Dawgs get their fourth straight SEC victory (and 5th in their last 6 games) on the road against Tennessee. This wasn't like the LSU game where someone had to win. Georgia went up there, shot well, handled the ball well, played strong defense, withstood a late rally and still won against a talented team. With the win, Georgia moved into a tie for sixth in the conference at 5-4. Pending Missouri's game at Texas A&M tonight, we could be tied for fifth.
Have we turned a corner or has the conference just fell back to us a bit? That might remain to be seen, but as long as we are winning, I don't care. I think we'd have to win out and make some noise in the SEC Tournament to have a legit shot at the NCAA tournament, but if we win Saturday against Texas A&M, we'll move into the top 100 in RPI. I believe we need to go 6-3 for us to have a shot at the NIT. I know I dissed the 'make the NIT' mentality a couple of weeks ago, and I still believe we should strive for the NCAA every season. However, after our start, making the NIT would be quite a nice achievement.
Getting back to my first sentence, let me say this: Coach Fox has started letting Mann, Gaines, Morris and Cannon get more playing time. It is paying off. We can quibble about how he used those players early and allowed them to develop, but it is easy to see they are coming together some. That is big. We have some very tough games to go: Kentucky at home, road trips to Ole Miss, Arkansas and Vandy. We have games we should win: Texas A&M, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee at home. If we win the four we should win, the one toss up (@Alabama to end the season) and one of the tough games, we'll finish no lower than fifth in the conference.
We could finish fourth and get a double bye in the SEC tournament.
TD
------
I was going to write this, but PWD put it on the Twitters:
#UGA students: We need you Saturday at Stegeman for the bball game. The team is playing good ball and desperately needs support. Pls RT
— Paul Westerdawg (@GeorgiaBlogPWD) February 7, 2013
