This team is interesting, is it not?
After every win, it's pretty easy to point to one or two reasons they were victorious. Kenny Gaines won the first Vanderbilt game. J.J. Frazier won the Mississippi State game. Free throws (!) were the biggest factor in this one.
It's just as easy, though, to find a reason each win was more interesting than it had to be. Last night it was 16 turnovers. Against Mississippi State it was poor defensive rebounding. Often it has just been a lack of execution from the free throw line.
I'm not kidding when I say a Georgia team that played a clean game could beat all but three or four teams in the country. Unfortunately, they could lose to most of them too:
After every win, it's pretty easy to point to one or two reasons they were victorious. Kenny Gaines won the first Vanderbilt game. J.J. Frazier won the Mississippi State game. Free throws (!) were the biggest factor in this one.
It's just as easy, though, to find a reason each win was more interesting than it had to be. Last night it was 16 turnovers. Against Mississippi State it was poor defensive rebounding. Often it has just been a lack of execution from the free throw line.
I'm not kidding when I say a Georgia team that played a clean game could beat all but three or four teams in the country. Unfortunately, they could lose to most of them too:
- The Tuesday night crowds have been underwhelming (not a new problem in Athens), but the students are doing their part. Over 2,000 showed up again and they were in their seats early.
- Vanderbilt came to play. To say they played really hard sounds cliche, but it's true. They've lost some close games, and they wanted this one badly.
- The Commodores are going to be pretty good next year. Pairing Damian Jones inside with a few kids that can flat out shoot is going to create a nightmare matchup for other SEC coaches.
- J.J. Frazier didn't quite have it, but that's ok when you have 4 other guys averaging 10+ points. Tonight it was Thornton, Djurisic, and Gaines. Saturday it might be Mann and Frazier. Balance is beautiful.
- Seriously, don't even follow the ball when Georgia's on defense. Just watch Kenny Gaines. The fact that he consistently swats jumpers back over shooters' heads is remarkable.
- Another testament to his defense: Riley LaChance and his 0 points. That's the first time he's been held scoreless in college, and it may be the last.
- LaChance left his mask in the locker room at halftime, and a scrambling ballboy barely got it to him before the start of the second half. Good hustle.
- Speaking of defense, Georgia was as tenacious as I've seen them all year for long stretches of the second half. After Vanderbilt came out and splashed four straight shots, the Bulldogs tightened up and held the Commodores scoreless for almost 6 minutes.
- That same stretch included my favorite sequence of the game. Kenny Gaines had the ball taken away from him by James Siakam and you could see him get mad. He recovered in time to swat Fisher-Davis's layup out of bounds. Then, after a Forte block, Kenny took the ball from Josh Henderson, brought it up, calmly stepped back, and buried a three. The turnover woke him up, and he played really well the rest of the game.
- Cam Forte needs to eliminate the drive from his game. For every time he shakes someone to the ground (and that was beautiful) or spins in the lane, there are at least one or two turnovers. Other than that, though, don't change a thing.
- Actual sequence of events: Up 14, I lean over and tell my mom, "This is where Georgia needs to learn to put teams away. Score 4 or 5 more points and end the game." Immediately after I say that, Fisher-Davis cans a pair of 3-pointers in 13 seconds and it's game on. Sigh.
- Kevin Stallings really got under the skin of just about everyone in Stegeman Coliseum. He was in the officials' ears all game long (I won't comment on the officiating). The bench warning at the end was funny, and felt totally arbitrary, because he had been on the court all night.
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