Sports Page Atlanta

Paul over at the Georgia Sports Blog has put together a very interesting look at the Dawgs upcoming basketball season. He’s had to make a few assumptions about early tournament opponents, but all-in-all he’s done a fabulous job looking ahead at the UGA basketball team’s strength of schedule.

Thanks for the work on this Paul!

As I said yesterday, we play a solid mix of Top 100 teams, and we really only play two teams are who are total locks to have sub-300 RPIs. In this age of escalating buyouts for low major RPI teams, it’s a good schedule.

The Memphis Tigers are one win away from winning the NCAA Championship. Winning is something they are used to this season. Last night’s win was their 38th of the season, a NCAA single-season record, but I know what you are thinking…. did I log on to Sports Page Memphis by mistake? No, so here is your version…

Both Georgia and Georgia Tech have never came close to that 38 win total…

Georgia’s best happened in the 1982-83 Final Four season and in the 1996-97 season where they climbed to 24 wins.

Georgia Tech got even higher as the Yellow Jackets won 28 in 1989-90 and 2003-04.

The Georgia Bulldogs knew they would have to continue their good play to have a chance to upset the #3 Xavier Musketeers. They did, but for only three quarters of the time.

Georgia led pretty much throughout the game and even led by as much as 7 points with just under 10 minutes left. Xavier then finished out by scoring 31 of the game’s 43 final points and defeated Georgia 73-61.

To go back to my keys that I wrote yesterday…

1) Play smart… Georgia needed to have more assists than turnovers… they didn’t (Georgia 14 turnovers and 10 assists). Xavier had 11 assists and 7 turnovers.

2) Team rebounding and defense… there wasn’t a whole lot of rebounds, and Georgia did OK, but it wasn’t enough. Five of the players had 4 or more boards, but they couldn’t get a 2nd chance point when they needed it.

3) Hitting the big 3… they did in the beginning, but at the end where it mattered the most, they did not. The Dawgs were 6-for-18 as were the Musketeers.

The Dawgs were led by Terrance Woodbury again. He had 16 and Billy Humphrey added 12 and Jeremy Price put in 10 of his own.

In their last games as Bulldogs, Sundiata Gaines had 13 points and 6 assists and Dave Bliss had 6 points and 4 assists.

Georgia ends up 17-17 on the season, but won the SEC Championship and made it to the NCAA Tournament. So overall, the season was a success…. (sort of).

Georgia plays in the NCAA Tournament later today against Xavier.

The first time that Georgia appeared in the big dance was also the only other year the Dawgs won the SEC Tournament back in 1983.

In that year the Bulldogs advanced to the Final 4 before losing to NC State. Here is how they got there.

- Bye in the 1st round

- 2nd round in Greensboro, NC: UGA defeated Virginia Commonwealth 56-54. Vern Fleming led the Dawgs with 16 points

- 3rd round in Syracuse, NY: UGA defeated St. John’s 70-67. Terry Fair led the way with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. (future NBA star Chris Mullin pulled in 19 for the Red Men)

- East Regional Final in Syracuse: UGA defeated North Carolina 82-77. In a well-balanced attack, James Banks had 20, Gerald Crosby had 17 as did Vern Fleming. (someone named Michael Jordan had 26 but only made 11-of-23 shots for the Tar Heels)

Final Four in Albuquerque, NM: NC State defeated Georgia 67-60. Vern Fleming led the Dawgs with 14, but the Bulldogs shot just 35 percent from the field compared to the Wolfpack’s 54 percent.

NC State ended up winning the whole thing by defeating the Houston Cougars in the Final.

I think everyone knows by now, Georgia is in the big dance. Even with a barely-over .500 record the Bulldogs are in the tournament. The Dawgs will face #3 seed Xavier on Thursday in Washington, DC at 12:20 pm et.

But who are the Xavier Musketeers?

Xavier is in the Atlantic-10 conference and is 27-6 on the season. This is their 19th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and is 12-18 all-time in the tourney. The have been in 7 of the last 8 fields and in 2004 advanced to the elite 8.

Head Coach Sean Miller won the A-10 Coach of the Year Award and leads a well-balanced team into the NCAA’s.

Xavier is the only NCAA Division I team to have 6 players averaging double-digits in points led by senior Josh Duncan’s 11.7.

Their guard play is excellent. Senior Stanley Burrell was the A-10 Defensive Player of the Year and is the school’s 13th leading scorer all-time. Stanley’s backcourt mate is fellow senior Drew Lavender. He stands only 5′7″ but can score (10.7 ppg) and dish out the assists (4.3 apg).

For Georgia to pull out the upset they have to do what they did so well in the SEC Tournament…

1) Play smart… The Dawgs came into the SEC Tournament 285th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio. On the season the had over 100 more turnovers than assists. In the SEC’s the had more assists than turnovers.

2) Team rebounding and defense… Georgia was very strong in the SEC’s on the boards. In the SEC Tournament, 6 Bulldogs averaged over 4 rebounds per game. The team also averaged 6 steals and over 4 blocks per game.

3) Hitting the Big Three… It seemed like every time Georgia needed a 3-pointer in the SEC Tournament they got one. The Dawgs shot 40 percent from beyond the arc compared to their oppenents 26 percent. Terrance Woodbury shot 58 percent (11 for 19) from long distance. Also Sundiata Gaines hit 6 3’s and Billy Humphrey added 5.

If Georgia continues these 3 things they have a good chance of advancing. Their last 3 games (Kentucky, Mississippi State and Arkansas) are all NCAA tournament teams and they won those so anything is possible.

The Georgia Bulldogs are the SEC Champions.  In the tournament senior guard Sundiata Gaines was named tournament most valuable player.  Although, the Dawgs have won just two SEC Tournaments.  Gaines is the 3rd Georgia player to win the award.

Vern Fleming won the award back in 1983 and Dominique Wilkins won the award in 1981 despite the Dawgs not winning the title.

For the 2nd time in the school’s history, the Georgia Bulldogs men’s basketball team has won the SEC Tournament Title.

Georgia had only won 4 SEC games all year and now won 4 in a 4-day stretch.  With the win, the Dawgs will advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time under head coach Dennis Felton.

Georgia led all the way and led by 19 early on.  Arkansas came close a few time, but the Dawgs never squandered the lead.  Terrance Woodbury led the Dawgs scoring with 16 points including 4 3-point buckets.  Dave Bliss had another big game bringing home a career-best 11 rebounds.

But the story was the heart of Sundiata Gaines, who won the Tournament’s MVP award.  In the final game, he scored 11 points, nabbed 4 rebounds, 5 assists and had 2 steal and played a team best 38 minutes.

After the game, the Dawgs stayed on the court to watch the monitor board and the CBS Selection Show.  They found out they were a 14th seed and will face Xavier in the first round in Washington, DC.

Later today, the Georgia Bulldogs men’s basketball team will play in the SEC Championship.  The men’s team has only won one previous SEC tournament championship.  That happened in 1983 when the Dawgs defeated Alabama in the finals.  That team later advanced to the Final Four before losing to the eventual champions, NC State.

This is a list of the 5 previous times Georgia has advanced to the SEC Tournament Championship.

• 1940 - Kentucky defeated Georgia 51-43 in Knoxville
• 1981 - Ole Miss defeated Georgia 66-62 in Birmingham
• 1983 - Georgia defeated Alabama 86-71 in Birmingham
• 1988 - Kentucky defeated Georgia 62-57 in Baton Rouge
• 1997 - Kentucky defeated Georgia 95-68 in Memphis

The Georgia Bulldogs men’s basketball team played two games today and won them both. Playing two games a day happens in baseball quite a bit, but not in basketball.

The only other time Georgia has done this happened on January 11, 1930 when the Dawgs won at Stetson and then defeated the Gators in Gainesville.

The head coach of that team was Herman Stegeman. The same man who the coliseum is named after. Stegeman also coached football and track for Georgia.

Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks used to say in baseball that it was a nice day for a ball game, let’s play two… Now I think he did not mean college basketball, but that is what the Georgia Bulldogs did and they won them both.

The SEC Tournament moved to the Georgia Tech campus after the Georgia Dome was damaged due to a tornado and the schedule of events changed as well.  To make up Friday’s night game, the Dawgs faced Kentucky at noon.

After a great start, Georgia cooled and Kentucky took the halftime lead 25-22.  The Dawgs fought back and forced an overtime thanks to Georgia’s 46 percent 2nd half shooting and a defense that held the Cats to just 36 percent shooting in the 2nd half.

After star Sundiata Gaines failed out, freshman Zac Swansey had to take over and scored 5 points in the extra frame as Georgia upset Kentucky 60-56.

Later that night, Mississippi State faced the Dawgs.  The Starkville boys were well rested compared to the Athens group that played a hard fought battle earlier that day.

Mississippi State led 60-59 with 1:37 left to play, but couldn’t hit anything after that.  Billy Humphrey who was shut out for most of the game got hot late and scored all 6 of his points with under 2 minutes of action.

Sundiata Gaines fouled out for the 2nd time that day, but led all scorers with 20 points.  He also grabbed 5 boards and dished out 4 assists.  Georgia won the game 64-60, their 2nd win of the day and 3rd in the tourney.

The Dawgs will now face Arkansas for the SEC Tournament Championship on Sunday at 3:30 pm.  The game will be played on CBS Sports and on ESPN2.