Georgia Basketball: Previewing Thursday’s trip to Alabama
The Alabama Crimson Tide will play host to Georgia basketball on Thursday. In the first meeting this season, Alabama smacked Georgia 80-60 in Athens.
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This will be the first test for the Dawgs without leading scorer, Yante Maten. Maten sustained a regular season ending knee injury in the Saturday loss to Kentucky. Georgia comes in winning 2 of the last 3.
Alabama comes into this game hungry. They are on the bubble of the NCAA tournament. A loss to Georgia could be damaging to their postseason hopes.
By the Numbers
The Tide comes in wanting to play slow and limit possessions. They average 70 points per game on 42.6% shooting. The slow pace they play, limits scoring opportunities, so their defense limits the scoring to only 65.8 opposing points per game. They rebound very well grabbing 40 boards per game.
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Georgia scores 72.6 points per game, and gives up 70 points per game. The rebounding is good at 37.6 rebounds a game. Who will step up to grab more rebounds in the absence of Maten?
Players to Watch
For Bama, the Freshman Forward Braxton Key is the player to watch. The 6’8 Key leads Alabama in scoring with 12 points per game. He grabs 5.6 rebounds a game. He passes very well out of the post, averaging 2.2 assists per game.
For Georgia, it’s J.J. Frazier. Without Maten in the lineup, it’s now 100% Frazier’s team. When Maten went down, Frazier took the game over scoring 36 points. I look for him to boost that 17.3 points per game average tonight with another big game.
Who Will Step Up In the Absence of Maten?
A lot of people would probably say Mike Edwards, but I’m going with Junior Forward Pape Diatta. Diatta was a big time scorer in JUCO and has hit some big shots lately. If Diatta gets his chance, I think he’ll show how good of a scorer he is and gain a bigger role.