ATHENS — Georgia basketball stock is soaring after multiple ranked SEC wins and a No. 23 AP ranking, signs that coach Mike White’s rebuild to SEC respectability is moving in the right direction.
But the SEC gauntlet has just begun.
The Bulldogs (14-2, 2-1 SEC) get no mercy from their conference schedule this week, starting with a visit to No. 6 Tennessee on Wednesday before hosting No. 1 Auburn on Saturday.
Nobody has a tougher week ahead than Georgia, according to the AP poll. The Bulldogs have the two highest ranked opponents of any schedule in the country this week.
Tennessee and Auburn are the last two legs of a daunting five-game stretch to open Georgia’s SEC schedule. The Bulldogs faced No. 24 Ole Miss, No. 6 Kentucky and No. 17 Oklahoma before this week.
Georgia will play five consecutive ranked opponents for the first time in school history.
Life does not get much easier after Auburn, either. The Bulldogs have seven more ranked opponents in their last 13 SEC games, including a road rematch with the Tigers, a trip to No. 4 Alabama and two games against No. 5 Florida.
The SEC’s combination of depth and dominance has made it the powerhouse of college basketball so far this season.
The SEC has the most teams ranked in the Top 25 with nine, including half of the top 10. The closest conference to matching the SEC is the Big Ten, with six teams.
The SEC also appears primed to have one of the highest NCAA Tournament outputs in the sport’s history. ESPN’s latest “Bracketology” projects 10 SEC teams to compete in March Madness, which would be the all-time most by the SEC and the second-most by any conference.
Georgia is a projected No. 7 seed, sharing a Round of 32 bracket with projected No. 2-seed Tennessee.
UGA coach Mike White acknowledged the SEC’s dominance before his team’s conference opener. The 10th-year SEC head coach is trying to lead one of the younger teams in the conference through 18 games’ worth of challenges, keeping the Bulldogs’ focus on the next task at hand.
“The teams that have the most success in the best league in the history of college basketball this year are going to be teams that embrace that process and are able to respond to positives and negatives,” White said. “We just have conviction for focusing on today. If you get caught looking ahead in this league this year, you’re putting yourself in peril in my opinion.”
Georgia has held its own through three games in the physical SEC, flexing its muscles on defense and on the glass. The Bulldogs have allowed 60.6 points per game, averaging a 38.8 opponent shooting percentage while pulling down 38.7 rebounds per game.
In other words, Georgia is playing the kind of physical basketball that wins games in the SEC. And it needs to keep doing so for 15 more if it wants to survive into March.
“Our guys have embraced trying to be the best defensive team that we can be,” White said after the Kentucky win. “Which just makes you fit in this league, is all it really does. It’s the best defensive league in the country.”
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