Dawn of the Dawg
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Georgia Basketball: History won’t repeat itself in SEC Tournament

By Josh Stone

ATLANTA - MARCH 15: Sundiata Gaines #2 of the Georgia Bulldogs celebrates by cutting down the net after defeating the Arkansas Razorbacks 66-57 during the championship game of the SEC Men's Basketball tournament on March 16, 2008 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, on the campus of Georgia Tech, in Atlanta Georia. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
ATLANTA - MARCH 15: Sundiata Gaines #2 of the Georgia Bulldogs celebrates by cutting down the net after defeating the Arkansas Razorbacks 66-57 during the championship game of the SEC Men's Basketball tournament on March 16, 2008 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, on the campus of Georgia Tech, in Atlanta Georia. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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The Georgia Basketball team will not get to play their next game in the 2020 SEC Tournament. The SEC has decided to cancel the remaining games of the SEC Tournament due to the coronavirus.

Georgia Basketball was hitting on all cylinders Wednesday night as it beat the Rebels from Ole Miss by a score of 81-63. With this win, the Bulldogs should have moved on to the second round of the SEC Tournament where they were to face the Florida Gators, with no fans in attendance.

Shortly after the game with the Rebels, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey announced the decision to not allow fans to attend the remaining games of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN. The SEC followed other conferences in response to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. But Thursday morning the SEC announced the cancellation of the remainder of the tournament.

The Bulldogs last won an SEC Tournament Championship in 2008, and here’s where the storyline gets interesting. The 2008 SEC Tournament started in the Georgia Dome, but a tornado touching down in the streets of downtown Atlanta “shook” things up a little bit. Well, maybe a lot.

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As Mississippi State and Alabama played an overtime-thriller on the court, the Georgia Dome was attacked by a surprise tornado. Nowhere in that day’s weather report was there talk of a tornado coming through a major city and interrupting a basketball tournament. Players and coaches stopped dead in their tracks, pointing at the roof of the Dome as it shook. The sound of a freight train followed, blaring through the stadium.

The tornado left damage to the Georgia Dome and questions for the SEC officials, who still had to figure out when and where to finish the tournament, if even possible. They resumed the last couple of minutes of the Mississippi State-Alabama game, then damage was assessed and the remaining games of the tournament were moved to Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The SEC only allowed players’ families and 400 fans to attend the rest of the tournament due to the smaller capacity of Georgia Tech’s arena.

The rest is history as the last-placed Georgia Bulldogs went on to win the championship with victories over Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Arkansas, making the plot twist even more in one of the craziest tournaments to date.

Who did the Bulldogs defeat in the first round in 2008? Ole Miss. So, with a first-round victory over the Rebels already in the books this year, history was going to repeat itself and get the Georgia Basketball team an SEC Tournament Championship in 2020.

The Stone Cold Truth

Georgia Basketball has won only one SEC Tournament Championship since 1983, and that was the 2008 fiasco we pulled off. With the tournament now cancelled, we’re going to have to wait, again, for the Dawgs to try to bring another one home.

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