Georgia Basketball sees the most losses in single season

Georgia basketball fell to Florida 84-72 on Saturday, giving the men’s team their 23rd loss of the season. That loss marks the most in a single season for the program.

Take that statement in for a moment. In the 117 years of Georgia men’s basketball, there haven’t been more than 21 losses before this season.

Change is overdue for the Dawgs, and this embarrassing stat is the cherry on top for why it needs to happen.

There is no reason a Georgia team should ever have 23 losses in a season. The standard in Athens is far higher than what we see on the court. I’m not blaming the players — the coaching staff and their inability to adjust during the game are just some of the issues.

Georgia basketball hits a new low, which makes the call for change louder.

These players continue to get better, but there is still a disconnect. Nothing they do seems to be consistent enough to get the job done. The last time they played a full game was the Auburn one when they fell short, but it was the Alabama win before that.

Against Florida, Kario Oquendo scored 20 points and led the team for the seventh time in the last eight games. He was a force, but even shooting 7-of-19 from the field, including four three-pointers, wasn’t enough to help the Dawgs win.

Braelen Bridges put up 16 points, made 8-of-12 shots and pulled in seven rebounds. Point guard Aaron Cook scored 10 points and had four assists. The offense shot 46.6% from the field, a solid outing.

It was the defense that let them down again. After halftime, the Gators broke wide open in the second half with 10 unanswered points. Does that sound familiar? It seems like every game this team plays, there is some kind of drought where they can’t get shots to fall, and they can’t get a defensive stop.

Georgia responded with a run of their own, going 13-3, but then it halted as Florida returned with a 12-2 run. The Dawgs kept fighting but couldn’t guard the perimeter well enough to finish the drill. Florida made 14 three-pointers.

The long game for Florida worked the most, which is what they stuck with, but the Dawgs didn’t pressure them to go inside. Florida scored 26 points in the paint, but 42 of their points came from behind the arc.

Georgia didn’t put them in foul trouble and only went to the foul line 11 times. The Dawgs made nine three-pointers, but none of that matters when you can’t stop the opponent.

This loss didn’t come as a surprise. We said that Georgia could lose the rest of their games about five games ago, so another loss isn’t why we’re frustrated. These players deserve better than what they have right now. Of course, the coaches aren’t playing, but it doesn’t seem like they’re giving these players the right tools to be successful.

The last time a Georiga men’s basketball team had 21 losses without Crean as the coach was in the 1955-56 season when they went 3-21 overall. Harbin Lawson was the coach at the time.

Crean had 21 losses in his first season, and Dennis Felton had two seasons with 20 losses in 2004-05 and 2008-09. The only other time a Georgia team had 20 losses in 117 years was in the 1999-2000 season when they went 10-20 under Jim Harrick.

Is this what rock bottom looks like for a basketball program? It feels like the only way to go is up, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like up is an option with the current staff in place.

Georgia basketball holds themselves to a higher standard than what is currently going on, and at this point, the Dawgs could finish 6-25 in the regular season. That record is unacceptable enough to warrant finding a new head coach and staff.