Missouri at Georgia
RECORDS: Missouri (5-8, 0-1) at Georgia (9-5, 1-1)
WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum
WHEN: Saturday 1 p.m.
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Matt Stewart, Barry Booker): Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone); SIRIUS/XM: 83/190
After seeing his team commit 16 turnovers in Wednesday’s loss to South Carolina, there’s obviously one area that Mark Fox hopes his Bulldogs can improve Saturday afternoon against Missouri.
Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.
“I think I’d like to see us with a little better IQ as we play fast. We’re playing faster, we’re scoring at a better percentage but we’re also turning the ball over a little bit more than I’d like,” Fox said before practice Friday. “Just to have a little better decision making as we play a faster tempo is the thing I would say.
“Our hope is we become more and more comfortable. But it’s critical that we make good decisions with the basketball. That’s very important for us right now.”
That wasn’t the case against South Carolina.
Of those 16 turnovers, 12 were courtesy of Yante Maten and J.J. Frazier, each of whom committed six turnovers.
“Two of Yante’s were screening fouls, so that’s just bang, bang plays. I thought J.J. … J.J. had beaten South Carolina four times in a row and made big plays in all four games, so I thought he was a little amped up and I didn’t do a very good job to get him to take a deep breath and relax,” Fox said. “He just played a little over-excited and that probably led him to some questionable plays.”
Maten, second in the SEC in scoring with 20.4 points per game, said there are some areas that he and Frazier both can do to be more efficient.
“Some of it I think is trying to read it ahead,” Maten said. “You definitely have to read before you react to where the defense is. So, me and J.J. are going to have to read where they’re going before they get there to see what’s going to happen before it actually does.”
With a two-game road swing coming up next week to Florida and Ole Miss, it would behoove the Bulldogs to get back on the right foot.
“That’s why the other night, letting that slip away was so big. We win that, we’re 2-0 in the SEC instead of 1-1, so that makes (Saturday’s game) even bigger,” senior Kenny Paul Geno said. “You never want to be under .500. You never want to be at the bottom of the mountain, you want to be either in the middle or above. You don’t ever want to get under that .500 level.”
NOTES: With an RPI of 263, Missouri is the worst team Georgia has played, with the exception of Division II Morehouse. It’s conceivable that the Bulldogs could win and still fall in the RPI. The Bulldogs are currently No. 45 in the Jan. 6 edition of the NCAA RPI. … Frazier is contributing 16 points per game. His team-high 1.9 steals and 4.4 assists per game are fourth- and sixth-best, respectively, in the SEC. … Missouri is led by Kevin Puryear who is averaging 12.7 points per game. Frankie Hughes is adding 10.8 ppg, while Jordan Barnett averages 10 ppg and 7.3 rebounds per contest.
