Vanderbilt: post mortem

Stop me if you're heard this one before: a slow start and some questionable rotations doomed Georgia on the road.

And the world keeps spinning:

• Mark Fox's excuse for yanking Derek Ogbeide less than 2 minutes into the game?  A hot gym.  I mean...I just...nope...
• Ogbeide is looking every bit the 4* he was rated as coming out of high school.  If deployed correctly, he and Maten could do some damage in the post over the next two years.
• I really do feel for Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines.  I'm confident this isn't how they saw their senior seasons playing out, but any postseason ship has likely sailed.  With that said, neither one of those guys has ever been one to let up, and I don't think they will now.
• I find myself getting jealous when I watch a team like Vanderbilt play.  How many dunks and good looks from long distance did they end up with?  Georgia has at least 3 potentially deadly scorers in Maten, Gaines, and J.J. Frazier, yet very few sets (there are exceptions) end in good looks at the basket.  Why?
• That's a rhetorical question, by the way.  Head on over to www.georgiabasketballblog.com and check the archives.
• Bless his heart, Houston Kessler canned a 3.  I don't expect his minutes to change at this point, so maybe that little bit of confidence will lead to another one or two falling at Auburn.
• Yante Maten hit another 3 too.  I'm telling you, that top of the key long ball will be a weapon for him next year - much like it was for Marcus Thornton his senior season.  The difference?  Maten's shot looks way better.
• Damian Jones has already said he's going to the NBA.  He's ready.
• It's hard to understand why Vanderbilt hasn't won more games this season.  I'm skeptical that Kevin Stallings' job is actually on the line, but just like Georgia fans, I imagine Commodore supporters are starting to reflect on what might have been.  The difference, of course, is that Vanderbilt still has a path to the tournament.
• Kenny Paul Geno should spend all summer cranking 3-pointers in the gym.  I really like what Geno adds on the floor, and I think a lot of the criticism directed his way is unfair, but getting that jumper consistent will make him a real weapon his senior season.
• E'Torrion Wilridge sure looked good in the first half, huh?  Apparently Mark Fox didn't think so.  Second half minutes: 0.

It's now SEC tournament or bust for the Georgia Bulldogs.  That doesn't mean there's nothing to play for.  Mark Fox, whether or not it's true, has to coach as if he's coaching for his job.  The freshmen, given their scant opportunities, have to start earning their minutes next year.  And Gaines and Mann simply have to control what they can control and finish strong.

Vanderbilt: post mortem

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:

• 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.

Just keep winning.  A better team could worry about style points.  Saturday in Columbia is going to be tough; just another day in the reborn SEC.

Game card: Vanderbilt

Opponent:  Vanderbilt
Mascot:  Commodores
Primary color(s):  Black and gold
Record:  11-8 (1-5)
Best player:  Damian Jones
Line:  Georgia -7

Why Georgia will win:  They just beat Vanderbilt on the road in Nashville, so surely they can handle business at home.  J.J. Frazier is nuclear hot, and the scoring is so spread out it's going to be a matter of the Commodores picking their poison.  Stegeman Coliseum continues to be a very difficult place for road teams to get wins.

Why Georgia will lose:  Vanderbilt has lost 1 in a row to Georgia, but they've still won 7 of the last 8.  Riley LaChance was fantastic in Nashville, and had Damian Jones not disappeared Vanderbilt probably would have won the game.  Georgia is unlikely to slow Jones down again.  He's too good.  Kevin Stallings' record against Mark Fox says the Bulldogs are in for a fight.

What I think will happen:  I make this pick through gritted teeth.  Consider me very, very nervous about this one.  Bulldogs keep it going 74-65.

Vanderbilt: post mortem

A desperate team is a dangerous team, and Georgia was desperate last night.  Very few people, myself included, gave the Bulldogs a chance to win that game, and for good reason.  They hadn't beaten the Commodores in almost 5 years, and hadn't won in Nashville since 2006.

It wasn't a masterpiece, but there was more good than bad.  As usual, we'll start with the good:

• The refs were the only ones who could stop Kenny Gaines on Wednesday.  The charge call was terrible, and the subsequent block at the other end might have been clean, but was violent enough that it's going to get called.  Vanderbilt was fortunate he was on the bench for such a large portion of the first half, or things may have been even worse.  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
• Osahen Iduwe, Houston Kessler, and Taylor Echols deserve a ton of credit for the minutes they logged.  Echols, especially, has no conscience, and may force Fox to find a few more minutes for him.  He's now 3-5 from behind the arc this year.
• Marcus Thornton's offense early was key.  It continued the trend of Georgia starting games strong - a trend I could get used to.
• His defense on Damian Jones was fantastic as well.  Jones was frustrated all night, and it showed.  The Bulldogs made it clear from the outset that it wasn't going to be easy for him, and he responded with sloppy play.
• Gaines' defense on LaChance was excellent, too.  Almost all of the damage LaChance did was against someone else.  That made it all the more surprising that Gaines wasn't shadowing him in the last two minutes of the game.  Had he been, I suspect there would have been far less drama.
• Speaking of LaChance, we can look forward to him being quite the annoyance for the next 3 years.  The kid can play.
• The free throws, again, were a mixed bag.  Had the team not started out 5-12 the game would have looked a lot better.  However, they deserve a ton of credit for finishing 11-12, including a couple of huge 1-and-1 conversions from Charles Mann and J.J. Frazier.  As for Frazier's 6-10, I'm not going to worry about it.  Let's hope it was an anomaly.
• Georgia again gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, which is troubling.  They were also out-rebounded as a team.  So they've won the only SEC game in which that happened, and they've lost the two where they dominated on the boards.  Makes perfect sense.
• At some point, every good team learns to go for the throat.  Georgia is not there yet.  They've had opportunities in each conference game to do just that, and they've floundered.  Last game it was Thornton shooting with a ton of time on the shot clock.  This game it was Gaines dribbling the ball off of his foot instead of waiting to be fouled.  That it's veterans making these errors just adds to the concern.  The basketball IQ needs to go up in a hurry.

Georgia needed this one, and they found a way to get it.  All that means is the next one is even bigger.  For today, at least, enjoy the win against a team that has had our number for a long time.

Game card: Vanderbilt

Opponent:  Vanderbilt
Mascot:  Commodores
Primary color(s):  Black and gold
Record:  11-4 (1-1)
Best player:  Damian Jones
Line:  Vanderbilt -2

Why Georgia will win:  Even shorthanded, Georgia is better than Vanderbilt.  The Commodores played Baylor close at home but haven't done much else to impress.  Meanwhile, if nothing else, Georgia is battle tested with two close losses to some of the best teams in the SEC.

Why Georgia will lose:  Where were you February 4, 2006?  That's the last time Georgia won in Nashville.  On top of that, the Bulldogs are desperately shorthanded, and Damian Jones was going to be tough to handle with Yante Maten in the lineup.  If Parker can't go either, it essentially leaves Mark Fox with 6 rotation players.

What I think will happen:  All week I had planned on picking Georgia.  Circle the wagons and whatnot.  I can't do it.  Vanderbilt wins 68-63.

What I hope will happen:

Attrition in Nashville

Vanderbilt gets just a little bit weaker.

Kedren Johnson and Dai-Jon Parker (coveted greatly by Georgia fans coming out of high school) aren't major pieces, by any means, but Vandy also isn't a team overflowing with quality depth.

Georgia plays Vanderbilt twice this season.  For whatever reason, Mark Fox has struggled to beat Kevin Stallings' coached teams.  2015 would be a great time to get over that hump.

h/t ESPN