UGA Basketball Snuffs Out No. 3 Florida Gators | Dawgs Get Critical Win
ATHENS - UGA Basketball needed that… not the second-half collapse, but the win over the No. 3 Florida Gators.
Down two with under a minute to go, and with the season seemingly on the line, Georgia scored eight points in a row in the final seconds to come from behind and beat the Gators after holding a 16-point lead at halftime.
This collapse would have nearly terminal. Nearly - not certainly, but it would have felt like it.
But Blue Cain drilled a three pointer to give Georgia a lead it would not relquish - even though the Dawgs still tried. Up six with nearly no time left, Georgia fouled a three-point shooter… nothing about this team screams: “We are going to do this the easy way.”
Nothing.
Maybe Cain’s shot coupled with RJ Godfrey’s and Asa Newell’s free throws down the stretch was this program’s foot in the ground… “we won’t move one step backward.”
We will see. Here we sit with the Dawgs on the bubble to be sure, but with three substantial wins - over the Gators, Kentucky and St. John’s. At 17-11, Georgia isn’t in the NCAAs just yet, but I’m not sure they are “out” of it, either.
This win makes things far more manageable as we move to March.
The rest of the games Georgia plays are winnable. But nearly all of the games Georgia has played have been winnable - they just have not been winning them. That’s a problem when NCAA bids will come down to wins and losses. This win will matter a ton, but if it is the final win of the season UGA probably won’t get into the NCAA.
But what Georgia has that so many of their foes on the bubble don’t is games they can win that matter.
Consider.
Coming into Tuesday (and these days the “experts” predicting the brackets are quite fluid; after all eyeballs = revenue), Georgia was allegedly “next four out” at ESPN and first four out at CBS. I’m just going to correct ESPN - Georgia, with a Net rating of 40 coming into the win over the Gators - wasn’t behind all of these teams: SMU (41), Vanderbilt (42), UNC (44), Boise (45), Xavier (53), Wake Forest (63), Oklahoma (51) and Indiana (56).
They just aren’t. The Net Rankings were made for a reason. It is what it is.
Comparatively speaking, which is what the NCAAs are about, Georgia has an advantage of most of the teams out there.
Top 100 record | Q1 Wins | Q3 Losses
UGA: 8-11 | 3 | 0
SMU: 4-7 | 0 | 0
Vanderbilt: 8-9 | 3 | 0
UNC: 6-11 | 1 | 1
Boise: 5-6 | 3 | 2
Xavier: 8-10 | 1 | 0
Wake Forest: 7-7 | 2 | 1
Oklahoma: 8-10 | 4 | 1
Indiana: 8-11 | 4 | 0
Georgia has the most (tied) wins in top 100 games; Georgia has the second-most (tied) Q1 wins; Georgia has no Q3 losses.
Georgia is probably closer to being in the tournament than people realize after the win over the Gators. But they can slam the door shut on the program’s first appearance since 2015 win three more wins in the next three weeks.
Why? All of the games UGA plays, including any game in Nashville will be top 100 games, and the game at Texas and any game in Nashville will be a Q1 opportunity.
It is too quick to spike the football on this season. There are still plenty of games to be played. Georgia isn’t where it “should” be because of tight losses at Arkansas, vs. Auburn and vs. State. But you have close games that you lose in basketball. That’s the sport.
That said, the UGA fanbase (most of them at least) was too eager to bury this team. That stretch Georgia just finished started with State (28), A&M (17), Missouri (15), Auburn (1) and the Gators (4).
That’s “about” like playing a Round of 32 game, a Sweet 16 game, an Elite Eight game, a Final Four game and a national title game (perhaps swapping Auburn at Florida’s place in terms of the Final Four and national title game).
This has been a grueling schedule.
Again, for comparison’s sake
SMU’s last five games: Clemson (22), Notre Dame (100), Wake (64), Pitt (55) and Virginian Tech (158)
Indiana’s last five games: Purdue (19), UCLA (25), Michigan State (14), Michigan (21) and Wisconsin (13)
Boise’s last five games: Nevada (72), New Mexico (42), San Diego State (49), San Jose State (174) and UNLV (103)
Georgia’s last five games included three against top-15 ranked teams. The other 15 games listed from SMU, Indiana and Boise have two top-15 COMBINED.
One of these things is not like the other.
It is up to UGA to play better, and close this thing out right (yikes). But what they are up against is both a challenge and an opportunity.
They need to take advantage of it.