ATHENS — There were 13 lead changes before Missouri landed the knockout punch on Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum, a 15-0 run in the second half.
The Bulldogs (16-10, 4-9 SEC) took a 41-38 lead into halftime against No. 21 Missouri (19-6, 8-4), desperately in need of the home court win to solidify NCAA tourney hopes.
Instead, the team from the Show-Me State showed everyone why they are yet another viable contender from this historically good SEC. The league has been projected to get 13 teams in the 68-team NCAA tourney field, which would eclipse the previous record set by the Big East in 2011 (11).
The dialed-in Georgia basketball fans understand this is the best version of Bulldogs’ basketball in at least 10 years, but their frustration is mounting just as much as it is for third-year Coach Mike White.
“We have to play a little more frustrated,” White said, issuing a blanket statement to his team not unlike the challenge Kirby Smart put before his Bulldogs last season, when he essentially challenged them to win more one-on-ones and show more toughness.
White still praises and stands behind his team, but he’s right when he suggests they can do better, and how effort plays a role in turnovers and surrendering costly offensive rebounds.
RJ Godfrey, a junior transfer from Clemson, put the loss to Missouri on himself and his teammates.
“It’s not a good feeling knowing the other team played harder,” Godfrey said. “They got every 50-50 ball and out-rebounded us. It sucks knowing they controlled the game.
“I have a lot of fire left …. we grow from today to tomorrow, and the next day it will carry over.”
Godfrey has the sort of leadership and attitude to be a big part of the solution when it comes to leading at the side ot team captain Silas Demary Jr.
Demary Jr. is one of many UGA players who continues to improve his game each time he takes the court, and on Saturday, he played all 40 minutes of the game without a breather.
Georgia basketball, while improved, does not have the depth, talent or proven championship culture the UGA football team exhibited in winning a historically deep and balanced SEC football league.
But they do have the fight, and a similar agenda to be resilient and accomplish something special.
For basketball, that means making the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years.
Right now, White and his players just want to win a game, hence the head coach’s challenge.
“I wish we’d get a little more frustrated — block out, get a rebound, get a stop,” said White, a former All-SEC point guard who once led Ole Miss to the NCAA tourney. “I wish we would have played more frustrated early second half, or entire second half.”
And still, in the all-important “NET” computer ranking — which the NCAA tournament selection committee utilizes — Georgia ranks as the 38th-best team in the nation.
If someone had told UGA fans before the season they would have a higher computer rank than the likes of North Carolina, Indiana, Memphis and Wake Forest, they would be doing backflips and dancing in the streets.
But the Bulldogs’ win total falls short of a “Big Dance” invite at the moment, and that’s with a trip to No. 1 Auburn ahead next Saturday, and a red-hot No. 3-ranked Florida coming to Athens on Feb. 25.
Three-game losing streaks are never a great thing, but especially when you have two of the best three teams in the nation on deck.
It’s possible, and perhaps even likely, that UGA will be on a five-game losing streak when they enter into the most important three-game stretch in recent program history:
• at Texas, March 1
• at South Carolina, March 4
• Home vs. Vanderbilt, March 8
Then, the SEC Tournament in Nashville, March 12-16.
March Madness will become March Sadness if the Bulldogs can’t get to the 20-win mark, one way or another.
It could come down to Georgia, as good as a program as it has become — good enough to beat ranked teams like St. Johns, Kentucky and Oklahoma — not being good enough amid the SEC landscape.
But that’s not how these Bulldogs are feeling about things.
“We just have to play harder, our focus has to go up during our second half,” said SEC Freshman of the Year candidate Asa Newell, who had 23 points on 11-of-15 shooting and 10 rebounds in the loss to Missouri.
“We have to watch the film and see what we did wrong.”
White and his team are convinced there are fixable things that, once solved, will lead to more wins.
There are silver linings and proof of growth, as the team’s free-throw and shooting issues have been fixed.
Ball movement improved against Missouri, too, as White pointed out.
“It was one of our better offensive SEC games,” White noted. “15 to 9 assist to turnovers and shoot 50 percent — if we’d done that ever game we’d have a few more wins.
“But (against Missouri), we could’t get a stop.”
Georgia has a week to work on it before traveling to play No. 1 Auburn, which just beat No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa 94-85 on Saturday.
Here’s a look at the updated NET rankings of the SEC teams:
1. Auburn
4. Florida
5. Tennessee
6. Alabama
11. Texas A&M
15. Missouri
17. Kentucky
25. Ole Miss
30. Mississippi State
31. Texas
38. Georgia
40. Vanderbilt
42. Arkansas
52. Oklahoma
81. LSU
92. South Carolina
