Georgia Bulldogs Must Reverse Fortunes Against South Carolina in SEC Tournament
The No. 3 seed Georgia Bulldogs will meet the No. 11 seed South Carolina Gamecocks in the quarterfinals of the 2015 SEC Tournament, and that isn’t a match up that has been good for Georgia all year.
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In 2014-15, it would seem as though South Carolina has Georgia’s number.
South Carolina was able to escape defeat on the football field in 2014 by beating Georgia 38-35 in Columbia. The Gamecocks’ women’s basketball team beat the Lady Bulldogs 58-35, and the men’s basketball team beat Georgia twice during the regular season, 67-50 in Columbia and 64-58 in Athens.
So probably the last thing any Georgia fan wanted to see was South Carolina advancing through the first two rounds of the SEC Tournament to meet Georgia in the quarterfinals after their double-bye, but that’s exactly what happened.
Now the Bulldogs have to figure what practically every team sport in Athens hasn’t been able to do…how to beat South Carolina.
The Gamecocks’ game is defense, and they do it well (just ask Missouri and Ole Miss), and Georgia’s style of play hasn’t lent itself too well in the matchups with Carolina. The Bulldogs want to create fouls and play hard inside, and South Carolina is very adept at defending that style without giving up unnecessary fouls.
When Georgia resorts to the outside, South Carolina’s bigs grab a lot of rebounds and create fast breaks, which the Bulldogs have some trouble defending. Georgia has to step up their shot selection from the outside, and make every offensive opportunity count…and that means getting second chance points.
Can Georgia reverse their fortunes against the Gamecocks? A trip to the SEC Tournament semifinals would go a long way to wiping out some of the frustration that South Carolina has given the Bulldog Nation for the last 12 months.
You can catch the Bulldogs and Gamecocks on the SEC Network at 9:00 pm tonight.