Georgia Bulldogs face Baylor Bears in Big 12/SEC Challenge
By John Buhler
The Georgia Bulldogs will get their first taste of the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge when they play the Baylor Bears in Waco, Texas for a 6:00 PM ET tipoff.
The Georgia Bulldogs have improved as a basketball program in the Mark Fox era in Athens (2009-present). Saturday evening marks the first time the Georgia Bulldogs will get to play in the third annual Big 12/SEC Challenge when they take on the No. 17 Baylor Bears at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas. Tipoff is at 6:00 PM ET and ESPN 2 will air the game.
Georgia enters play with an 11-7 (4-4) record on the season. UGA is coming off a near miraculous comeback against freshman phenom Ben Simmons and the LSU Tigers, ultimately falling at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge Tuesday night, 89-85.
The Georgia Bulldogs are not as consistent of a basketball team as they were last year when they made the NCAA Tournament. With seven losses already on the season, going against a 16-4 Baylor team that is one of the better teams in the strong Big 12, Georgia will have to play near perfect basketball to beat their first ranked opponent of the 2015-16 NCAA season.
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When Georgia struggles on the court this season, it has mostly to do with two things: a lack of an inside presence offensively and the inability to defend the three-point shot. Georgia usually does a strong job rebounding the basketball, picking up the pace in transition offense, and can lean on any of their starting guards in the backcourt.
The problem arises when sophomore sensation power forward Yante Maten gets in foul trouble and head coach Mark Fox has to run his offense either through J.J. Frazier and Kenny Gaines jump shots or have point guard Charles Mann attack the rim to get to the free throw line.
Georgia will want to do a better job against this Texas team than it did two weeks ago against the SEC beast Texas A&M Aggies. A&M routed the Dawgs, 79-45, in what was Fox’s worst loss in Athens. The Aggies went from a team ranked No. 15 in the nation to a 17-3 (7-1) team ranked No. 5 in the NCAA.
The Dawgs have not played well this season away from Stegeman Coliseum, with their lone road win coming against the Missouri Tigers in Columbia, 60-57 on January 20th. Though Baylor is an 11.5-point favorite in this game on the hardwood, it would certainly serve Fox’s team to have a strong showing to hopefully get another invite to next year’s Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Next: Georgia Bulldogs: Frontcourt issues continue to hurt Dawgs
Keep in mind that four SEC teams are left out of this inter-conference affair annually because the Big 12 still only has 10 teams. Go Dawgs, beat Baylor!