Kentucky who finished the regular season at 24-8 to stand at 16th in the nation. The two SEC conference leaders faced each other just once during the latter part of the regular season on February 20th in what was a close overtime ender where the Aggies held on the win at home by a score of 79-77. Texas A&M plays today against 4th seeded LSU in the other semi-final conference match-up, the winner of whom will face off on Sunday against either Kentucky or Georgia.
South Carolina was a third seed going into the start of Tuesday’s conference tournament as they stood just outside of a national top 25 ranking for a Gamecock team that finished 24-7 in the regular season of which two of those losses were handed to them by Georgia on February 2nd and March 3rd.
Georgia, an SEC 6 seed, is now on a five game winning streak that began against Ole Miss two weeks ago continued against Alabama, then South Carolina to cap off the regular season. Those along with the aforementioned two consecutive tourney wins on Thursday and Friday have been achieved largely thanks a solid healthy front five group of players of whom are all capable of scoring double digits with high rebounding numbers as well.
The standout on UGA’s roster this seasons has been junior JJ Frazier with a season average of 17 ppg. Just behind him is Yante Maten whose averaging 16 but controls more of the board as a 6’8’’ 240 sophomore. Hometown Atlanta senior guard Kenny Gains has shown impressive play for much of the season with a near 40% 3 point percentage and season average of 13 points. The last mentionable of Georgia’s offensive threats is Charles Mann, a sizeable threat at 6’5’’ also a senior from the Alpharetta area of Atlanta.
It’s going to be a huge challenge this afternoon for these Georgia players facing off against Kentucky who as most probably remember was last year’s perennial favorite college basketball team finishing that season nearly undefeated with it’s only 2015 loss coming during an upset against Wisconsin in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championship. This year’s Kentucky team doesn’t have quite the same prowess or seeming invincibility that their sizeable all star cast of talent possessed last year. Seven of last year’s team players declared themselves early to the NBA draft of whom the oldest Willie Cauley-Stein was only a junior and went as the 6th overall pick in last June’s draft to the Sacramento Kings. The biggest talent from last year’s Kentucky team, Karl-Anthony Townes who was only a freshman last year was drafted number one overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Devin Booker, also a freshman went as the seventh pick to the Phoenix Suns. One of the two Harrison twins, Andrew went to Memphis while the other brother Aaron did not get drafted. Lastly, Dakari Johnson, the 7’0 255lb center was drafted last year by Oklahoma City.
So that leaves a very different, smaller team for Kentucky this year but their success thus far has been derived in part from the strong leadership of several incoming freshman including Jamal Murray, the teams current point leader whose averaging 20 ppg with 5 rebounds. Alex Poythress a big 6’10 250lb forward has shown great skills also in his first year while leading the team in rebounds and averaging 10 ppg on the year. Isaac Briscoe also a freshman is a versatile 6’3’’ threat that Georgia will certainly be looking out for. Several of the remaining undeclared players from last year’s team have stepped in to fill some large roles as Tyler Ulis, a sophomore guard and smallest of the team’s players is second in scoring with nearly 17 a game while being a leader in assists.
So for the Dawgs to stay competitive in this game, they’ll have to play nearly flawless basketball, something that the team under Mark Fox has been unable to during just about any game over the last 7 years that he‘s been the coach. When Georgia faced up against a 24 ranked Arkansas team last year in the semi-finals of the SEC conference championship, they were dealt a humiliating loss of 60-49. Despite that performance, their 20 win season was just enough for an invitation to last year’s big dance tournament as a 10th seed where they went on to lose against Michigan State in the first round.
Similar stakes are on the line this year for Georgia to show themselves to the tournament selection committee as the Dawgs are now nearly considered a bubble team to make the initial field of 64 NCAA championship teams something that prior to last year they haven’t done since 2011. However without really convincing play today against a more dominant opponent who have beaten the Dawgs twice already this season by a combined point margin of 19, it will likely be a second tier invitation to the NIT post season tournament which won’t bode particularly well for subsequent recruiting or team morale. But given the team’s end of season streak these last few weeks coming largely from capable combining point scorers in JJ Frazier, Charles Mann, Yante Maten and Kenny Gaines pulling off double digit points and rebounds anything is possible.
So Lets Go Dawgs! Show yourselves big today against a younger more vulnerable Wildcat team than existed last year and lets get to the SEC conference finals for the first time since 2008.
It was in that year that the Dawgs unexpectedly upset Kentucky in the semi-finals during a weekend of severe inclement weather in Atlanta when a tornado touched down upon the downtown area where the championship games were being held only to force the finals to be rescheduled at Georgia Tech’s arena rather than the originally scheduled Hawks location. But in contrast to then when the Atlanta location was almost a home game for the Dawgs given it’s close proximity to Athens, today’s game in Nashville is more or less home territory for Kentucky as the school is only 100 miles away.