Dawgs Lose Again

Hate being at the bottom of the SEC. Shouldn't be this way. But we're officially 11th in the league with a 3 and 9 record.

We have games remaining at 16 and 10 LSU with their 7-foot center, against Florida, at Kentucky and against the South Carolina team that just beat us a few days ago. Have to play them one game at a time, and I'm a homer who hopes for the best, but when you look at our recent performance you have to admit that there is a real possibility that UGA could end the conference regular season at 3 and 13.

We are on track to being the worst Georgia team in some 30 years, when stats are examined for field goal shooting (.392), 3-point accuracy (.322), scoring (61.3), rebounding (33.6), overall record (12 and 14), and SEC record (3 and 9).

The only squad that performed about as poorly was the 2004 NCAA-sanctioned team that had just 8 scholarship players, which actually shot better at .395, but went 2 and 14 in the SEC. The Felton/Pete Herrmann team of 2009 had just as bad a record, but they shot better from the field (.412), were more accurate from three-point range (.342), rebounded better (37 per game), and scored more (64.9 per contest). Ron Jirsa teams don't have their stats on UGA's official web site any longer, but their overall records were 20 and 15 in 1997 and 15 and 15 in 1998. Before Jirsa were the high performing Tubby Smith and Hugh Durham years.

Looking at today's game, we didn't shoot the ball well. Meanwhile, Vandy's star shooting guard John Jenkins shot lights out. Very efficient. He was 8 of 11 from the field, 6 of 8 from behind the arc, and 6 of 6 from the free throw line. Reminds me of how Chris Lofton of UT used to come into Stegeman and put on a shooting display.

My biggest disappointment is the same one I have mentioned previously. We chunked up way too many three-pointers. We attempted 23 and hit only 3. How does that happen? If we're not a good three-point shooting team then we need to drive the ball to the basket. Gerald Robinson had a pretty good game for us, but that was it. The final score was 61 to 52.

Recap

Can we turn it around? Boy, I sure hope so. We need a couple of high-level recruits or at least a big-time Jeremy Lin-type sleeper, or someone needs to make a big step forward at the end of this year and in the off-season. We're not getting it done as is.