Believe it or not this is the first time that these two programs have faced off against each other on the basketball court. Kentucky is the only common opponent the two team have. The Bulldogs split with the Wildcats while the Huskies lost a nail biter in Maui.
Second year Georgia coach Mark Fox spent five years at Nevada before taking up residence in Athens. He was an assistant coach at Washington under Lynn Nance. He met his wife while coaching at Washington so they still have ties to the area. Washington volleyball coach Jim McLaughlin is one of his closest friends.
6'10 Jr PF Trey Thompkins is Georgia's go to guy. He averages 16.1 points and 7.5 rebounds to lead the other Dawgs in both categories. He is described as an NBA ready athlete who will give the Huskies a lot of problems on the inside.
Georgia is a strong defensive team. Opponents are only shooting 39% from the field against them this year. Washington needs to rain down some three's from the outside to get them to loosen up in the middle. The Bulldogs rebound well and have out rebounded their opponents by an average of five boards per game.
Georgia is 21-11 and was 9-7 in the SEC East. They tied for third in their division. They beat Auburn in the opening round of the SEC tournament 69- 51 and were knocked out in the second round by Alabama 65-59 which supposedly put them on the bubble.
Alabama beat Georgia twice, but ended out of the field, despite the Crimson Tide having a better conference record and the same overall record. Somebody on the NCAA committee obviously liked Georgia better.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't watched one minute of college basketball (other than accidentally) since the end of Friday afternoon's disastrous collapse by the Georgia Bulldogs against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Nevertheless, I am positively thrilled that the Fox Hounds snagged the ten seed in the East Region against the Washington Huskies.
Here are five reasons why making the field of 68, even if only by the skin of their collective teeth, was tremendously important for the Red and Black: