Georgia basketball’s NCAA Tournament hopes have officially survived February in the SEC.
March is here, and the Bulldogs (17-11, 5-10 SEC) are starting college basketball’s marquee month with a true NCAA Tournament bubble battle.
UGA will ride the momentum of its upset of No. 3 Florida into Austin, Texas, where it will fight for a tournament bid before a primetime ESPN2 audience at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Georgia beat the Gators 88-83 Tuesday night, inviting a rare court-storming of Stegeman Coliseum.
The Bulldogs and Longhorns (16-12, 5-10) find themselves in very similar positions with three SEC games left. Beyond the identical conference records, Georgia and Texas are both on the cusp of the NCAA Tournament, needing a few more wins to solidify a spot.
ESPN’s latest Bracketology couldn’t have made the two any closer. Texas was listed as the last team in the tournament this week while Georgia was listed right after, the first team out.
Both teams went 2-5 in February, and both upset ranked teams. The Longhorns beat No. 15 Kentucky 10 days before the Bulldogs toppled the Gators.
Both offenses are led by freshman superstars with NBA first-round selections in their near future. Forward Asa Newell leads UGA with 15.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting guard Tre Johnson leads Texas with 20.9 points per game on 39.1% 3-point shooting.
Johnson was ranked as ESPN’s No. 5 NBA prospect in its most recent top 100. Newell was ranked No. 20.
Johnson will test perimeter defenders like Silas Demary Jr., Blue Cain and Tyrin Lawrence with his elite shooting and 6-6, 190-pound frame. The former McDonald’s All-American is also an impressive facilitator, averaging Texas’ second-most assists per game (2.6).
“They run a lot of actions for him, so they put a lot of pressure on the defense,” UGA coach Mike White said. “They set good screens for him. They’ve got pretty good passers, too, that find him. He’s fearless, he’s got a quick, high, release and a beautiful stroke.”
Demary will look for the kind of offensive output he had on Tuesday, when he led the Bulldogs with 21 points on 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc. The sophomore guard has averaged 19.8 points over UGA’s last five games.
UGA can add a fourth Quad 1 win to its resume against the Longhorns, as the Bulldogs are playing a top 75 NET team on the road.
Texas represents Georgia’s final Quad 1 opportunity before the SEC Tournament. UGA finishes the regular season with a trip to last-place South Carolina before a hosting a strong middle-pack Vanderbilt team.
The Bulldogs are 0-7 in SEC road games this season. The only unranked conference road loss came in a 66-63 defeat at Arkansas, a team now established in the NCAA Tournament field.
UGA did look much better in its last road game, an 82-70 loss at No. 1 Auburn. The Bulldogs trailed 70-65 with two minutes left before the top-ranked Tigers pulled away.
“I really liked our approach at Auburn, how he played, how locked in we were, our resilience,” White said. “We need to do a lot of that to have success in Texas.”
Georgia is 2-0 all-time against Texas. The Bulldogs beat the Longhorns twice in Athens in 2017 and 2019.
The Bulldogs are 5.5-point underdogs, according to VegasInsider.
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