UGA vs. Vols in Hoops Tonight

At 7:00 pm the Georgia Bulldogs (11-5/2-1) will take on the #3 ranked Tennessee Volunteers in hoops on FSN in game that's unlikely to tell us much of anything about the state of this year's Dawgs.

Dennis Felton is roughly 5-28 in SEC road games at Georgia, and he's going to play a team with more talent and depth at every position. The Vols should be pissed off following their road loss to the Wildcats and will likely give us a focused effort. Shocking the SEC and winning isn't out of the question, but the odds are long.

That said. It doesn't matter. This is hoops where a single loss doesn't ruin a season. It's not tonight that could define this season. It's the next three games that will give us incredibly clarity into which direction this team and program are heading:

Wed. Jan 30 - South Carolina (Columbia)
Sat. Feb. 2 - Kentucky (Athens) on CBS
Wed. Feb. 6 - Vandy (Athens)

Those are three must win games regardless of what happens tonight. If UGA can exit the Vanderbilt game at 5-2 in SEC play and 14-6 overall, the season gets interesting.

Our RPI is currently 122nd according to RealTimeRPI.com. Even a loss on the road against the #1 RPI Vols will still probably bring up our score. Our RPI could jump 40 spots in the next two weeks if we play with intelligence and intensity.

After the Vandy game, the schedule takes a turn for the brutal with only three of our following eight games at home.

My point: If we lose by 10 or more tonight, don't read much into it. It's not "jump off a cliff time"...yet. Tennessee is just really damn good. Although, I would love to see a heap better effort than I saw in person last time we went up there.

See Also:
-- Humphrey Leads Dawgs - DawgPost.com
-- Georgia faces tough challenge in Knoxville - AJC
-- Controlling tempo key for Dawgs - ABH
-- Price is Right - UGASports.com

PWD

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