UGA loses to UT 86-77

For the middle 23 minutes of Saturday's game, Georgia played as well as this team could possibly play. The first four and last eight minutes...not so much in losing this one.

During the 23 minute stretch Georgia when UGA was playing its best ball since the SEC Tourney, they outscored the Vols 57-44. Then the wheels fell off. The Dawgs didn't hit a field goal from the 8:10 mark in the second half until Rickey McFee's meaningless 3 pointer with 8 seconds left. During that run, they also collapsed at the free throw line and went 9-6 from the stripe.

As Corey Butler told the ABH:

“It was really a product of finishing the game, again, rebounding,” Georgia senior guard Corey Butler said. “When we took control of the game, I think we were up (10) points, we took control of the glass. But when you saw the game slipping, that’s when we lost control of the glass.”

Yep. That and not making shots. Here are some positives and negatives:

• There is hope for the future - Trey Thompkins, Dustin Ware and Travis Leslie form the nucleus of a solid SEC team in future years. The near term problem is they are absolutely puppies out there. Ware in particular played an exceptional game getting 11 points and only 1 turnover in 16 minutes.
  
  
• Substitution Patterns - Given how well Ware was playing, I really don't understand why he didn't get more minutes. We need a kid with his wheels when playing a team as fast as UT.
  
  
• Cameron Tatum - Tennessee's starting freshman had 13 points in the game. He's from Tucker, Georgia. 61 miles from Athens.
  
  
• Competition Level - We likely won't play a dramatically better team than UT for a while. If they could ever find a way to play consistently for 40 minutes, or legally change the game length to 35 minutes, we'd be ok in a down SEC.

The hope really lies in what Trey Thompkins told the ABH:

"...we had been getting every shot we wanted and being patient," said Georgia freshman forward Trey Thompkins, who scored 14 points, but was held scoreless for the final 14 minutes. "But for some reason, we just started rushing shots and started playing into their hands."

If they ever figure out that "for some reason" issue, they'll be fine. In the meantime, we'll keep getting headlines like "Dawgs find a way to lose."

PWD