Georgia vs. Missouri
WHERE: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tenn.
WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m.
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Dayne Bradshaw); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie).
There probably are not a lot of folks who give Georgia much of a chance to advance far in the SEC Tournament, which tips off for the Bulldogs Thursday night in Nashville against Missouri (7 p.m.).
Understandably so.
The Bulldogs (14-11) are the 10th seed in the tournament, having just completed an inconsistent season characterized by a series of drastic ups and downs.
Nevertheless, sophomore point guard Sahvir Wheeler said he and the rest of his Georgia teammates are entering the single-elimination tourney with at least a bit of a positive vibe, considering the team’s early encounter with the No. 7-seeded Tigers resulted in an 80-70 win.
“That gives us a lot of confidence, going against a team we’ve previously beaten—especially at home,” Wheeler said. “We understand what we have to do to win. We understand it’s going to be a good game. But at the end of the day, it’s win or go home. So, they’re going to come out hungry, desperate to win a game, but so are we. It’s going to be a dogfight, but at the end of it, we should be the ones who are going to move on.”
But there is a not-so-small difference between Thursday’s contest and the first meeting in Athens on Feb. 16. Namely, Jeremiah Tilmon will be back on the floor.
At 6-foot-10 and 260 pounds, Tilmon is arguably the best big man in the entire SEC. Considering the tallest man in Georgia’s starting lineup is 6-8 Toumani Camara, that’s going to create a different challenge than what the Bulldogs faced that first time around.
“It’ll have a tremendous impact. He’s as difficult a matchup as there is in the entire league, bar none—because of his size, his mobility, his strength, and I’m as sure as I’m standing here that (Missouri) is going to try and establish him right away in this game with his post presence,” head coach Tom Crean said from Nashville. “We’ve got to be up for that challenge. We prepared for him hard last time, and he wasn’t there. We’re going to have to do a great job. We cannot let him control the post with easy catches and with easy moves to the rim.”
The winner of Thursday’s game gets Arkansas on Friday. Georgia has its hands full with Tilmon and the Tigers, though, and won't begin to worry about the Razorbacks.
Atop Georgia's priority list is the basic goal of putting together a full two halves of intense basketball.
“I think when we’re really locked in, and when we really understand what works for us, we do a good job. We’ve got to have really good ball movement,” Crean said. “We’ve got to be ready to shoot. The ball has to get from side to side. We want to get out on our break, and we have to trust our half-court execution if our break is not there, and do a really good job.”
Playing smart transition defense will also be huge.
Georgia has struggled at times not getting back and failing to do a good job chasing the basketball. Staying positive and playing with constant effort is paramount.
“There have been numerous experiences, but I think the belief that you can win no matter what the situation is, if you keep your spirit up and understand you can’t have empty possessions when momentum is up for grabs,” Crean said. “That’s been our biggest Achilles heels—when it’s right there, and we’ll have three or four bad possessions, and all of a sudden the magnitude of the other teams capitalizing on them. That’s something that we’ve learned, and we talk about. We practice and prepare for it, and we’ve got to do a good job of it.”
Graduate P.J. Horne doesn't disagree.
"I feel like our confidence level is there. We make runs, but we need to make sure we're doing everything we can in the pre-games, and in planning for the games,” Horne said. We try and make sure we have every possible ability to win that game. I feel like we are still growing.”
Crean feels his team is ready.
“I think they’ve gotten better, and I think we were definitely dejected after the Alabama game. It took us a little bit of time to get through that, but we’ve worked to prepare and improve, and we've broken it up pretty well,” Crean said. “We went a little longer on Monday, and much shorter on Tuesday. We’re in our normal on-the-road tournament mindset right now, with smaller meetings and walkthroughs in the hotel. We’ll go to the Bridgestone Arena (Thursday) to have a short practice there, and then tomorrow we’ll be here.”
