Georgia at No. 11 Auburn
WHERE: Auburn Arena, Auburn, Alabama
WHEN: Saturday, 4 p.m.
RECORDS: Georgia 9-5, 1-1; Auburn 11-3, 0-1
TV/RADIO: ESPN2 (Tom Hart, Sean Farnham); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone); XM (381)
Georgia head basketball coach Tom Crean was not on hand Friday when his team left Athens for Saturday’s SEC game at Auburn.
Instead, Crean was in Detroit with his mother, who, according to a UGA spokesman, has been very ill. Crean is expected to re-join the team in time for Saturday’s SEC contest against the Tigers.
Assistant coach Joe Scott spoke to reporters during a teleconference Friday before the team boarded the bus to Auburn.
“You never know all the details. I can’t speak for someone else, but I know it’s his mom, it’s his family. I think he’s doing a really good job of making sure his focus is on this team, making sure we get better. At the same time, it’s his mother, as you guys have heard,” Scott said.
“I know it’s got to be unbelievably hard. I haven’t had to go through that personally, so I’m fortunate. But seeing how Tom is handling it, I think he’s doing a really good job. Hopefully, in some way, our guys will see that. It’s called life—you’ve got to respond to different things, be present where you are at all times and give what you have. In this instance, Tom’s giving it all he has in the two most important areas of his life.”
Tip-off at Auburn Arena is set for 4 p.m. (ESPN 2).
Both the Tigers (11-3, 0-1) and Bulldogs (9-5, 1-1) have something to prove.
For Georgia, it’s the desire to show that their first road trip, a 96-50 loss last Saturday at Tennessee, was an aberration. Auburn, on the other hand, is coming off an 82-67 loss at Ole Miss.
“They played great—give them credit. We did not play well,” coach Bruce Pearl told the Auburn Network. “The layoff obviously hurt us, and I didn’t do a good job of getting our team prepared. We had a long time to get prepared for Ole Miss, so we knew what to do. Obviously, we didn’t execute it. We got hit in the mouth, and now we have an opportunity to respond to it.”
Georgia sophomore Nicolas Claxton expects nothing less.
“We know they’re a dangerous team,” Claxton said. “It’s going to be hostile environment, but we’re prepared. The coaching staff has done a great job of preparing us and we’re ready.”
Scott said there’s one main lesson the Bulldogs take from the loss to Tennessee, Georgia’s largest SEC defeat since 1959.
“I think the main lesson, and it’s something we have to collectively get as we go game to game. What we’ve got to concentrate on is, every game is about ourselves,” Scott said. “It’s about our identity, it’s about who we are. Possibly, there was a little bit too much Tennessee the first game. For us, we’ve got to play a certain way, we have got be locked in, in certain ways, and we have to understand that’s the way it’s going to have to be all year.”
Pearl, meanwhile, wants to see a more physical version of his team than what he saw against the Rebels.
“I thought the physicality of the game was obviously different than what I could duplicate in practice. And the pace,” Pearl said. “They out-rebounded us, and when they get 13 offensive rebounds and we have 21 defensive rebounds, too many 50/50 balls. We had eight 2-point baskets, and that means guys getting to the rim and finishing, and finishing through contact.”
Claxton said that he and the Bulldogs can bottle the effort they displayed against Vanderbilt to hopefully come away with the upset win.
“I’d say that definitely restored our confidence,” Claxton said. “But we know Auburn is coming off a loss, and they’ll be ready to play. We have to play smarter, I’d say, and not get in foul trouble. We just have to be smart and aggressive.”
