Georgia basketball: Youth becomes an issue again in loss to Florida

Georgia basketball blew its second 20-point lead in eight days. The Dawgs lost to Florida Wednesday night after leading by as many as 22 points in the second half.

As if one embarrassing blown lead wasn’t enough, Georgia basketball had to blow another 20-point lead. This time to its bitter rivals from Florida.

Georgia (12-10, 2-7) had a 52-30 lead over the Gators when Sahvir Wheeler sunk a layup with 16:41 left in the game. Eight minutes later, Georgia had lost the lead when a three-pointer put the Gators ahead 59-57. Georgia wouldn’t even tie the game the rest of the way and the Gators eventually won 81-75.

How Georgia lost is a painful reminder of how young this team is and how long the process of building a championship contending program can be. Should the record be better than 12-10? Absolutely, and this team deserves a ton of criticism with a month left in the regular season.

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But, not all critiques have immediate responses. Maybe the expectations placed on Georgia at the beginning of the season were too much. Anthony Edwards stat line of 32 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks weren’t enough to carry the team to a victory, just like his 23-10-3 statline wasn’t enough against Missouri, and just like similar stat lines weren’t enough in other losses. The team around Edwards is taking a while to grow up. Tom Crean’s second team is a hodge-podge of his No. 11 ranked 2019 recruiting class and Mark Fox’s last recruits and it shows.

You can see the potential when Georgia jumps out to big first half leads. Freshmen Wheeler and Toumani Camara have moments of brilliance, like Wednesday night when Wheeler dropped 12 points in the first 24 minutes of the game or when Camara was pulling down offensive rebounds while Georgia had its big lead. Fellow freshman Christian Brown also had a good game off the bench with eight points.

The freshman have shown their potential, but have also revealed their youth. Wheeler committed a turnover with 23 seconds left in the game which led to an easy basket for the Gators. Georgia trailed just 77-73 when Wheeler made his error. He also committed the turnover right before Florida took the lead and missed two layups afterwards.

Meanwhile, the Mark Fox recruits who are now upperclassmen, have yet to assert their leadership. Outside of Jordan Harris hitting Rayshaun Hammonds for a three-pointer Wednesday, both, along with Tyree Crump, were silent offensively while Florida took the game over. The team simply lacks the maturity and on-court leadership to maintain its composure when opponents go on runs late in games.

2019-20 is clearly a transitional year for Georgia basketball. Hammonds will be the last of the “Mark Fox guys” next season and maybe he’ll become the on-court force he’s always shown the potential to be. Wheeler, Camara and Brown, if they can use this last month to mature and keep their composure, can become the cornerstone that Crean builds the program on.