Under Mike White, his Georgia Bulldogs like to live dangerously. They have played in so many close games this year. While they have come out on the winning side of them more often than not, the frenetic pace with which they play has finally gotten the best of them in the worst way imaginable. In a game Georgia was favored by 10.5 points at home, it lost to Ole Miss on a buzzer-beater in overtime.
Yes, it may only look like a 97-95 home defeat to a well-coached conference foe. However, this was Georgia's first home loss of the season, dropping the Dawgs to 2-2 in SEC play. Georgia may be 14-3 overall, but unless they stop the bleeding and beat a ranked Arkansas team at home on Saturday afternoon, the Dawgs will not be ranked next week. Playing at this pace has finally caught up to them.
White may be a savvy head coach, but Chris Beard is more accomplished in the profession. His Ole Miss team may not have gotten off to the best of starts, but the Rebels are now 10-7 on the season, 2-2 in SEC play, and have a win over a ranked opponent on the road in dramatic fashion. In short, Ole Miss needed to have that game, just as much as Georgia did. This goes down as a Quad 3 loss, folks...
Let's now unpack why playing with such tremendous pace is proving to be a double-edged sword.
Georgia's home loss to Ole Miss should serve a Mike White wakeup call
When looking at the stats from this game, Ole Miss shot considerably better from the field than Georgia. The Rebels connected on 51 percent of their field-goal attempts, when compared to the 38 percent Georgia was able to muster. Both teams made around the same percentage of free throws and 3-pointers. The turnovers were about the same and so were the rebounds. Ole Miss fouled more.
What is very stunning is Ole Miss decided to play with a deep rotation as well. Georgia usually plays 11 guys in a game, although Kareem Stagg and Jake Wilkins only played two minutes apiece. Ole Miss went 11 deep as well. AJ Storr lit UGA up off the bench with a team-hight 27 points. Jeremiah Wilkinson led the way for Georgia with 32 points, did not get hardly any support at all from Blue Cain.
There is no way around it. Cain was awful vs. Ole Miss. He was 0-for-7 from the field and 0-for-4 from distance. He did make three free throws, so that was cool. In the end, he was benched down the stretch and in crunchtime for Georgia. It did not help that Somto Cyril lost his temper again and got ejected after his questionable fifth foul. Those guys need to step up their games in conference play.
Overall, even though Wilkinson is always going to get his, White needs his team to play with a bit more basketball savvy when it matters most. It almost always feels like they are trying to give the game away in crucial possessions, only to bail themselves out in the end. It worked against Auburn and South Carolina, but not Ole Miss. Kanon Catchings and Marcus Millender need more support as well.
Georgia is likely a tournament team for the second year in a row, but this loss was quite unbelievable.