It may have only been a two-point home defeat in overtime, but the Georgia Bulldogs' latest SEC loss to the Ole Miss Rebels could not have come at a worse time. Their 97-95 stumbling at home not only showed the rest of the SEC how to beat UGA at Stegeman this season, but it has negatively impacted their standings in Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology update for ESPN. Georgia is dropping a bit here...
Lunardi has Georgia in the NCAA Tournament field as No. 9 seed. The Bulldogs dropped two seeds from No. 7 in his latest update from Tuesday. They are now 14-3 overall and 2-2 in SEC play. A No. 7 seed had been Georgia's highest projection up to this point. Right now, Lunardi has Georgia taking on the Iowa Hawkeyes in the East Regional with the UConn Huskies as the No. 1 seed in that quadrant.
The reason for this is Georgia somehow suffered a Quad 3 loss at home to Ole Miss. It would have been a Quad 3 win for the Dawgs if they just had their collective stuff together. Instead, one of the easiest games the Bulldogs had left on their schedule went to the wayside. They only have one more Quad 3 game left at this time. That would be to South Carolina at home on Feb. 28, a team they beat.
With conference losses to Florida and now Ole Miss, Georgia better be ready for Arkansas Saturday.
Georgia has to stop the Bracketology bleeding with its Arkansas showing
Look. The only sliver of hope Georgia has to stay ranked inside the top 25 for another week is to hold serve and beat what looks to be a better Arkansas Razorbacks team than them. ESPN's matchup predictor does have UGA favored to beat the Hogs by 58.5 percent to 41.5. That should bode well for the Bulldogs, but did we not just see them lose to Chris Beard's Ole Miss team at home in overtime?
To be quite frank, this is a game where the winner will stay ranked, while the loser will stumble out of the top 25. Arkansas is the No. 17 team in the country. The Razorbacks are 13-4 overall, but 3-1 in SEC play. We all know what kind of force John Calipari can be on the sidelines. Mike White cannot get outclassed in crunch time like he did vs. Beard on Wednesday night. This game may prove so pivotal.
As long as Georgia gets close to 20 wins on the year before the end of conference play, the Bulldogs should make the NCAA Tournament once again quite easily. Lunardi does have 10 of the 16 teams competing in the SEC in his field as of Friday morning's update. Again, this is a Quad 1 game for both Georgia and Arkansas. The stakes are rather high for this late afternoon tipoff. Who is going to win?
If Georgia can beat Arkansas at home, this might be a team that comfortably makes the field after all.