How Georgia basketball bouncing toward NCAA tourney bid after Texas win, 10th in mighty SEC


Georgia basketball is rolling toward what would be its first NCAA tournament bid in 10 years after taking down Texas.The Bulldogs won their first SEC road game of the season with their decisive 83-67 win over the Longhorns at the Moody Center in Austin.Georgia (18-11, 6-10 SEC) still has work to do, but adding another “Quad One” win — (Home vs. Top 30 team, neutral vs. Top 50 team, road vs. Top 75 team ) — greatly enhances the Bulldogs’ resume.Georgia opened the night projected to be the “First Team Out” of the 68-team NCAA tournament bracket, per ESPN expert Joe Lunardi, while Texas was the “Last Team In.”The Bulldogs — 10th among the SEC teams in the all-important “NET” rankings used by the NCAA tournament selection committee — likely need to win at least one more game if not two to secure a bid.A trip to play suddenly resurgent South Carolina at 6 p.m. on Tuesday is on deck, followed by a noon home game against Vanderbilt next Saturday that closes the regular season and leads into the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville.Georgia coach Mike White revealed the Bulldogs will travel directly from Austin, Texas, to Columbus, S.C., with UGA students on spring break.“We’re appreciate our administration, we’re flying right to Columbia,” White said on the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network following Saturday night’s game.“It gives us a day to get our legs under us and take a day to rest.”One of the more impressive aspects of Georgia’s NCAA tourney resume is no “bad” losses — or losses outside of Quad One.South Carolina would represent a “bad loss,” as the Gamecocks rank outside the Top 70 in NET (88th), even after winning two of their past three games over Texas (84-69) and Arkansas (72-53) in Columbia.White indicated Georgia will bring the same mindset into the South Carolina game as it did into Texas on the heels of its season-flipping home win over Florida.“I think the bigger fear as a staff is you go into the next one overly comfortable and feeling a little bit too good about yourself,” said White, whose Bulldogs beat South Carolina by a 71-60 count in Athens on Jan. 28.“This team is really, really young, and so the mindset we’ve had was much needed, and it was appropriate. We were locked in.”White is hoping the extra day on site could lead to the Bulldogs putting together what would be their first three-game SEC win streak of the season.NET Rankings1. Auburn 27-24. Florida 25-45. Tennessee 24-56. Alabama 23-614. Missouri 21-815. Kentucky 19-1024. Texas A&M 20-928. Ole Miss 20-930. Mississippi State 20-933. Georgia 18-1137. Vanderbilt 20-945. Texas 16-1347. Arkansas 17-1252. Oklahoma 17-1282. LSU 14-1588. South Carolina 12-17

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