With a 5-13 record in SEC play Georgia basketball enters the SEC Tournament as a No. 13 seed and will need to win five games in five days in order to win the SEC Championship.
Georgia basketball doesn’t have the luxury of an off-day in SEC Tournament this year. The Bulldogs meet Ole Miss in the first round Wednesday, March 11. Tip off is a 7 p.m. ET and the entire tournament is at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Georgia played Ole Miss once in the regular season, a 70-60 loss right in the middle of Georgia’s skid of 10 losses in 12 games. Jordan Harris led the team with 15 points off the bench that day. Anthony Edwards scored 13 and Sahvir Wheeler had 11.
Both teams are near the bottom of the barrel in the SEC, but both have also beaten some teams they were considered underdogs against. Georgia had big wins over Auburn, Tennessee and Arkansas. Ole Miss had a stretch of three-straight games where it defeated Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi State. Those wins have both squads confident in their chances to pull off some upsets and prolong their stay in Nashville. But they have to get past each other first.
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The winner plays the No. 5 Florida Gators in the second round on Thursday. The Gators likely don’t want to play either squad despite sweeping Georgia in the regular season. The Bulldogs had big leads against Florida in both games, but blew both leads. Georgia knows how to jump out to double-digit leads, maybe its learned how to hold on to them after two losses.
A win over Florida would send Georgia to the third round on Friday to play Mississippi State. Georgia had one of its worst losses of the season against Mississippi State, losing 91-59 early in SEC play. Outside of a three-game losing streak to start SEC play, Mississippi State has been one of the conferences most consistent teams. It hasn’t lost consecutive games since then and won 11 of its last 16 conference games.
In the Semifinals on Saturday, Georgia could play either No. 1 Kentucky, No. 8 Tennessee or No. 9 Alabama. Georgia played competitive games against each of those teams. The Bulldogs dominated Tennessee 80-63, but blew a 12-point lead against Alabama in a 105-102 overtime loss. Georgia lost its first game to Kentucky 78-69 and lost the second game 89-79.
No. 2 Auburn and No. 3 LSU lead the bottom of the bracket. No. 6 South Carolina and No. 7 Texas A&M are other teams with SEC Championships on their minds. The SEC Championship game is Sunday, March 15 at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.