Georgia at LSU
WHERE: Maravich Assembly Center, Baton Rouge
WHEN: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
RECORDS: Georgia 9-8, 1-4; LSU 14-3, 4-0
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Roy Philpott, Mark Wise); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone).
Georgia has gotten off to a 1-4 start five games into SEC play. Already we're hearing grumbling from some of the Bulldogs’ more ardent fans.
Granted, three of the losses have come to ranked opponents such as Tennessee, Auburn, and Kentucky. It's a difficult task for a program learning a new system and playing a different style under first-year coach Tom Crean. The Bulldogs return to action Wednesday night at LSU (7 p.m., SEC Network)
Nevertheless, losing, no matter the circumstances, doesn’t sit well with those only concerned with the bottom line. Crean was asked about that harsh reality Tuesday before leaving for Baton Rouge.
“I think you’ve got to keep the big picture in mind,” Crean said. “We’re working to get better, we’re working to change the style of play, and we’re working to create fundamentals. I know at times it doesn’t look very fundamentally sound with our defense, but I think you’re seeing flashes of what we can become.”
Unfortunately, consistency has not been Georgia’s forte. That has grated on the patience on fans who were expecting immediate signs of a reversal of the program's sagging basketball fortunes.
The Bulldogs (9-8, 1-4) have yet to play what can be described as a complete game, by any stretch of the imagination. Take Saturday’s 62-52 loss to Florida, for example.
After a terrible first half, Georgia rebounded to take a five-point lead in the second. But they were outscored 19-4 over the final minutes, resulting in the 10-point defeat.
“No one is sitting back accepting any of it. We’ve got to keep getting better and better, but the bottom line is we’ve got to deal with it on a daily basis and try to get these guys to understand the level of consistency that goes into this,” Crean said. “No greater example is the game the other day. The first half, we’re not very good. The second half, we’re playing extremely well and we’ve had too many situations where our consistency has been our main enemy. But it will come. I have no doubt about that.”
Georgia's current journey is nothing new.Two of the league’s best basketball programs recently had to go through similar ones of their own.
Rick Barnes finished under .500 his first year as head coach at Tennessee, followed by a 16-16 season in Year 2. Bruce Pearl’s first two Auburn teams finished under .500 before getting the recruits necessary to turn their fortunes around.
“You said it at the very beginning—it’s the first year of our program. We just passed the 10-month date the other day. It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact,” Crean said. “The bottom line is, we’ve got a bunch of guys who are working really, really hard trying to get better and they are getting better. They’re trying to get better at things that are maybe different than what was expected of them in the past, and at the same time, there’s no security blanket player out there.”
For example, last year, the Bulldogs could depend on SEC Player of the Year Yante Maten, someone other players could turn to when the going got tough.
Before that, it was the effervescent point guard J.J. Frazier who, along with Maten, gave Georgia two of the better individual players in the entire SEC.
Although Georgia still failed to quality for the NCAAs, the Bulldogs had two performers who could be counted upon to shoulder the offensive load. Now they're a team still finding its way on the collegiate scene—yet another fact Crean feels has worked against the Bulldogs this year.
Sophomores Nicolas Claxton and Rayshaun Hammonds have had their moments. But again, the overall consistency just hasn’t been where it needs to be.
“They’re not there yet. They’re sophomores, so there’s an inconsistency with that. Are they getting better, working hard and trying? Absolutely, but we can’t have too high of an expectation for guys in college who have never done it. Their improvement level from one year to the next is really high, and we don’t have great decision-making at any position right now,” Crean said. “At the same time, we can’t come and try to slow the game down, because we’ll score less than what we’re scoring now, so we’ve got to continue to make sure we develop their confidence—getting them to play with energy, not with pressure and not doing certain things that are out of their control. To continue to grow, blossom because of that.”
Improving players’ individual skills will remain part of the daily grind as part of the process to get Georgia basketball back on the winning track.
“We’re never going to get away from getting guys better individually on a daily basis. We’re never going to go away from developing the off-hand, we’re never going to get away from shooting, we’re never going to get away from driving and making decisions, we’re never going to get away from footwork, spacing, guarding the ball, Crean said. “You don’t want to have them out there all day long so you give something on that, but we’ve GOT TO DEVELOP SKILLS, because the only thing that gives you true confidence and true energy at the end of the day is your own improvement. When you’re improving, and you’ve got a team full of guys who are improving and you start to win, it takes off. But right now, we’re in the midst of a lot of improvement and trying to get that understood.”
