Xavier is 27-6 overall and 14-2 in the Atlantic 10. Their biggest major conference wins on the season were against Indiana, Cincy, Kansas State, Virginia and Auburn. They also played and lost to Arizona State and Tennessee (by seven points). This is a battle tested team that has definitely played a big boy schedule. Here's the Tale of the Tape (Source: UGA SID):
UGA has nine all-time NCAA Tournament appearances
- 1983 - #4 seed - Final Four
1985 - #6 seed - 2nd Round
1987 - #8 seed - 1st Round
1990 - #7 seed - 1st Round
1991 - #11 seed - 1st Round
1996 - #8 seed - Sweet 16
1997 - #3 seed - 1st Round
2001 - #8 seed - 1st Round
2002 - #3 seed - 2nd Round
My Top 3 Biggest Wins:
- 1. Beating Michael Jordan's UNC Tarheels in 1983 to advance to the Final Four.
2. Beating Chris Mullins' #1 seed St. John's squad in 1983 to advance to the Sweet 16.
3. Whipping #1 seed Purdue in the 1996 tournament to advance to the Sweet 16.
- 1. Syracuse's John Wallace hits a miracle three pointer in overtime to beat Georgia by two points in 1996. Brutal way to lose a game.
2. The 1997 squad had exceeded everyone's expectations, and a team of puppies secured a #3 seed in Charlotte only to see UT-Chattanooga burn the Dawgs. Georgia lost by three points.
3. Tie: Losing to Southern Illinois (2002), Pitt (1991), KSU (1987) and Missouri (2001) all in either overtime or by less than three points. I would've listed the loss to NC State in the Final Four, but making the Final Four would be so glorious that I can't imagine feeling heart break in losing to another Cinderella by 7.
2nd All-Time Meeting Between Xavier and UGA
Thursday’s game is the second all-time meeting between Georgia and Xavier in basketball. The Bulldogs won the only previous meeting 73-70 on Dec. 29, 1983 in Athens.
There is some degree of significance to that only prior meeting of these schools. Then-Georgia coach Hugh Durham arranged this contest out of respect for the family of one of Georgia’s all-time greats: Vern Fleming. The New York native, who starred at Georgia from 1980-84, had an identical twin brother, Victor Fleming, who played basketball at Xavier during the same span.Georgia won the contest, but Victor won the sibling warfare on that night. He outscored Vern 21-2.
Thanks to the UGA SID's office for many of the factoids.
PWD
6 comments:
While the stats don't paint a rosy picture...I'm going to play the role of eternal optimist and throw those out the window. The only real question is which Georgia shows up. Regular season Georgia or Tournament Georgia.
Wonder what those stats would look like up against the same categories from the SEC tournment.
I saw the 1987 loss to KSU in person at the Special Events Center (now the Huntsman Center, I believe) in Salt Lake City. That was our "Miracle Workers" team (the banner from that season hanging in Stegeman has "TMW" on it to commemorate that team) with Willie Anderson, I believe both Chad and Alec Kessler were on that team, and a few other notables. The KSU team, coached by Lon Kruger, featured Steve Henson at point, Mitch Richmond at the 2 guard, and one other dude who had a cup of coffee in the pro's, but whose name escapes me. I remember he had gone straight into the Army out of high school and came back to play at KSU.
What I recall most was the impression Willie A made on some UNLV fans sitting behind me waiting for their stacked and #1 seeded team featuring Armon "The Hammer" Gilliam to take the floor against Boise State (I believe it was.) They kept muttering "damn...who is that Anderson kid?"
Does anyone know if XM is carrying the games? Looks like I'm probably not going to be able to be in front of a TV tomorrow afternoon.
Good stuff, PWD. You got Claude on speed dial?
re scott:
the games are on XM. Prob the normal SEC channels but check georgiadogs tp get the exact channel
not that it matters, but i'm pretty sure the chattanooga loss was in 1998
Post a Comment