Ole Miss: post mortem

That was a tough loss for so many reasons.  It's a game Georgia easily could have won against an opponent who will probably be on or near the bubble at the end of the season lost on a circus shot in the last seconds of regulation.  That's now 3 losses by a total of 5 points, and each one is painful in its own way:

• In a 1-point loss, it's tempting to go back and figure out where the game might have been lost, so indulge me while I do just that.
• Start with the very first possession of the game.  Georgia, by and large, gets very little done on inbounds plays, and Stefan Moody had obviously watched some tape.  He sat on the long inbounds pass and got two free points.
• Then there's the technical foul on Kenny Paul Geno - a truly baffling call.  I'm not endorsing the language, and had Geno aimed the comment directly at the Ole Miss player the call would have been justified.  As it happened, though, that's just a terrible call, plain and simple.  You're a referee not the morality police.
• Only the officials can stop Yante Maten.  Don't you get the feeling Georgia might have pulled it out if he had been able to play the last few minutes?
• It's tempting to blame the loss on the free throws, but Ole Miss was just as bad in that department.  It was essentially a wash.
• In fact, if you want to see what two evenly matched teams look like, scan the box score for this one.  For starters, you'll see the same exact shooting percentage on the same number of shots.
• Forgive me for saying so, but Stefan Moody has to be the most over-hyped player in the SEC (much like Marshall Henderson before him).  Is he good?  Yes!  He's very good.   But aside from free throw percentage, where does he stand out?  He's a high scorer because he's a volume shooter.  His assist-to-turnover ratio is nice but not astronomical, and he can steal the ball.
• But he sure does get the star treatment from the officials.  You can't touch the guy (the call on Gaines in the last two minutes was particularly egregious)...
• Teams are starting to clamp down on Maten and J.J. Frazier.  Maten's answer has been an extension of his game to the top of the key (and now officially above the 3-point line).  Frazier continues to be productive in many areas, but he's struggling to find good looks.
• Charles Mann was great, and the officials got to call a charge on him, so all is right with the world.
• Nice strong move by Toe in the post.  That was unexpected.
• Nice game for Derek Ogbeide too - a point away from the first of many double-doubles.  He's going to keep getting better and better.
• I have to ride the fans a little bit - if it were up to the Ole Miss crowd, every single opponent possession would end with a travel or an offensive foul.  There's a fine line between partisan and ignorant.
• Speaking of...that ball went out of bounds off of Moody, didn't it?  It seemed clear from the replay.  Is that me being biased?

After Frazier's 3-pointer to make it a 4 point game, I think Georgia got everything they wanted.  A Rasheed Brooks corner 3 (he's shooting less than 30% on the season), followed by a nice look for Kenny Gaines, followed by a great defensive possession that forced an ugly shot.  If any of those three things goes a different way, Georgia wins.  Unfortunately, it wasn't in the cards.

This is one to remember if Georgia is on or outside the bubble in two months.  Tennessee becomes almost a must-win game on Wednesday night.  Hope to see you there.