Oakland: post mortem

That was a fun game.  Nerve-wracking?  You bet.  Even more so because of its importance to Georgia.  A loss to Oakland may very well have been a "bad" loss on a tournament resume, so consider that a bullet dodged.

But really, that was fun.  Those boys from Oakland can score, and defense would appear to be optional:

• It's not often you survive a 3-point barrage the likes of which Max Hooper put on Georgia last night.  The 7 makes matches his career high.  And just for perspective, that was a career high for a kid who pretty much exclusively shoots 3's.  He has taken 281 shots in his career.  270 were 3-pointers.
• Then there's Kahlil Felder.  And Jalen Hayes.  And Percy Gibson.
• Oakland deserves a lot of credit.  They played at 100 mph, and they were always ready with a big shot when it looked like Georgia might pull away.  Georgia's biggest lead of the night was the final margin: 4.
• Jalen Hayes was like John Brown, part 2.  Yante Maten was the only one with a prayer of guarding him, and he even made Yante look silly a time or two.
• But Yante definitely got his.  He's given Georgia everything they could ask for in the past two games, and yet he has so much room to improve.  Remember: he's just a sophomore.
• Oh, and he's shooting 78% at the free throw line.  You know that gets me excited.
• A solid performance at the line overall thanks to the team going 6/6 down the stretch.  That's how you close a game.
• After a Femi Olujobi foul in the first half, a frustrated Coach Kampe (who apparently forgot to pack the top half of his suit) yelled quite loudly, "32 can't score!"
• 32 is Mike Edwards, and he finished with 14 points.  Give the kid credit, he's been thrown into the deep end and he's learning on the fly.  Extra credit for the breakaway dunk.  His angle didn't look great and the defender was there and then boom he just threw it down.  Incredibly athletic.
• If Edwards isn't starting in place of Houston Kessler this Friday, Fox is seeing something I'm not.  The Kessler family is full of great Dawgs, but the gentleman next to me put it best after one of his many defensive lapses: "He's just not D-1."
• Georgia ceded 13 offensive rebounds again.  Still too many.  I'm more and more anxious to see Ogbeide.  I hope he helps cut that number down a bit.
• Our post defenders are leaving their feet too often.  Edwards and Kessler are particularly guilty here, and it's leading to a lot of fouls and three point plays.
• Welcome back, J.J. Frazier.  23/4/6 with 1 turnover.  That's winning basketball.
• And doesn't this team look better when they run?  Frazier led some masterful breaks last night, and while some credit has to go to Oakland's atrocious defense, ad libbing led to some pretty good looks.  Meanwhile, the half-court sets continue to bog down.  Fox may have to loosen the reins a bit.

Let's credit Georgia for playing well on a tough night.  Coach Fox remarked in the postgame presser that they were all shaken up over what happened to Coach Richt, and that makes sense.  The crowd was incredibly sparse (non-conference Tuesday night game after the head football coach is fired is not a recipe for huge crowds) and the opponent was game.  Despite all of that, they got a big win.

Next up is a good Kansas State team.  We are going to learn a lot about these guys Friday night.  If you can make it to Athens, do so.  These kids deserve our support.