Ole Miss at Georgia
WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum
WHEN: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
RECORDS: Georgia 9-3, Ole Miss 8-5
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Mike Morgan, Pat Bradley); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone)
Georgia hosts Ole Miss in its conference home opener Wednesday afternoon (6:30., SEC Network), but Saturday’s disappointing loss to Kentucky left the Bulldogs in somewhat of a cranky mood.
Not that losing a game in Rupp Arena to the perennial power is an unusual happenstance.
The Wildcats have long dominated the series between the two schools, but it’s how Georgia dropped Saturday’s 67-61 decision – after leading for most the game - that left those spoken to Tuesday in a little bit of snit.
Don't ask Mark Fox was what his message was to the team after the game.
“What do you think it was? We were disappointed that we lost,” Fox said. “It’s a game that was hard fought, they’re all going to be hard-fought battles and it’s time to saddle up and get ready for the next game. You’ve got to get ready every game.”
Senior Yante Maten didn’t disagree.
“We just did not play as well as we wanted to,” he said. “It’s something we can learn from. We need to learn that we can get better shots by not rushing as much as we did. Defensively, we’ve got to improve all the way around … the three-point line, the interior, and not give up fouls. We showed we can play with the best, it’s a stepping stone for us, but it’s something we’ve got to learn from and get better.”
Beginning, he hopes with Wednesday’s game against the Rebels, who come in 8-5 and 1-0 in league play after a 74-69 win over South Carolina.
The contest will feature two of the league’s deeper rotations.
Ten Bulldogs are logging double-digit minutes, nine for the Rebels, including six with 20 more or more.
“I think they’re playing with great confidence. They’ve won a couple in a row and I think they’ve found a chemistry and confidence that they really like right now,” Fox said. “They’re a very explosive scoring team on the perimeter with a lot of good three-point shoot surrounding a 7-footer inside, so they’re probably playing their best basketball of the year. We’ll have to make sure we’re more complete than we were the other night. You’ve got to play the full 40 minutes of a league game. That will be important for us.”
Despite Saturday’s lapses, Fox feels his team continues to improve.
Maten continues to do his thing, while Jackson continues to improve as a scorer after posting four career-best scoring outputs in Georgia’s first five games – 11, 13, 16 and 17 points.
“I think we continue to get better each week. I don’t think our confidence has been shaken,” Fox said. “I think we feel that each week our confidence continues to grow and that’s going to be important to maintain throughout the conference season. But there’s going to be a lot of hard game, a lot of different style of games that our freshmen are going to have to adjust to on the fly.”
NOTES: Last season, Georgia’s bench outscored its opponents’ reserves nine times in 34 games. This season, the Bulldogs’ non-starters have produced more points than their counterparts in eight of 12 outings. Georgia’s bench finished 2016-17 with a -95 point margin. This year, the Bulldogs are +42.
Maten is...
• 3 points from No. 9 Terry Fair
• 28 points from No. 8 Shandon Anderson
• 39 points from No. 7 J.J. Frazier
• 19 rebounds from No. 8 Carlos Strong
• 54 free throws from No. 4 J.J. Frazier
