The first time Georgia (14-11, 7-11) and Alabama played this year the Tide broke a school record by hanging 115 points on the Dawgs in a lopsided 33-point win. No matter how riveting Nate Oats’s pregame speech might have been, you can’t tell me that the Crimson Tide players didn’t come into their matchup with Georgia a little less focused on the task at hand than they should have been. How else do you explain the fact that after 10 minutes of play, Bama had just 1 three-pointer, 6 turnovers and trailed Georgia 20-13? Georgia managed to take a 36-30 advantage into the break after a chaotic 20 minutes in which these two teams combined for 25 turnovers.
The problem, however, is that Bama simply has a more talented team, and when one team is just plain better, there’s not a lot that can be done. The Dawgs shot better from the field (47%) and from beyond the arc (42%) than their SEC season averages. Georgia played carelessly and turned the ball over 20 times, but Alabama didn’t value the ball either as the Tide had 22 turnovers. Free throw shooting wasn’t great for Tom Crean’s team this afternoon as they hit 13 of 23; however, UGA has made only 69% from the line this year in conference play, so even if they shot like they have been, that’s just 3 extra points from the stripe, which wouldn’t make up the deficit in today’s 89-79 loss.
Not to state the obvious, but the Tide are a really good team, hence the SEC regular season championship. Bama has 3 players projected to go into the NBA in the next two years, according to NBADraft.net. The Tide had 5 players finish in double-figures and 4 players make at least 2 triples; Villanova transfer Jahvon Quinerly, who led the Tide with 18 points, may be their most dynamic offensive player and he comes off the bench. Bama’s second half offense took me back to what transpired in Tuscaloosa as the Tide connected on over 63% from the floor and 80% from the perimeter.
Nobody likes moral victories, but considering UGA was beat by 21 points by a lackluster South Carolina team on this same court a week ago, the fact that Georgia had this contest down to a one-possession game with a little over a minute remaining is somewhat remarkable in itself. Don’t lose sight of the fact that this UGA team won two more SEC games than they did a year ago when they had Anthony Edwards and Rayshaun Hammonds. The nucleus of this squad is coming back next year and there’s no reason to think that they won’t make even more progress.
Gosh, we held Alabama to just 59 second half points, down from 64 second half points the last time we played. Progress.
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Yeah, overall we played better this season and did show improvement, but, man, I am getting tired of always looking forward to “next season” at this stage of the year. And without a big impact player in addition to our core of Wheeler, Camara and KD, I’m not sure we’ll have the talent to make the big leap to a tourney team next year.
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We need a big man or two.
And yeah, moral victories suck but at least we looked like we belonged on the floor. Hit our free throws and we have the upset.
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Getting a second Alabama game instead of a makeup date with A&M was a bad trade.
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Well, I guess that’s it. Dawgs’ season over. Good effort against Mizzou but silly mistakes still haunt us. Crean gets one more year in my book. He needs a big man or two, and we need to make the tournament next year.
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So the team looks like it is falling apart. How many guys are going to leave? Hate to see Fagan go.
Is Creen running them off? What’s the deal?
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I was stunned to see Fagan leave after he had his best year yet. Not sure what’s going on there…
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I guess the destruction is almost complete. I guess Sahvir will be next?
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I checked out on this past season in the middle of February sometime, although I tuned in a couple of times to catch Shavir and KD. Now on April 12, it looks like we have a whole new team. I fear that the portal is going to ruin the game that I love. What, with 25% of the D! players in the portal, it is hard to know what you have from year to year, and as a fan, that is distasteful.
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