BS Report: Georgia basketball embarrassed in NCAA Tournament loss

Georgia’s season ends in a blowout loss while the Hawks continue climbing in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

For the second week in a row, the Georgia Bulldogs basketball team laid an egg in a postseason tournament. A week ago in the SEC tournament, they got embarrassed by Ole Miss. And then last night in the NCAA tournament, the first round of the Big Dance, Georgia got blown out by Saint Louis. The Billikens 102 to 77: 25 points.

Now look, this was Georgia as an eight seed against Saint Louis a nine seed, so it’s not like this is a big upset. It’s not like a two losing to a 15 seed. But it’s the way Georgia played. It’s the way Georgia lost is absolutely unacceptable.

The players after the game really had no answers. They didn’t know what to say. They were embarrassed. Mike White, the head coach, he didn’t know what to say. He was embarrassed. But the numbers are staggering. Georgia shot 35% from the field. Saint Louis shot 58% from the field. Georgia 26% success on three point attempts. They only had nine assists, while Saint Louis had 27 and Saint Louis outrebounded Georgia 47 to 36. Kanon Catchings, one of their leading scorers, did not score one point. Neither did Somto Cyril. He had one rebound, but he didn’t score a point. The starting five had 24 points in an NCAA tournament game? Unbelievable. Embarrassing.

And a lot of people, even though basketball is second fiddle at UGA, are really mad, and rightfully so. There’s no question Mike White has brought this program up to a new level. But two years in a row now, they have lost in the first round against teams that they probably should have beaten, but they didn’t. And that’s going to fall on Mike White.

Meanwhile Kennesaw State last night, well they played hard. They showed up. They lost, but it was not embarrassing whatsoever. They were a 14-seed playing a three seed Gonzaga. And they lost by only nine points: 73 to 64. And congratulations to the Owls on showing up for their game, whereas Georgia evidently stayed in Athens instead of going to Buffalo.

Georgia Tech has a new head basketball coach for its men’s program. Scott Cross will leave Troy. He’s a 51-year-old coach who has been at Troy for the last seven seasons, and he will take over to try to get the Georgia Tech men’s program on track.

The Hawks will play tonight in Houston, going for their 12th win in a row. That’s a team in Georgia that knows how to win. Hawks have won 11 in a row and they will face a Houston team that’s really good, 41-27, but they’re 10-10 in their last 20 games. So we’ll see what happens there. Jonathan Kuminga will not play tonight. He’ll rest that knee because the Hawks have a back-to-back with Golden State coming to Atlanta tomorrow. And you know Kuminga wants to play against his former team tomorrow night.

The Hawks are now in the sixth seed of the Eastern Conference, as the Orlando and Miami teams both lost last night. So Atlanta is a game and a half out of fifth place, but they are tied with Orlando. They have the tiebreaker over Orlando because they won all three games. Those two teams have played. And they are a half game up on both Miami and Philadelphia. They had the tiebreaker against Philadelphia, as they have won all four games against the Sixers. So that’s good news as well. So we’ll see if the Hawks are able to extend their winning streak tonight when they play the Rockets in Houston.