Red-hot Georgia basketball is looking to add a few more wins to its NCAA Tournament resume with a run in the SEC tournament starting Wednesday night.
The No. 11-seed Bulldogs (20-11, 8-10 SEC) have all but guaranteed themselves a March Madness bid, but can improve their quality of life in the tournament with each extra victory, starting with No. 14-seed Oklahoma.
The Sooners (19-12, 6-12) are sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble and will fight for their postseason lives beginning at approximately 9:30 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Bulldogs rode a four-game win streak — the longest in the SEC — into Nashville. UGA is rolling, no doubt, but coach Mike White said the team’s approach has not changed.
White certainly is an accomplished coach in his own right, but he turned to one of basketball’s legends to hammer the message of consistency home.
“We showed our guys a video yesterday of a speech by John Wooden years ago talking about ‘today,’” White said. “Today is about today, so we’ve had good momentum because we’ve continued to improve in a lot of areas.
“Playing our best basketball, having won four in a row, and we want that to continue, so we take nothing for granted. The exterior noise has nothing to do with how we operate.”
The message may be the same, but the situation certainly is new. The Bulldogs are playing to improve their tournament berth instead of earning one for the first time in White’s tenure.
“With all the stuff going on and our young people hearing about it probably nonstop, I wanted to center our guys and just simply talk about today, and that’s what’s gotten us to this point,” White said. “That’s what’s got us playing well late in the season is just focusing on what we can control, focusing on today’s effort, being focused in general, where our feet are. And our guys, I’m not even sure that they needed it.”
The defensive-minded White did focus specifically on Oklahoma point guard Jeremiah Fears. The freshman superstar has scored double-digit points in his past seven games, including a 31-point night in an upset of Missouri on Wednesday.
White did well to limit Fears earlier this season in a 72-62 Georgia win. Fears scored only two points, shooting 1-of-11 from the floor with four turnovers.
Bulldogs fans will hope for another dominant night from point guard Silas Demary Jr. The rising sophomore star has averaged 19.5 points during Georgia’s four-game win streak and has led the offense in all four wins.
Demary bested Fears in Athens earlier this season and scored 10 points to go with eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Demary also dropped one of the more impressive dunks of the season over Sooners forward Sam Godwin, standing at 6-foot-10.
Wednesday night’s winner will advance to face No. 6-seed Kentucky in the second round Thursday night. That winner will advance to play No. 3-seed Alabama, leading to a Saturday semifinal and a Sunday final.
Georgia is 1-1 all-time against Oklahoma. The Bulldogs and Sooners first met on Christmas Day in 1987 in a 93-90 Oklahoma win.
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