Georgia Bulldogs to host Arkansas at Stegeman Saturday
By John Buhler
The Georgia Bulldogs look to move above .500 in SEC play when they host the Arkansas Razorbacks at Stegeman Coliseum Saturday evening for a 6:00 PM ET game.
The Georgia Bulldogs will play their seventh game of their 2015-16 SEC schedule when the Arkansas Razorbacks come to town for a Saturday date on the hardwood. Tipoff from Stegeman Coliseum is at 6:00 PM ET and the game will air on the SEC Network.
Georgia moved to 3-3 in SEC play this year with a narrow victory over the Missouri Tigers on Wednesday night, 60-57. That was both UGA’s first road win of the season as it was the program’s 10th win on the year.
The usually strong Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program of the SEC is not as dominant of a team it has been in year’s past under head coach Mike Anderson. The Hogs only boast a 9-9 (3-3) record, albeit two of their SEC losses have come against the Kentucky Wildcats and the Texas A&M Aggies, both ranked teams.
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The Georgia Bulldogs seem to have a slight advantage in this game, as it is both at home and UGA didn’t lose its best player from last season like Arkansas did. 2014-15 SEC Player of the Year Bobby Portis now plays in the NBA for Fred Hoiberg‘s Chicago Bulls.
While it has been very frustrating at times for the Georgia Bulldogs to stay consistent after key seniors Nemanja Djurisic and Marcus Thornton graduated a year ago, the Dawgs still have a strong backcourt and a promising duo down low to hopefully replace Djurisic and Thornton.
For the Georgia Bulldogs to possibly get to 20 wins for the third straight season, the starting backcourt of J.J. Frazier, Kenny Gaines, and Charles Mann have to play better than they did last year during the 2014-15 team’s NCAA Tournament run.
While the starting frontcourt of Yante Maten and Derek Ogbeide have obvious talent, they haven’t played big minutes in SEC play, something all three starters in the backcourt have plenty of experience in.
A win at home over Arkansas in what might stand as a snowy Saturday night in Athens would go a long way in helping head coach Mark Fox get to 20 wins again in 2015-16 to hopefully keep his Georgia Bulldogs basketball program going in the right direction.
Though UGA has three SEC wins already and sit in sixth place in the conference at 3-3, two of their wins have come against the 8-10 (1-4) Missouri Tigers who have placed sanctions on themselves because of violations that occurred in the final year of the Frank Haith era in Columbia. The other SEC win came against new Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes who too is dealing with the fallout of head coach Donnie Tyndall, another coach whose reputation is now marred by sanctions.
Georgia has proven over their first 16 games of the 2015-16 NCAA season that they can overcome any deficit they face, but will need to find ways to stay more consistent on offense when either the jump shots don’t fall or the lane gets too congested for scoring opportunities.
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Being able to dictate the game’s pace, assert themselves on the glass, and use heavy ball movement will only help the Georgia Bulldogs defeat the Arkansas Razorbacks in their lone meeting of the SEC regular season. Go Dawgs!