Georgia traveled to the Bahamas for the Baha Mar Hoops Championship with hopes of a breakthrough weekend but come back to Athens 0 – 2 after losing to Miami and Providence. These are both quality opponents that Georgia faced but Georgia had a real opportunity against Providence but faltered down the stretch.

Georgia had 2 losses over the weekend and I will give thoughts on how the games played out and some changes that need to be made for Georgia to be competitive in the SEC this year.

Miami Recap

This was a game that Georgia was expected to lose as Miami came in to the game as the #12 team in the country. Georgia began the game really well jumping out to a 19-11 lead but it went all downhill from there. Georgia ended up falling to Miami 79-68.

The biggest disappointment for UGA in this one was the lack of rebounding against a Miami team that is not great at rebounding itself. Georgia was only outrebounded by 3 but for the dawgs to have any chance in this one they had to dominate the boards and they ended up losing that battle.

The positive from this one was Blue Cain looked phenomenal and finished the game with 18 points on 7-12 shooting and 4-9 from 3. He was the offense for most of the 1st half and provided Georgia with the spark they needed early in the game. The defense was also pretty good from Georgia holding Miami a season low 79 points and limited them to only 7 3-pointers. The defense was good enough to win the game but the offense really struggled throughout the game. They ended the game shooting 37% from the field and 29% from 3 and that is not nearly good enough to get it done against Miami.

It was a decent performance for Georgia but they just seemed a bit overwhelmed against a Miami team that made the Final Four a year ago.

Providence Recap

This was a tough, physical, back and forth game that did not go Georgia’s way in the end and they fell to Providence 71-64. They led the game late by a point but a series of missed shots and mistakes doomed the dawgs down the stretch.

Once again, the big disappointment for Georgia was on the boards where they lost the rebounding battle by 10 to Providence. This has been Georgia’s big issue all year and they really need to figure it out soon because they have been outrebounded in every game (Yes, even NC Central) and that can not continue. They really need Tchewa to step up here and be a bigger enforcer on the boards. RJ Sunahara coming back should also help in this department and hopefully that will be able to change this stat around. Blue Cain and Silas Demary really struggled in this one but that is what you expect from true freshman early in the year.

On the positive side, RJ Melendez had his best game as a Bulldog and Noah Thomasson played really well early on. RJ Melendez finished the game with 15 points on 5-9 shooting and he also added 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. A game that will hopefully be a breakout for him, which he can build off for the rest of the year. Noah had an incredible first half with 14 points on efficient shooting. When he gets hot, he really gets hot and needs to be fed the ball because his step-back shot is almost unguardable. However, he really struggled down the stretch and was not able to help Georgia finish the game off. These were both good performances to see and hopefully both players to build off of it.

This was a tough loss to take for Georgia because they played well enough to win for a majority of the game. They had 7 more shots than the Friars due to forcing 15 turnovers, but the shooting just was not good enough again. Georgia is currently shooting 29% from 3 on the year which is not good but they should be able to get that number higher with the quality of shooters they have. A tough loss to a good team that was there for the taking.

Overall

It is easy to get frustrated about Georgia losing this game and starting off the year 2-3. You do have to remember all 3 loses have come to top 50 teams and none them will be seen as bad losses. Yes, Georgia will need to eventually win these games if they want to make the NCAA tournament but the losses are not the end of the world for this team. They need to get the rebounding problem fixed soon and hopefully RJ Sunahara will be able to come back soon to help with that. Georgia will likely be favored in 7 of their next 8 games (FSU will be close) and they need to take advantage of that. They really can only lose 1 more game in Non-Conference if they want to have a chance at the tournament without having to win 12 SEC games.

Winthrop up next on Friday. See you then!