Although some may have given up on them, Georgia’s basketball team never gave up on itself.

Consequently, the Bulldogs have reentered the chase for an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Granted. There’s still work to do.

Georgia (18-11, 6-10) has another big road game on Tuesday night at South Carolina before closing out the regular season at home Saturday afternoon against Vanderbilt.

But the Bulldogs are trending upward.

In this morning’s NET Ranking—an analytic algorithm that ranks wins and losses to help the selection committee build the 68-team field—Georgia is now No. 33, up four spots from 37 before the Bulldogs’ road win Saturday at Texas.

For those keeping score, it’s now 10th among teams in the SEC, which, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi's last tournament projections, had 12 conference programs in the 68-team field.

However, that was before Georgia’s back-to-back wins over Florida (88-83) and Texas (83-67).

In Lunardi’s last projection, Georgia was the first team out, and Texas was the last team in. Once the new projections come out, look for the Bulldogs and Longhorns to at least swap places.

So, why the late-season turnaround?

During his post-game press conference on Saturday night, Mike White highlighted how his young Bulldogs are maturing.

Players are shooting with more confidence. Fewer mistakes are being made. Turnovers are going down.

For much of the season, the Bulldogs could be counted on to produce more turnovers than your neighborhood bakery.

In its win over Texas, Georgia committed just 10.

“We come on the road and have 10 turnovers as opposed to some of these games early on when it's hovering around 20 and even mid-20s in a couple of those games,” White said. “It's just been our Achilles heel. When you go on the road and you have 10 turnovers, it just gives you a chance just to set your defense, to attack the offensive glass. If you’ve got 20 turnovers in this game, you're almost playing with a conscience offensively. You're playing on your heels.”

There’s been no lack of offensive swagger in Georgia’s last two games.

Our Dave McMahon pointed out a great statistic following Saturday's win over the Longhorns: Saturday’s contest marked the first time since 2007 that the Bulldogs had won back-to-back conference games by scoring more than 80 points.

Again, it goes back to confidence.

Freshman Asa Newell has been Georgia’s most consistent offensive performer. Still, now you’re seeing players like Blue Cain and Silas Demary Jr. becoming an even bigger part of the offensive show.

The 26 points Saturday night by Demary Jr. established a new career high, while Cain became the first Georgia guard to have 10-plus points, nine-plus rebounds, and 3-plus steals in a conference game since Anthony Edwards in 2020 against Alabama.

“Overall, the skill development of our team through a lot of hard work has just gotten better,” White said. “Some of it is them making shots, but some of it is the fact that they're making shots because we're getting shots, because we're not throwing it to the other team. We just made a big jump in that category. We're doing a little bit more off the ball than we were.”

That’s where Demary Jr. comes in.

The North Carolina native is playing more off-ball than earlier in the season, taking on more offensive responsibility for the Bulldogs, who have finally started doing the little things well.

“I just think it's just collectively; these guys have bought into making simple plays, hitting singles, and passing it better,” Whtie said. “We’re holding seals better, playing off of two feet, all the little things that lead to value in the basketball at a higher rate in this league.”

If the Bulldogs can continue playing that way, they’ll have a chance to do something most fans gave them no shot at—make the NCAAs for the first time since 2015.