Georgia basketball: All we want is a spot in the NCAA Tournament

Georgia basketball lost to South Carolina at home Saturday and now find themselves on the outside of the Tournament looking in.

The Bulldog Nation is a simple lot when it comes to basketball. If you truly bleed red and black, you want every Georgia bulldog team to have success. But we’re realistic, especially when it comes to Georgia basketball.

You know, we’re not asking for a National Championship in 2018. We’re barely asking for an SEC Championship. All we want is a spot in the NCAA Tournament, is that too much to ask for? It apparently is judging by these last two seasons and how these last two games have gone.

Georgia’s last NCAA Tournament appearance was 2015. The Dawgs lost by seven to Michigan State in the first round. But that team broke a four-year drought of NCAA appearances. In 2011, Georgia went to the NCAA Tournament and lost to Washington by three points, in the first round.

Since the start of the new millennium, Georgia has only secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament five times. And one of those appearances was removed from the record books because of NCAA violations.

In none of those years did fans expect Georgia to go all the way to the tournament finals. A Final Four wasn’t even on our minds. No, like I said, we’re a simple bunch with realistic expectations. First we want a win in the tournament.

But after that, we want Georgia basketball to build on the success of making the tournament. I don’t feel like we’re being demanding for wanting to make the NCAA Tournament more than once every four years. I believe that’s a realistic goal.

For a program that’s never sustained success, going to the tournament twice, maybe even three times in a four-year span would be marvelous. But for whatever reason, Georgia basketball can’t seem to do that. They just can’t get over the hump.

Not only that, they seem to go backwards, with the exception of Jim Harrick’s teams in the early 2000’s. Which were responsible for the violations.

Now you can excuse the early Dennis Felton teams, he dealt with harsh punishment from the NCAA. After a 19-8 season (0-8 officially) in 2003 and Sweet 16 season before that, Georgia fell to 16-14 in the 2003-04 season and then to 8-20 the following year.

When Felton finally got Georgia back to the big dance, it was only after a miracle run in Atlanta to win the SEC. That team ended the year 17-17, no where close to an at large bid. The next years team finished 12-20 and Felton was fired.

Mark Fox energized the program initially with a 21-12 season that ended with the aforementioned loss to Washington in 2011. But the next two years they finished 15-17 and 16-17. At least this last time Georgia entered the tournament, they followed with a 20-win season.

And you can argue that the 2015-16 team deserved a spot. But they didn’t get a spot. For the record, Georgia went 19-15 last year.

What’s most troublesome is that tournament appearances seem to come out of no where. The average record of the two teams that precede a Georgia trip to the NCAA Tournament is 15.8 wins-16.1 losses. So not only is Georgia basketball not building on success of making the tournament, they’re not really building towards tournaments either.

The 2006-07 team finished 19-14, but that team played a weak non-conference schedule before the last five games. That team went 2-3 in those last five non-conference games. Then later went 2-5 against ranked SEC teams.

In the 2013-14 season, Georgia went 20-14 which is the only time you can see the program build towards a tournament appearance. That team went 6-6 in non-conference play before finished 12-6 in SEC play.

That’s an issue because it’s difficult to gauge the direction the program is going. Is it stagnate? On a decline? On the rise? You can’t tell. We thought Georgia basketball was heading in the right direction in 2016 after Georgia completed their third-straight 20-win season. But as we’ve already mentioned, they backslid to just 19 wins last year.

The point is. We’re getting impatient. We’re not asking for National Championships or Final Four’s, we just want to see Georgia play in the NCAA Tournament. NIT births were awesome 30 years ago when the NCAA field was smaller and Georgia basketball was not accustomed to playing in post-season tournaments.

But now, we’re over the NIT. I love the National Invitation Tournament and it’s potential for helping programs rise from nothing. It’s certainly helped Georgia basketball go from perennial losers, to constant decency. But decency isn’t satisfactory anymore.

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It’s time to take that next step. Time to go from expecting to settle for the NIT, to expecting a spot in the big dance. That step was supposed to be taken this season. With Coach Fox on the hot seat and leading his most talented team of his time in Athens, Georgia is supposed to roll this year. Win at home, steal some on the road.

And they looked like that team for a couple of months. They played great in the non-conference portion, played Kentucky close. And against Kentucky, that’s all we ask. Then they slaughtered Alabama last Saturday. Georgia basketball was on the rise.

Then came a hideous second half at Missouri that led to a hideous first half in Athens against South Carolina. Both led to gut-wrenching losses. The losses were so ugly, they prompted this story.

See, if they had lost those games the way they lost games last year, I’d be okay. Last year they played everyone tight and always lost in the last-minute. At least then, you can think that eventually through experience they would begin to win.

But the games against Missouri and South Carolina were mostly settled before the final minutes. The USC game was only close because the Gamecocks played poorly in the last-minute. They missed free throws and didn’t inbound very well. Points 1A and 1B of what you must do well to close out games.

Where’s the confidence in this team to live up to expectations. They shoot poorly from everywhere on the floor. Free throws, layups and jump shots are all mediocre. Offensively, they’re stagnant. The defense is pretty good though. But that’s just equating to low scoring losses right now.

There’s still plenty of time left this season. A birth in the NCAA Tournament is still within reach. This group can still become the team that finally gets Georgia basketball over the hump. But doubt hasn’t just settled in with this team, it’s taken up permanent residence.

Again, Coach Fox, Yante Maten, Derek Ogbeide, “Turtle” Jackson, Juwan Parker, the rest of you all, I’m not asking for much. Georgia basketball fans aren’t asking for much. The Bulldog Nation isn’t asking for much. All we want is a spot on that 68-team bracket in March.

And Ogbeide, Jackson, Rayshawn Hammonds, Jordan Harris, those of you who’ll still be Bulldogs next year, we want a spot on that bracket next year too. Once every four years just isn’t cutting it anymore. That’s no longer satisfactory. We want annual appearances.

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Once more, we’re a realistic fan base. We’ll adjust our goals to Final Four’s and National Championships in the future. But for right now, just get us to March Madness on a yearly basis. Win some first-round games, knock off some high-seed teams. Give us some excitement, some optimism.

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