Dawgs fall to Gators (Image: Georgiadogs.com)
The Gators toyed with Georgia for much of the night as the game was no where near as close as the 71-61 score would indicate.
The good news:
-- The Gators are an exceptional basketball team. I would argue that they are the best SEC basketball team since the '96 or '98 Kentucky Wildcats that were swimming in NBA players. When they are focused and giving 100%, they have made teams a lot better than Georgia look like middle schoolers. If you're going to get beat, you might as well get beat by the best.
-- Mike Mercer. After being maligned all week for his terrible shot selection and alleged selfishness, Mercer played his best game in weeks. The box score shows him with 15 points, 5 offensive boards, 8 total rebounds, 3 assists and only 1 turnover.
-- The crowd. The students started getting in line for tickets at 11:00 am on Wednesday. The place had a great pre-game vibe, and Stegeman was ready to rock. Unfortunately, the Gators took the wind out of our sails very early.
-- We got to the foul line. The Dawgs have had trouble getting to the line this year. On the night we were 17 of 20.
The Bad:
-- The offense was once again wretched. I loathe our offensive system (or lack thereof). I hate that we stand around til the shot clock is expiring before moving around. But...it ain't Felton's fault when the players miss 10 shots from point blank. Granted, UF played solid defense and gave us nothing uncontested. But you have to do more with point blank looks.
-- From the 1:26 mark in the first half until the 9:04 mark in the second half, the Dawgs scored SEVEN points. That's a complete, uninterrupted run of 10:30 seconds with only SEVEN offensive points (3 FGs). That is completely unacceptable. The ESPN Game Flow shows the near flat line in the middle of the game.
-- In the first half alone, the Dawgs must have had 6 or 7 possessions where they passed the ball around the horn with no rhyme or reason only to hear the crowd chant "6-5-4-3-2..." until one of the players jacked up an ill advised three pointer.
-- We shot 4 of 22 from the three point line. We're aren't good enough shooters to be jacking up that many threes.
Overall:
-- We're back on the bubble, and we need to win 4 of our final 6 SEC games to make the NCAA tourney. That's doable, but we're counting on a win vs. the struggling Chickens in Columbia. A loss this weekend would all but put us into the NIT. Saturday is a desperation game.
PWD
