Georgia Basketball: Bulldogs Seal No. 3 Seed in SEC Tournament With Win Over LSU Tigers

By Taylor Sturm
Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

If I’m going to be honest, to start the season I had the Georgia Bulldogs finishing last in the SEC. I thought they would win a few games, but wouldn’t dare to compete with the upper half of the conference. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s absence would cripple the team offensively and they would struggle to score game after game. How wrong I was. After an SEC season filled with upsets and surprises, the Bulldogs defeated the LSU Tigers, sealing their spot as the No. 3 seed in the SEC tournament.

LSU’s inability to score came down to just one thing; Johnny O’Bryant III couldn’t score. Georgia’s success shutting down one of the best players in the SEC was remarkable; Mark Fox is one of the most underrated coaches in the entire country. Charles Mann had a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds which was able to offset the 22 points by LSU’s Andre Stringer. As crazy as it sounds, LSU, one of the top-10 rebounding teams in the country, was out-rebounded by Georgia. The Bulldogs just wanted the win more as they defeated the Tigers 69-61.

I’m not crazy enough to think that Georgia will win multiple games, get to the SEC tournament Championship game, win and steal the automatic NCAA tournament bid, but then I remember 2008 where the Bulldogs did just that. There is just something about this Bulldogs’ team that screams “upset alert.”

Georgia isn’t the best team in the SEC by far, but with the SEC tournament being in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, anything can happen for a team that will essentially be at home. Don’t sleep on the Bulldogs, because many SEC teams are not going to the 2014 NCAA tournament because they did the same thing.

Taylor Sturm is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

Share On FacebookShare StumbleUpon

You May Also Like