During the game, I kept thinking this is ugly basketball. Then it hit me: As ugly as it was, it was the brand of basketball Georgia has to play to win right now. Yes, the running game is much more exciting. The problem with the running game is one of depth and defenders for Georgia. We are getting deeper with Marcus' reintroduction, but we still have foul issues (both Neme and Marcus had four in regulation). We did run some, but only when it was absolutely there (think the Florveus dunk on the half court feed by Ware).
So, that leaves us with having to play smart offensively, both from shot selection and from a ball protection standpoints. We finally did that a whole game (actually, a game +5minutes). We also have to play aggressive defense, something we can do a bit more with Marcus back. The up side is we created a season high 20 turnovers, also a season high in turnovers by Tennessee, netting a 17-8 point differential on points off turnovers. Between that and slowing down the game, we got a win.
Georgia still has a long way to go, but this was easily the best total team effort we've seen defensively. With what we saw in the loss to Vandy and this win, I have hope that there is something to look forward to. Tennessee isn't as good as Vandy, but with Maymon and Stokes in, they are much better than the team that lost to Oakland and College of Charleston. They beat Florida and gave Kentucky all they could handle. Overall, this is a good win for the Dawgs, as they came back from a deficit late and put a decent team away.
We get to try to make it two SEC wins in a row Saturday afternoon at Stegeman against Ole Miss. 4pm tip on the SECNetwork.
TD
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