The Georgia basketball team will look to accomplish something under Tom Crean it has not yet done since he took over the program. With a win over visiting Vanderbilt on Saturday, the Bulldogs would have their first three-game SEC winning streak under Crean.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 91-86 road win over Auburn on Tuesday and are now 4-6 in SEC play and 11-6 on the season. Vanderbilt enters the game with a 5-8 record and a 1-6 in conference play.
“They’re a very good team, they’re coming off their best game of the year, by far their best game and they’ve had a week to rest and prepare,” Crean said. “So, we know we’re going to get a really fast, organized and high throttled team in here tomorrow night with Vanderbilt.”
Vanderbilt did beat South Carolina 93-81 last Saturday and had a few extra days to prepare for the Bulldogs as its mid-week game against Texas A&M was postponed due to COVID issues within the Texas A&M program.
The Georgia-Vanderbilt game had originally been set for a 1 p.m. tip time on Saturday but due to A&M’s game against Arkansas getting postponed as well, the Bulldogs and Commodores will now play at 6 p.m. The game will air on the SEC Network.
If the Bulldogs are to come away with a win on Saturday, it will have to find a way to slow down Scotty Pippen Jr. The Vanderbilt sophomore is averaging 21.7 points per game and 5.4 per assists, ranking second in the conference behind only Georgia’s Sahvir Wheeler.
“He is one of the highest usage guards in the nation right now,” Crean said. “He’s playing at an extremely high rate, he’s shooting the ball real well, he’s getting to the rim. He’s drawing fouls and it’s a lot like preparing for Sharife Cooper in the fact that the ball is in his hands a lot.”
Georgia’s recent winning streak has been fueled by a strong team scoring effort. The Bulldogs had four players finish in double figures in a win over Ole Miss. In the win over Auburn, Georgia had six players eclipse the double-digit point mark.
Sophomore Toumani Camara has been playing well as of late for Georgia, as he’s averaged 12.5 points and 10 rebounds per game in the previous two wins for Georgia.
“He’s really making a lot of strides, and I think as his aggressiveness continues to be consistent, then the consistency day in and day out will come out for him,” Crean said.
