Georgia will head to Nashville as an eighth seed and face ninth seed Tennessee at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville after Mississippi beats South Carolina Saturday, 75-70.
Georgia played Tennessee earlier in the season, beating the Volunteers 76-75 in Knoxville after being forced to come back from a 13-point deficit. The rematch with the Volunteers will tip-off at 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 9. It will open the second round of the tournament, and Georgia will play at the same time on Friday against Kentucky should it advance.
Entering Saturday’s action, Tennessee’s RPI ranked at 81, thus giving Georgia an opportunity to claim its 11th win against a top-100 RPI team. The Volunteers had been in the conversation for a tournament bid until falling to LSU – one of the weaker teams in the SEC – and having 16 wins despite a young team.
The Bulldogs had the opportunity to finish as high as a sixth seed entering Saturday’s action, but the 85-67 loss at Arkansas in culmination with Vanderbilt’s win against Florida and Ole Miss’ win forced Georgia to drop to No. 8.
Georgia heads into Nashville with a 18-13 record and its worst conference finish (9-9) since the 2012-13 season as the Bulldogs had finished with either the third or sixth seed in the previous seasons. Georgia lost to LSU the last time it was in an 8/9 matchup, falling 68-63 in the final game of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s career.
Head coach Mark Fox is 7-7 all-time in the SEC Tourney.
Georgia will have plenty to play for as it is hoping for its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2015. The Bulldogs looked to be squarely in the bubble conversation, but they now look to be on the periphery for the second-consecutive season. With a 1-8 record against teams with a top-50 RPI, a great number of teams currently stand ahead of Georgia.
The chances are still present though as Georgia can still potentially play Kentucky and fourth-seeded South Carolina and claim wins against top-tier teams in order to enhance its case. Many of the national media members have completely eliminated Georgia’s chances, including ESPN’s Andy Katz who cemented that only Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina and Vanderbilt make the tournament field in the SEC.
But that’s not the case for one nationally-reputable bracket expert.
“Georgia needs to get to the semifinals in order to put itself into the conversation,” said USA Today bracketologist Shelby Mast.
In regular-season play, Georgia has played both Kentucky and South Carolina down to the final moments. In two games against the Gamecocks, the Bulldogs fell by a combined total of eight points. Not too far behind, Georgia played two down-to-the-wire games against Kentucky and fell by a total of 14 points, including an overtime defeat at Rupp Arena on Jan. 31.
