How one problem turned into several for Georgia basketball this season
Feb 7, 2017; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia basketball guard Juwan Parker (3) falls down after Florida Gators guard Canyon Barry (24) attempts a shot in the second half of their game at Stegeman Coliseum. The Gators won 72-60. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Georgia basketball lost their 11th game of the season Tuesday night at home to Florida 72-60.
Georgia basketball is sitting not so pretty with a 13-11 record right now. After going 8-4 in nonconference play with a very competitive game against Kansas and a 20 point decimation of Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs were well on their way to a great season.
Then conference play began and Georgia started 3-1 with a loss to South Carolina. But that was okay, no one expected Georgia to go undefeated within the SEC. Then Georgia lost to Florida in a controversially officiated overtime game. Still everything was okay especially after bouncing back with a win over Vanderbilt.
But then came the collapse against Texas A&M and the embarrassing performance against Alabama to effectively take Georgia away from the bubble and into the pool of the hundred plus teams on the outside looking in.
A win over Texas was a lot of fun and helped the SEC tie the Big 12 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Bulldogs followed that however with an overtime loss to Kentucky, a four point loss to South Carolina and, most recently, the 72-60 loss to Florida.
A season that just two months ago fans had high hopes for has become a disappointment. Criticism has come from all angles targeting different issues on the team. Players get into foul trouble too often, they turn the ball over too much, they’re too reliant on J.J. Frazier to bail them out.
Much of the criticism has been on head coach Mark Fox. There are rumblings around the program that his days are numbered, that he has taken Georgia as far as he can. His coaching ability has been criticized because the aforementioned issues.
But what if everything that Georgia struggles with that has led to the 11 disappointing losses would all disappear if Georgia was only better at one thing? What if this team was doomed from the start?
Because what it all boils down to is that besides Frazier and Yante Maten, there are no reliable shooters on this team. There’s no one who the team or the fans trust to take any shot from anywhere. Maybe Jordan Harris, but he needs to improve as a ball handler and distributor before he can get more playing time.
Why does everything boil down to that? Because Georgia can’t just pass to Juwan Parker in the corner and say shoot. They can’t pass to Mike Edwards at the foul line and say take it. You get the point.
Georgia has to spend their whole possession trying to find the perfect shot. That’s a lot of passing the ball around, it’s a lot of dribbling by players who probably shouldn’t be dribbling, and it’s a lot of running through screens away from the ball. All that in hopes of maybe finding a good shot, because the players are too inconsistent to just fire from anywhere at anytime.
That’s where the problems come from. Too many passes and too much dribbling leads to turnovers. After a while that piles up and Georgia has developed a turnover problem. All those screens and all that running and physicality away from the ball creates offensive fouls, granted it’s created a few defensive fouls too.
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Every Georgia game is predictable. The Bulldogs get off to a hot start with lots of early points by Frazier and/or Maten. Then the defenses adjust and opportunities for the duo become less abundant.
Then the team goes on a drought because less skilled shooter are having to take shots, or Frazier’s having to rush shots at the end of the shot clock. That leads to the team having to make risky passes to Maten and Frazier which leads to turnovers.
After a great first 10 minutes, the Bulldogs lose the last 30 and they lose the game.
One issue led to numerous other issues, that have led to 11 losses. It’s unfortunate because this team does have a lot of potential. They played South Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas and Florida all to close games. And they most certainly would not have allowed Texas A&M to make a comeback, or have allowed Alabama to dominate them like they did.
Does Fox deserve some blame? Of course, the team hasn’t changed since the season started and Fox hasn’t found a way to score some more points. But this is the team he has to coach in a league with many teams that are great defensively.
You need to score points in the SEC if you’re going to win. A team with only two good, trustworthy shooters was just never going to cut it.
