Georgia begins its 2016-17 season tonight with an exhibition against Fort Valley State. The regular season begins on November 11 at Clemson with the home opener three days later against UNC Asheville.

Mark Fox needs to make the NCAA Tournament this season. The Bulldogs have talent and the SEC on a whole is not really strong. The Bulldogs were selected to finish fourth in conference by the media last month and that seems about right.

Here are five things I think the team needs to do in order to get there.

1 – Georgia needs to get off to a good start. Georgia has won at least 20 games in the last three seasons for just the second time in school history, but only made the NCAA Tournament in one of those seasons. It is still a good accomplishment to win 20, but with teams playing more and more games it is not as sexy as it used to be. It doesn’t guarantee you to get invited to the NCAA Tournament, but it helps. Winning some of these non-conference games against mid-majors will help out though. Last season Georgia lost to Chattanooga, Seton Hall and Kansas State by a combined 11 points. If they would have won two of those they would have gone to a bigger dance. The season before the Dawgs lost to Georgia Tech, Gonzaga and Minnesota and two seasons ago it was Georgia Tech, Davidson, Temple, Nebraska, Colorado and George Washington. Speaking of that, the Dawgs defeated the Yellow Jackets last season, but it needs to happen every year to help their chances.

2 – This year's sophomores need to hit free throws. Of course the whole team needs to make them. Last season, Georgia was fourth in the SEC in free throw percentage connecting on 70.8 percent, but some of the young guns did not do too well. Derek Ogbeide hit 47.2 percent, E’Torrion Wilridge hit 44.4 percent and Mike Edwards hit 29.7 percent. Without those three players, the Bulldogs would have shot 74.7 percent. Last season the team with the highest free throw percentage in the SEC shot 72.5 percent.

3 – Yante Maten, J.J. Frazier and who else? It is great that Georgia has an inside threat and an outside threat, but in my opinion, Georgia needs one more consistent scoring threat. At times last season Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann were big time threats, but both were inconsistent from time-to-time and both are no longer on the team. Take away Maten, Frazier, Gaines and Mann, the other Bulldogs had just three players who had a double-digit scoring game last season (Ogbeide, Kenny Paul Geno and Mike Edwards one each). Maybe it can be freshman Tyree Crump. Crump scored in double-digits in 101 of 109 games at Bainbridge High School including 53 20-point games, 13 30-point games, two 40-point games and a 50-point game. He scored 55 against Worth County as a junior. Then again that was high school, but you never know.

4 – Continue to block shots, but make some steals. Georgia was fifth in the SEC in blocks per game last season. The 5.2 blocks per game was the highest the Bulldogs had in the last ten seasons. But Georgia was 13th in the SEC in steals per game last season. The 4.8 steals per game was the lowest average in the last ten seasons.

5 – Be competitive against Kentucky (and hopefully win). Kentucky is usually the class of the conference and this upcoming season is no different. Big Blue has loads of talent. Like I said earlier, Georgia will have more experience than Kentucky and they need to use it by making smart decisions. The Bulldogs are just 2-11 against the Wildcats under Mark Fox. In all 13 matchups under Fox, Georgia has failed to shoot 50 percent from the floor. You always want to win, but being competitive with a team full of five stars might build confidence and may help them against teams they may face in March (hopefully in the NCAA Tournament).