Georgia Basketball Outlook Heading into the SEC Tournament

Georgia basketball will head to Nashville for the SEC tournament as the 11 Seed after falling at Auburn on Saturday Night 92-78. Georgia will now play Wednesday Night against Missouri at 9:30 ET. Georgia had the opportunity to avoid the Wednesday Night game with a win after Ole Miss lost earlier in the day but that would have required a big upset at Auburn which Georgia could not make happen.

Georgia began the basketball season on fire and many hoped this would be the year the Bulldogs would be able to break through and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 7 years, but Georgia faltered down the stretch of the season. Georgia began the year 14-5 and 4-2 in SEC Play but since then Georgia has gone 2-10 to end the regular season. This leaves Georgia as 16-15 and 6-12 in SEC play on the year and they will need a miracle to win the SEC tournament and end their March Madness drought.

Georgia followed a very similar pattern this year as they did last year when finished 16-16 on the season after starting strong. Georgia was the 11 seed in the SEC Tournament last year as well but fell to the 14 Seeded LSU Tigers in the opening round a year ago. Georgia will open the tournament this year playing a Missouri team who is winless in SEC Play this year. I believe a win here is very important to the program and would not allow the season to end at such an embarrassing low point giving a team its first conference win.

Looking at the bracket, Georgia will hopefully be able to defeat Missouri on Wednesday night and that would set up a matchup against Florida on Thursday Night. Georgia has already fallen to Florida twice this season but both games came down to the final minute in Gainesville and Athens. Then, they would go on to the quarterfinals against Alabama if they could upset Florida. I do not hate this path for Georgia because I believe Alabama and Florida would be the two teams out of the top 6 that we would be able to compete with. Georgia will still be a decent underdog against both Florida and Alabama. I would predict Georgia to beat Missouri and Florida then lose to Alabama in the quarterfinals.

Look for a more in-depth review of the season when the year officially ends but until then we can all hold out hope for a 2008 repeat and a miracle SEC championship run!