"Cam Forte said that he nearly died because we were one of the last teams announced," head coach Mark Fox said, referring to his sophomore forward.The seeding is really good news for Georgia, as it means at least two games at Stegeman (assuming a first round win, of course) where the Dawgs have played really good basketball, particularly since the start of conference play. Vermont was ok on the road (9-7), but the competition was not stiff.
A quick glance tells me this may be a decent matchup for Georgia, too. Vermont appears to be a guard-oriented offense that relies on 3-point shooting. They have three players shooting over 40%, which is fantastic, but I'll take that in an opponent over a strong post presence any day. Georgia has defended the 3 very well (Kentucky notwithstanding), and is able to control the boards against jump shooting teams (Kentucky notwithstanding).
In fact, no one in Georgia's quadrant scares me. There's no reason Georgia can't have success in this field.
Sometimes these tournaments are unpredictable, though. It often comes down to who wants to be there. These games are like bowl games: if you pout, sometimes you find yourself getting upset.
Fox put it like this:
"The first challenge will be, like it is for a lot of teams, when you come short of your original goal, is being able to regroup and get ready to play with the energy and intelligence and effort that you need to play against the good teams. That's challenge No. 1."The good news is, the players are saying the right things so far:
"We can win the NIT if we're selected to go there," Georgia guard Kenny Gaines said after Saturday's loss. "And that would be a great confidence-booster going into next year."Preach it, Kenny. It's not where Georgia wanted to be, but it's where Georgia is, so they may as well go win the thing, right?
h/t Seth Emerson
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