Memphis-UGA preview: Dawgs hope team meeting pays off
No. 18 Memphis at Georgia
WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum
WHEN: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
RECORDS: Georgia 2-5, Memphis 5-1
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Daymeon Fishback); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie).
Members of Georgia’s basketball team are looking within themselves to correct the mistakes that have led to the Bulldogs’ 2-5 start, including losses in four straight games.
According to junior Jaxon Etter, following the team’s 68-65 loss to Wofford, the Bulldogs held a players-only-meeting to try and get everyone on the same page.
“We’ve had two team meetings since I’ve been at Georgia, and both have been with this team, which tells you something about this basketball team,” Etter said Tuesday. “It’s a different level of intelligence with this group of guys. Guys are heady, guys are basketball-smart, they’ve got high IQ for the game, and they know what causes us to lose.
“So, we discussed that; no managers, no coaches, just us. There’s no one else out there on the court but us, so there’s something within us that has to be changed, and I’ve all the confidence in the world that it will.”
Although the Bulldogs have played a tough schedule, it has not been just the opponents causing Georgia problems. Too often, the Bulldogs have been their own worst enemy.
The numbers unfortunately speak for themselves, as this week’s SEC statistics indicate.
Georgia’s numbers include:
• 14th in the SEC in scoring offense (66 ppg).
• 13th in scoring defense (69.43).
• 12th in FT percentage (.654).
• 14th in scoring margin (-3.00).
• 13th in field goal percentage defense (.428).
• 12th in 3-point percentage (.300).
• 12th in defensive rebounding (34.29 rpg).
• 13th in offensive rebounding (35.29).
• 13th in blocked shots (2.86).
• 14th in steals (5.71 spg).
• 14th in turnover margin (-3.29).
• 14th in 3-point shots made (5.57 per game).
With such a wide array of issues to correct, graduate transfer Jailyn Ingram was asked if there was one common denominator that’s kept the Bulldogs off their game.
His answer: communication. With 10 newcomers, playing as one unit on the court continues to be an issue for the Bulldogs, who have to figure things out in a hurry if it wants to compete with 18th-ranked Memphis (5-1) Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum (7:15, SEC Network).
“We’re just trying to gel everything together. We’ve played a tough schedule. We really didn’t schedule a lot of pushover games that we should win; we wanted the challenge,” Ingram said. “But from those losses, we’re figuring out that we can compete at a high level. We’ve just got to find that level of consistency and play it throughout the game.”
Etter said he agreed with Ingram 100 percent.
“We've shown that when we talk, we communicate, we play together, we've shown that we're a really good basketball team,” Etter said. “When we don’t, you can see we’re losing basketball games. We’ve got to fix that consistency. Like Jailyn said, we have some communication issues that need to be picked up, and I think we will.”
Head coach Tom Crean said fans should not doubt how badly the team wants to improve.
“We just need to learn how to win. The hard work, the time they put in, the attitude they have, it’s all there. We just have to learn how to win,” he said. “We’ve had a tough schedule. We played well enough the other day to win—we had some crucial turnovers at the end.”
Etter and Ingram both denied that the team’s confidence is starting to wane.
Although the results thus far might indicate otherwise, closing out contests is obviously an issue for the Bulldogs right now.
“We’re out here playing good basketball teams. We’re not out there playing a bunch of nobodies, but we’re losing winnable games,” Etter said. “We can win big basketball games, I’m telling you. I have all the confidence in the world that we can win basketball games. We’ve just got to figure things out. And it’s little things; it’s not big, giant changes. Sometimes it’s just little communication mishaps. Like Wofford, we lost by three points. Little communication mishaps that we fix, we win that game by 5-10 points.”
