Anthony Edwards, UGA Continue to Surge

ATHENS - Yes, Tom Crean and his Dawgs are getting better. 

It is going to be too little too late - this team would have to win the SEC Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament - but they are clearly getting better. Winners of three of their last four games, Georgia is finally holding on to big leads. 

Tonight’s 99-89 win over Arkansas probably means the Hogs are going to have to win it all in Nashville as well. That list seems to be growing in the league. 

Rayshaun Hammonds played well with his 22 points and eight boards. But it was Anthony Edwards, who is closing this season with a hammer and continues to be nearly impossible to guard at end-of-game moments, who continues to make foes pay. 

Edwards seems to have the ability to float in the air. He is simply exceptional. In my decades of living in basketball world I’ve seen so few people like him. Another 26 points, seven boards and  two assists… he’s is “the” reason why Georgia is playing so well right now. 

There are other reasons, too, but Edwards is the reason for sure. 

Georgia is dangerous. That’s because the’ve been through some things now. They’ve experienced giving away games they have no business giving away. They’ve lost some tough ones, and stolen a game this season. 

You would have to think the losses to Missouri, Alabama and the Gators from earlier this season, are serving as some sort of learning lesson for this bunch. If we are being honest, those losses are the reason why this team isn’t on the bubble. All of those games were in hand… all of those games were handed away. 

But it is Georgia who will now have the chance to close the season by slicing up NCAA-bound foes. LSU and the Gators, the two teams UGA closes with, are pretty well firmly in the tournament. Neither the Gators or LSU can afford a loss to a UGA team that’s not even in the top 75 of the NCAA’s Net Rankings. 

Still, the push forward for the Dawgs at the close of this season means that all of the good will that was built up in the lead up to the start of this year won’t be flushed at the end of it. Georgia had a bad (really bad) January in SEC play. Going 1-6 to start league play isn’t ideal. 

But even with the painful February collapses mentioned earlier, Georgia closed the month going 4-5 - I didn’t see that coming. 

Momentum can still be had as the season draws to a close. Beating the Gators in any sport at any moment is a big deal for the Dawgs. This will be the final time Anthony Edwards plays a game that matters in his one-season home that is Stegeman Coliseum. 

Folks will come out for both of those things. Florida is very beatable for UGA. After all, the Dawgs had that game won before collapsing. 

Georgia hasn’t collapsed lately, and that’s why Wednesday’s game will be so interesting.