The disastrous end to Georgia’s 2025-26 basketball campaign, a 25-point loss to a mid major where the Bulldogs were completely outplayed and outcoached, is a reminder of how far UGA has to go.
That Georgia played in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time since the turn of the century is a reminder of how far the program has come.
Today is not the day to celebrate Mike White and these players, however.
Georgia was totally lost on defense - allowing 102 points in a Tournament game for only the second time in school history. At times it looked like Georgia was unaware of what a backdoor cut is. It looked more than often that reversing the ball on offense was against the rules for UGA.
Georgia wanted to play fast - St. Louis had no problem with that. The difference was that the Billikens, which is a doll from the early 1900s, knew how to play fast - Georgia just wanted to play fast. Knowing and wanting are not the same thing.
The Dawgs were never comfortable. Their nervous energy didn’t translate to sprinting down on defense - it was turned into one-shot offensive possessions and a lack of judgment as to what a good shot is and isn’t. SLU was taking point-blank shots because they spread Georgia out - leaving fewer Dawgs to rebound inside. Then they grabbed all the rebounds they needed to build a lead.
When Georgia cut it to a manageable amount just before the half, St. Louis ripped off another run to put the game away after the quick visit to the locker room.
This program hasn’t won and NCAA Tournament game since 2002. It won’t win another won for the next quarter century if there isn’t urgency from the players on the floor when they get there again.
SLU shot 58.9% from the floor, an inexcusable number at this level of the sport, and even worse at this moment in the calendar. St. Louis made an incredible 75% of non-three point attempts.
75%. Seventy-five percent. I wish I could say that slower for everyone to hear. I don’t shoot that well in the back yard, and I can put the ball in the basketball. I have no idea why Georgia was defending “so far” away from the basket. That allow for tons of space behind them, and therefore the easy cuts to the basket. I try to to be too dramatic, but it looked at times like UGA really didn’t know folks could run behind them. Dropping to the level of the ball? Lol - why bother?
Somtochukwu Cyril had one rebound the entire game. Kanon Catchings was 0-11 shooting the ball. Blue Cain all but disappeared. Those are three of Georgia’s five starters. I’m all for blaming Mike White for not having his team prepared to play this game - because it is pretty evident that’s been the case more than a few times this year. So there is a systemic issue on that front. Something that’s happening multiple times a season is leading to Georgia getting down by too much to come back from.
That’s on White.
But these players are literally getting paid to play, and what we just saw… that’s not close to good enough. UGA fans that traveled from Atlanta spent not less than $1,500 per person for a ticket and to fly and stay in lovely Buffalo in March for that?
Remember that the next time someone is asking you for money, time or emotion to support what you just saw. Georgia has chosen to make Georgia into a big business - and there are reproductions to when businesses fail. And that was failure.
Jeremiah Wilkinson was the only player outside of maybe Smurf Millender that showed up.
So now the hard part begins for White and this program. As long and as hard as it was to get back to respectability, the result in Buffalo has set the program back significantly in terms of perception from fans.
Most Georgia fans, and there are millions of them, don’t have time to watch over 30 basketball games a year, but they will watch the NCAAs - on CBS no less. What they saw Thursday night was the worst of what Georgia was like this season, but it wasn’t the only time that happened.
These Dawgs picked the wrong time to play bad.
And that gets to the underlying point: as White builds and tries to grow this program there are going to be things that are going to have to be fixed. Georgia won more games in the regular season than it ever has this year; it won 20 games for the third year in a row; it was ranked the highest it has been since Jim Harrick was shown the door; it won more SEC games than it has since Mark Fox was doing that against the JV SEC of the mid 2010s; It got the highest seed it has since Jim Harrick.
All of those things are true, and because of those things the level of expectation has grown. Folks are pissed. When is the last time that could be said about a spot at Georgia that’s not football? That means there has been growth. Losing is one thing; this was another matter.
What it means as well as certain things will no longer be tolerated, or the program will go back into the hole in the ground from which White found it. Laying an egg in SEC play is going to happen. Not being ready to play multiple times a season can not happen.
If Georgia is going to move forward and be more like Arkansas than South Carolina it can’t have so many egg-laying moments in a season. The more you lay an egg the better you are at doing it. And eliminating that from what is allowed in your program is the biggest thing Mike White has to accomplish heading into 2027.
But no one wants to hear about 2027 right now, and I don’t blame them.
