Georgia Bulldogs to play Vanderbilt in Nashville
By John Buhler
The Georgia Bulldogs will play the Vanderbilt Commodores for the lone time of the 2016 SEC season when the Dawgs head to Nashville for a 12:00 PM ET tipoff.
The Georgia Bulldogs will get their only crack at the rising Vanderbilt Commodores during SEC play in the 2015-16 NCAA season when the Dawgs meet the ‘Dores in Nashville Saturday afternoon. Tipoff at Memorial Gymnasium is at 12:00 PM ET and the game will air on ESPN 2.
Georgia is coming off a tough loss to the Florida Gators Tuesday night at home, 57-53, one that essentially sealed UGA’s fate as an NCAA Tournament at-large team. That close loss to the Gators at Stegeman Coliseum gave UGA its 10th loss on the year. At this time, the Georgia Bulldogs will probably have to win the SEC Tournament without a double-bye to make it back to The Big Dance this March.
Georgia enters play Saturday with a 14-10 record on the season and are 7-6 in SEC play. While Vanderbilt’s records are comparable, 15-11 on the year and an identical 7-6 in SEC play, the ‘Dores are playing better in the second half of their conference schedule. However like Georgia, Vanderbilt is terrible away from home. Both teams have only won two games apiece on the road this season.
So does that mean the Vanderbilt Commodores are going get the best of the Georgia Bulldogs on this early Saturday afternoon tipoff? It would seem that Vanderbilt has the slight edge in this game because they are the home team. However, UGA and Vanderbilt are two teams that are in the middle of the pack in the SEC this season so really anything can happen.
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What does have me worried a bit about playing the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday is two-fold:
1.) Memorial Gymnasium has a certain quirkiness to it that may take a bit of adjustment for Mark Fox’s team in the first half. For example, the benches are under the basket, as opposed to on the sidelines in Nashville. There is a reason that college basketball fans call historic Memorial Gymnasium the Fenway Park of the NCAA.
2.) This is actually an 11:00 AM tipoff for the Georgia Bulldogs, as Nashville is in the Central Time Zone. I realize that these are college athletes, but how productive in general are 18 to 22-year-olds before noon on a Saturday?
Next: Georgia Bulldogs come up short vs. Florida, 57-53
Expect a low-scoring defensive struggle that will probably go down to the wire between these two evenly matched teams. Let’s Go Dawgs!