Tennessee: post mortem

The lack of energy and execution in the first half was incredibly disappointing, and I'm not the only one who thought so.  Mark Fox lit into his team in the postgame interview for sloppy passing, passive defense, and soft offense.  It was almost a worst-case-scenario first half, one in which the Volunteers 7 point lead felt way too small...but also felt insurmountable.

Then Kenny Gaines and J.J. Frazier happened, and now we're talking about a nice win instead of a crippling loss:

• I'm going to go out on a limb and say any game in which Frazier and Gaines combine for 50+ points is a game Georgia is going to win.  Period.
• If Frazier was 6 inches taller he'd probably be averaging a double-double.  It's amazing to watch him rebound in person.  He literally comes out of nowhere.
• Why did Mark Fox yank him immediately after he split the double team with a spin move and buried a three?  I wish I could explain it.  His substitutions drive me batty sometimes.
• Yante Maten struggled from the field last night, and that was very much by design as Tennessee came in determined not to let him have his way, but his 8 rebounds were huge.  Throw in a couple blocked shots and he still managed to affect the game positively despite being taken away offensively.
• Maten and Derke Ogbeide barely lost the rebounding battle to Tennessee's entire team.  It was 22-15.  They matched them in offensive rebounds at 6.
• It was great to see Ogbeide get his first start, too.  He couldn't get the ball in the basket either, but expect huge strides out of him the next few games.  He seems more and more comfortable.
• Another solid effort from Charles Mann.  That's three straight.  And don't look now, but he's shooting 59% from behind the 3-point line.  Shot selection, shot selection, shot selection.
• Kenny Gaines is getting hit with at least one offensive foul per game, and it's almost always the right call.  He has a bad habit of stopping and pushing off with his left arm...
• Some great work out of Mike Edwards on defense and on the boards, which is exactly what Georgia needs out of him right now.
• Kenny Paul Geno is under-appreciated by just about everyone not named Mark Fox.  He'll never score in bunches, but he is exactly what every coach wants out of a 6th man.  He defends, passes, and rebounds, and he doesn't make a ton of costly mistakes (foul language aside, of course).
• Kevin Punter, Jr. is a great player.  Kenny Gaines and J.J. Frazier did a nice job of bottling him up, but he found a way to score, which is what great players do.
• I thought it was a well officiated game.  That doesn't mean I agreed with every call (I especially liked when they called a foul and then huddled to try to figure out who had been fouled), but I thought they were consistent, which is all I ever ask.
• Nice crowd, too.  The building was understandably dead at halftime, but it was rocking when Frazier and Gaines got it going, and it made a huge difference.  I expect more of the same on Saturday.

Was Georgia fortunate to survive that first half?  Yes.  Were they lucky to win the game?  Not at all.  With the first half in Oxford and the second half last night we're starting to see the full potential of this group.  When you have a major scoring threat in the post and two guards who can fill it up you're forcing an opponent to pick their poison.  Last night that meant open looks for the guards, and they knocked them down.

Saturday is huge.  Huge, huge, huge.  Get on down to Athens and make some noise, will ya?