Let the madness begin! With the NCAA Tournament fully underway on Thursday, the Georgia Bulldogs will know if they will be advancing to the Round of 32 sometime around midnight. That is because No. 8 Georgia will be taking on the No. 9 Saint Louis Billikens in the first round on Thursday night. Tipoff will be a 9:45 p.m. ET from up in Buffalo. The winner of this game will likely face Michigan.
Although that potential second-round date with Michigan hangs over the program like a dark and ominous cloud, Georgia looks to be in fairly decent shape to get past Saint Louis in the Round of 64. Georgia is seen as a slight favorite over Saint Louis on a neutral floor, but there does seem to be method to the madness over Georgia's first potential NCAA Tournament win in well over two decades.
Everybody and their brother seemed to be picking Georgia over Saint Louis for the same handful of reasons in their pre-game predictions. Whether it be Georgia having played a tougher schedule, the Bulldogs having a more athletic team, or the Dawgs having an answer to Robbie Avila down low in the form of Somto Cyril, it all seems to add up to a totally plausible first-round win for Mike White's team.
Where Georgia might have its biggest strength might be in the backcourt with Jeremiah Wilkinson...
Georgia could potentially run Saint Louis out of the building with its pace
Admittedly, it has been a point of contention all season long for Georgia. White implements a deep, 11-man rotation. With this having been a younger team at the start of the campaign, this was done to not only gain some key pieces on the roster more in-game experience, but to potentially make the opposition play out of sorts, especially when it is not in their nature to go anything close to 11 deep.
While Cyril may be able to give his all vs. Avila in the paint, Georgia needs to lean on the likes of Wilkinson, Blue Cain, and Marcus Millender dictating pace in the backcourt. Should Kanon Catchings catch fire from beyond the arc, there is a pathway for Georgia winning this one quite comfortably. Simply put, there appears to be another gear Georgia can get to that Saint Louis might not have in it.
Ultimately, we are talking about two good basketball teams going at it. The No. 8 vs. No. 9 game is always enticing for that reason. That being said, Georgia having survived the gauntlet of playing in a power league serves the Bulldogs more so than the Billikens coming out of the A-10. Of course, Saint Louis is more than capable of winning this game, but Georgia would have to play down to them a bit.
At this time, Georgia appears to have more ways to win than Saint Louis does coming into this game.