A big opportunity was wasted on Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum. With a chance at getting their best win of the season, Georgia was once again outclassed by the arch rival Florida Gators in SEC play, 86-66. This defeat knocks Georgia back to 17-7 overall and 5-6 in SEC play. Georgia may have had an outside shot at the victory, but it was not meant to be. There are certainly levels to this...
Georgia's NET rating will likely go down, as they will have picked up another Quad 1 defeat. The Bulldogs will be 3-5 in those games, with the Auburn victory from earlier in the season now of the Quad 2 variety. As far as if they will make the NCAA Tournament, they need to hold their own vs. lesser competition the rest of the way. The latest Bracketology update had UGA as a No. 10 seed.
So what we are going to do today is look for a few silver linings from Wednesday's home beatdown at the hands of Florida. They may not be easy to see right now, but they do exist. While some of these are out of Georgia's control, it is all about attitude the rest of the way. How do you respond to an embarrassing home defeat? You must pick yourself up by the bootstraps and play smart basketball.
Here are three silver linings from last night's brutally bad loss to Florida for these Georgia Bulldogs...
3. The Florida Gators have become an absolute buzzsaw in SEC play
There is no way around it. Florida has become one of the best teams in the country once again. This was a major home stage for UGA going up against their biggest rival and the defending national champions. While Florida's record on the year is only slightly better at 18-6, the Gators have been wiping the floor in league play vs. SEC competition. They just improved to a conference-best 9-2...
Admittedly, it would have been quite impressive if Georgia would have been able to split the season series with the Gators. Sadly, it was roughly the same product on the court in both games, with a major contributor missing the better part of a game, if not all in this case... Florida had a NET rating of 10 coming into Wednesday night's matchup, which was the toughest team Georgia still had to play.
Sometimes you go up against a team that is just better than you, as that was the case for UGA here.
2. Jeremiah Wilkinson being out severely limited Georgia's ceiling
It is not about excuse making at this point of the season. However, Georgia not having their best go-to scorer in Jeremiah Wilkinson available certainly hurt. He was the only player of Georgia's on the injury report coming in. While Georgia tried to make up the difference, it never really had a chance... Mike White's Bulldogs really missed Wilkinson's 17.1 points per game, almost the margin of defeat.
Anytime your are down arguably your best player, it is less than ideal for your basketball team. To be down your best player vs. the top team in your league who happens to be your rival is disastrous. While it remains to be seen if and when Wilkinson will return, Georgia does implement a deep 11-man rotation under Mike White. They have 10 other players who have major in-game experience for UGA.
There is a chance this might have been a calculated injury recovery spot vs. a difficult opponent...
1. Next up will be Oklahoma on the road in a very winnable Quad 1 game
For as tough of a Quad 1 matchup as Georgia had vs. Florida on Wednesday night, they have a fantastic opportunity to avenge this defeat to some degree. Yes, Georgia's next road game will be of the Quad 1 variety, as they will be taking on Oklahoma. Right now, it is only barely a Quad 1 win, as Oklahoma's NET rating is 75 and UGA will be on the road. It is the worst team in the SEC, by the way.
Oklahoma will have had a week in between games. They nearly collapsed in on themselves despite being up massively to a ranked Vanderbilt team in Nashville. OU won by a single point... At 12-12 on the year and only 2-9 in SEC play, this is a game Georgia has to have. Even if it does drop down to a Quad 2 game, they are catching Oklahoma at the perfect time when its depreciated stock is rising.
As long as Georgia beats Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon, it will still be in tournament discussions.