Austin Peay at Georgia
WHEN: Monday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum
RECORDS: Georgia 8-3, Austin Peay 6-6
TV/RADIO: SEC Network+ (Jeff Dantzler, Dean Keener); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone)
Every day, every practice session is a learning opportunity for Tom Crean’s Georgia basketball team.
Considering this year’s Bulldog squad consists of nine true freshmen, that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
“I think we’re still learning so much, and we’re learning how important each possession is,” Crean said Sunday. “I think we’re learning how important our physicality on the glass needs to be, our communication on defense, our ability to string together good possessions on movement, and how important those things are.”
Monday night against visiting Austin Peay (6-6), the Bulldogs (8-3) will get another chance to show how much they’ve learned before traveling to Memphis on Saturday.
“We’ve shown flashes of it, and we’ve also shown we can play when we’re a little bit desperate, like the SMU game and definitely the Georgia Southern game,” Crean said. “But we’ve got to do a better job of working on our consistency.”
With so many young players, that’s sometimes easier said than done.
Being patient isn’t always easy.
“You want to go faster, but sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you’ve got to push them through that, and every day becomes its own day,” Crean said. “You’ve got a vision of where you want to take the team, and every day you’ve got to make sure you don’t get too far ahead of yourself or you lose guys mentally on where they’ve got to end up.”
Fortunately, that hasn’t been a problem so far.
According to Crean, one of the aspects he loves about his current team is its willingness to learn. That’s enabled him to be more patient than he ordinarily might be.
“I enjoy it a great deal. You have to. Because if you get frustrated or lose patience, then that’s not going to help them. You’ve got to be demanding,” he said. “You can’t accept continual mistakes, but you also have to understand they're really in a learning process, every day. It’s not just what they’re learning, it’s what they’ve got to continue to retain.”
It also helps when two of your best players don’t mind putting in the work to improve.
Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler come immediately to mind.
Edwards, Georgia’s five-star phenom, continues to lead all Division 1 freshmen in scoring at 19.7 points per game, while Wheeler’s ability to adapt to any role Crean puts him in has helped make those around him better.
“Sahvir has done a really good job of being Sahvir. He fits in. He’s going to make everybody better. It’s a gift that he has, and he’s done a good job with that,” Crean said. “The same with Anthony. Anthony is continuing to get better and better, and his teammates see not only his talent, but the fact that he wants to improve. Those parts become huge when players can look around. Again, that’s what we’ve got to get.
“We’ve got to get a full team of guys who bring their best attitude and can work through all the different frustrations and mood swings, all that stuff that goes into it, and understand that the "we" comes before "me." The more you work on that and stress on that, the more it has a chance to happen.”
NOTES: Georgia is averaging 82.5 points per game, which led the SEC and ranked No. 11 nationally as of Sunday (through games of Dec. 28). … Austin Peay is 6-6 to date, most recently securing an 80-69 win over Alabama State on Dec. 21. Injuries hindered the Govs’ development in the early season. In fact, APSU only dressed out eight players against Alabama State. “These guys need down time,” head coach Matt Figger said following the that contest. “They’ve got to get away from basketball, recharge, get healthy. We’ve got to be able to run a practice with 10 guys again.” Only three players have seen action in all 12 of Austin Peay’s outings, and Terry Taylor is the only Governor to start every contest. Taylor’s scoring average of 25.3 ppg ranked No. 4 nationally through games of Dec. 28.
