Georgia Beats Eastern Michigan 61-60 in Preseason NIT

The Hoop Dawgs are now 2-1 after defeating EMU today in P-NIT play. The victory puts the basketball team back on pace in terms of quantity and quality of wins, but not on the desired pace for quality of losses. Most folks expected UGA to exit the second round of the P-NIT with this record. However, most anticipated a loss to Purdue instead of Loyola-Chicago.

Today's game was marked by 2 of 12 shooting (unofficially) to open both halves, but Georgia recovered behind big shots by Corey Butler and Dustin Ware to squeak out a win. Per the AJC:

Ware nailed a go-ahead 3-pointer with 49 seconds left as the Bulldogs rallied from an 11-point deficit in the final nine minutes to escape with a 61-60 victory over Eastern Michigan in a consolation game of the NIT Season Tip-Off on Tuesday.

Felton called an outcome changing timeout with about 7 minutes remaining. The Bulldogs were down by 11, and things looked bleak. Coming out of the timeout, the Bulldogs scored 7 quick points and got back into it. Last year, the timeouts often seemed to be called well after the damage had been done, and they did little to alter the game. Good call by the coach.

The team should find out tomorrow who will be in their next "pod," and where the games will be played. In theory, we should be playing two games in Athens in a grouping of three mid-and low-majors.

If I were guessing, I'd say the Athens pod will consist of:

UGA
Cornell
James Madison
Florida Atlantic

Don't everybody go buy their tickets all at once. We'll know more tomorrow.

See Also:

-- Dawgs Win - DaugMan (Yes, I spelled that right)
-- Preseason NIT Bracket - NIT.org

PWD