ATHENS — Georgia basketball’s SEC “bye week” came later than most, but the team finally has a chance to take a breath before making a closing NCAA Tournament argument.
The Bulldogs (16-10, 4-9 SEC) have five conference games and an SEC Tournament to prove itself worthy of its first March Madness selection since 2015. UGA still is considered a bubble team by many national projections, but it did fall to the wrong side of the fence after losses to Texas A&M and Missouri last week.
Georgia was listed as one of the “First Four Out” in “Bracketology” updates from ESPN, CBS Sports and USAToday to start the week.
The Bulldogs have slowly slid lower in projections for weeks as they have gone deeper into the SEC gauntlet. Once ranked No. 23 in the nation, Georgia is now 13th in the SEC and well out of the Top 25.
UGA’s best selling points are its NET ranking and strength of schedule. Both sit well within the top 64 in the country, and both are factors the tournament selection committee considers during its decision-making process.
Georgia holds the No. 39 spot in the NET rankings with the No. 28 strength of schedule, according to WarrenNolan.com.
All of UGA’s 10 losses are in the first quadrant of the NET’s evaluation system, marking a high-quality opponent. But successful NCAA Tournament resumes are built on wins in Quad 1 games, with losses in the top quadrant serving as a supporting factor.
The Bulldogs lost several crucial SEC opportunities that could have changed their season projection, namely against Arkansas and Mississippi State.
The Razorbacks started 0-5 in the conference before beating Georgia 68-65 in January. They are now projected to make the tournament in all three aforementioned brackets.
Mississippi State came into Athens two Saturdays ago looking for an SEC spark, and got it by a 76-75 decision. The maroon Bulldogs are firmly established as a No. 6/7 seed in the brackets.
Georgia can still erase its past struggles with a strong finish in the final stretch of the SEC season. The Bulldogs face No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Florida in their next two games before taking on three unranked teams before the conference tournament.
UGA has not faced consecutive unranked teams since conference play began. Georgia finishes the season with trips to Texas and South Carolina before its season finale at home against Vanderbilt.
Georgia tips off at Auburn’s Neville Arena at 4 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN2, according to the team website.
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