Georgia basketball: No hurdle too high for Bulldogs so far

Georgia basketball defeated Winthrop Tuesday night to improve top 7-1. This is the Bulldog’s best start since the 2006-07 season when the Dennis Felton led team started the season 8-1.

At this time last season, Georgia basketball was 5-3. In those three losses, Georgia showed a lot of promise. But ultimately, Georgia never fixed the issues that led to those losses. That led to a disappointing finish to the season. The Bulldogs went 19-15 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.

So far in the 2017-18 season, the Bulldogs are 7-1. They’ve won their last three games, all against teams who went to the NCAA Tournament last season. None of those wins came with comfortable margins, but last season, Georgia’s biggest issue was not finishing games.

During these first eight games, Georgia has made the plays in the final minutes to secure victories. Their win over Saint Mary’s being the biggest. The Gaels ended last season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and entered their game with Georgia as the no. 21 team in the country. The Bulldogs battled and eventually won in overtime 83-81.

And just like that, Georgia basketball has cleared every major hurdle that has faced them so far in the young 2017 season. They’ve defeated NCAA Tournament teams, as well as a Texas A&M Corpus Christi team who lost in last season’s CollegeInsider.com Tournament final by one score.

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There’s only one major hurdle left in the non-conference schedule and that’s the Georgia tech yellow Jackets who were runner-ups in last year’s National Invitation Tournament. It’s also a huge rivalry so expect anything.

With just three non-conference games (excluding the SEC/Big 12 Challenge) remaining, there’s a good chance that the Bulldogs will enter conference play with a 10-1 record. Georgia would then be in good shape to make a run at a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Which is something Mark Fox desperately needs to keep coaching in Athens.

Why Georgia is successful

In non-conference play last season, Georgia averaged a measly .398 from the field. So far this season, Georgia is shooting .459. That’s the biggest difference. last year, Georgia played defense very well, they just couldn’t supply the points at the other end to outscore teams.

.61 percentage points might not seem like much for a team shooting below .500. But the Bulldogs have already made 201 of their 438 attempts this season. By their eighth game last year, Georgia hadn’t even made 200 shots (197) on 479 attempts.

Georgia was mostly abysmal from three-point range last season and for the most part, that hasn’t changed this season. The Bulldogs shot for .325 from long-range last year and .343 in non-conference play. They average .338 so far this season. But, Georgia has attempted 28 less three-point shots this season as they did at this time last year.

The biggest difference is the emergence of four-star Rayshaun Hammonds. He’s done more than just compliment Yante Maten inside the arc, he’s made life for Derek Ogbeide easier. Hammonds shoots .538, which is second behind Ogbeide for players who average at least 20 minutes per game.

Yante Maten and Turtle Jackson both average double-digit points per game, 18.5 and 12.5 respectively. They also shoot .495 and .457 from the field, and .4421 and .405 from beyond the arc. Jackson has emerged as a fairly reliable three-point shooter while Tyree Crump has helped out as well from outside.

Georgia doesn’t have the three-point threat they had last year in J.J. Frazier, but they don’t need one as much this year. They’re able to create points inside the arc much more easily. As the season goes on and defenses begin to take Hammonds more seriously, that will open up more three-point shots.

At that point we will begin to see this teams true potential. Can Jackson and Crump make the shots from outside they need to? And what about freshman Nicholas Claxton who has made three of his seven three-point attempts in limited action this year?

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Answers to those questions will come soon. But for right now, Georgia basketball is on a roll. The Bulldogs are playing better and shooting much than they were at this point last year. But more importantly, they are winning games. That’s the only stat that matters and the only one that actually needs to persist.