Progress Isn’t Always Enough

ATHENS - People talk about there being no moral victories in sports. 

I’m not sure about that. 

Tonight is an example of a situation where I would say there’s certainly something great about the way Georgia played against Bobby Hurley’s No. 20 Arizona State crew. These Dawgs showed tonight that they can, in fact, play with good teams. 

What they didn’t show was that they could close. 

“If we want to beat the teams that we have to play in the SEC we have to learn to put to halves together,” Nicolas Claxton said after the 76-74 loss. “We need to make sure we are playing both halves.”

And there are reasons why that’s the case. Georgia doesn’t have a traditional point guard who can get the ball to the rack and earn you points down the stretch. These Dawgs turn the ball over too often. They went totally cold on the offensive side of the ball in the second half - frankly, the offense was sloppy and bad that half. 

It is always better to win than lose. You always want the girl to say yes if you ask her on a date. 

But you have to build to that, too. And this group is a few tools shy of being able to get were folks want them to ultimately go this year - the NCAA Tournament. No, the season isn’t lost - tonight proved that. But the path to the NCAAs is pretty long and winding right now. I don’t see it, but I also don’t believe in absolutes. 

The crowd was with this team - they want a winner. They do, but right now this group is still learning how to play a complete 40 minutes. The first half was the best I have seen this group play in 2018. The second half was more indicative of their up-and-down nature. 

They aren’t there yet. 

Arizona State, with its guards, are much closer to the prize. They’ve got a duo that can save them late in the game, and that did tonight. The Sun Devils have to be given credit for their fight and decision not to shut it off down double digits on the road (cross country no less). 

Georgia will find its way. But the part to remember is that this won’t be pretty. It looked like tonight was the night where Georgia would have it’s Hobnail Boot moment… they’ll have to earn that somewhere else… Knoxville would be a pretty shocking place to make a statement…

Anyway. 

That Georgia played its best half of the season shows progress is being made. That Georgia lost a game it could or should have won shows progress isn’t always enough.