Sports

68-65 WASH Final

Like my colleague Mike Reiter said, a frustrating season ends with a frustrating loss.  A Trey Thompkins three briefly gave Georgia hope, bringing the score to 67-65.  Sends Washington to the line.  Where they make one of two.  68-65.  Robinson finds Leslie to try and sink the three, but Isaiah Thomas, of course, attempts to swat it down.  Lelslie somehow gets a hold of hit, but can only launch a one-handed three-pointer that bounces off the left side of the backboard.

Just some quick postgame stats:

-Trey Thompkins had yet another great performance in the postseason: 26 points on 11-14 shooting, including 2-2 from three, and 11 rebounds.  All in 39 minutes.

-Isaiah Thomas responsded out of halftime with 15 second half points, going 7-7 from the line.

-Believe it or not, Georgia actually won the rebounding battle in the second half, 16-11 (6-4 offensive, 10-7 defensive).

-Stat that explains loss? Probably this one.  Washington had 17 points off of 15 turnovers by Georgia.  Georgia had 3 off of 5 by Washington.

I have to make a big drive so I don’t have time to really talk about this game.  Instead Mike will fill you in on postgame media conferences.

Fun season, Georgia.

44.8 65-57 WASH

Washington calls a 30-second timeout.  Georgia needs to score here.  But they don’t.  Thomas gets a steal and is sent to the line to shoot two, makes first and second.

Georgia gets a two from Thompkins and calls a full-timeout.  With only 34.2 remaining, Georgia needs a turnover.  Fox sends in Vincent Williams.  Que?

3:26 61-51 WASH

Price at the line shooting one-and-one.  Washington with 8 team fouls.  Getting into double bonus and slowing down this game may be only way Georgia can get back in this one.  Georgia still cannot stop Washington on the other end.  Ping-pong.

4:25 59-49 WASH

Darnell Gant with a wide open dunk.  How will Georgia respond?

7:41 53-44 WASH

Just had a fan behind me scream, “Come on, somebody lead!”  Not the worst point in the world.

Isaiah Thomas starting to come on a bit strong.  Has four straight points and just forced an offensive foul on Thompkins.  Also has his season average of 6 assists with seven minutes to play.

10:50 49-39 WASH

Probably feeling like we’ve been here before.  Georgia having problems with the press so Fox calls time-out to cool down team.

Leslie gets a put-back that is not called for basket interference and gets a foul. Huskies respond with a Scott Suggs three.  Teams trade baskets.  UGA’s defensive rebounding catching up to them.

15:37 37-32 WASH

Georgia comes out looking to establish Price early with a two off the glass.  UGA goes into zone and forces late three from Thomas, but fouls him.  Makes all three free throws.  Price picks up deadly third foul.  Chris Barnes once again to be heavily relied on.  Questionable call when Barnes lay in rims out, but Leslie slams back in.  Referee calls basket interference.  Sends Georgia fans and Fox into stir.  Washington coming with the press…

Halftime 28-28

Forgive the pun. It’s a dog fight out there.

UGA having some troubles down the stretch getting defesnive rebounds.  Darnell Grant had a tip-in at 3:46 and Isaiah Thomas was able to even the score with a spinning lay-up after Washington was able to get another shot before the clock expired.

Best Georgia play came from Travis Leslie who penetrated into the center of the lane, pulled up but dropped the ball to Thompkins who finished with yet another dunk and a foul.

I’d say Georgia is playing a pretty decent game so far.  They are turning the ball over a little too much, but not allowing Washington to capitalize.  Still would like to see Thompkins get more inside, but Washington’s length making a lot of UGA’s entry passes difficult.

Stats that stick out to me are the turnovers (UGA 8, WASH 3), fast break points (UGA 2, WASH 12), and bench points (UGA 0, WASH 14).

Probably need to fix at least one of those three things if you want to win this game.  Georgia has the slight rebounding edge 20-18.

Washington launching a lot of threes.  Currently 2-14 from beyond the arc while Georgia is 3-6.  Neither shooting particulary well with UGA at 11-26 and Washington 12-34.

Leading point man is Thompkins with 15.  Robinson second with 8.  Leading rebounder is Thompkins with 8.

Thomas so far is 2-7 from the field, 0-2 from three with 4 points. Can’t ask for much better D.  Of course, there is always a second half.

3:45 23-18 UGA

Since we last posted, UGA has turned the ball over four times.  Lucky enough Washington has only converted those to two points.  Only bright spot was Thompkins pull-up three.  Shooters gotta shoot, I suppose.

7:39 20-16 UGA

Georgia scoreless since Leslie’s raucous dunk.  After hitting two threes earlier, Robinson airballs one.  Dustin Ware settles for long three from himself. Fox tries to get some bench relief with Williams, Barnes, and Thornton with Robisnon and Ware. Price with two fouls, will likely see limited playing time rest of half.

9:50 20-14 UGA

Robinson three. Trey rebound and slam. Leslie steal and dunk. All I could type within timeout.

12:47 1st, 12-9 WASH

After scoring five unanswered points, Washington comes roaring back with a threes from Scott Suggs, C.J. Wilcox, and Thomas’ first basket, a lay-up following a long miss from Thompkins.

Dogs looking sloppy on offense, forcing difficult jumpers.

15:57 1st, 4-3 UGA

Georgia finally gets it’s first field goal at the 15:57 mark. Travis Leslie makes a nice pass inside to Trey Thompkins who makes the basket and is fouled.  Free-throws to come.

Thomas scoreless so far. As expected, Robinson is taking him defensively.  For a moment, Georgia went into zone.  Will be interesting to see if they continue this look.  Refs controlling game a bit too much.

Hey folks, we’re still a bit from tip-off, but I figured I’d start the ‘ole blog up a little early so we get a nice little look into tonight’s match-up.

I already listed some pre-game “Keys to the Game” here.  Check those out and let me know what you think.

Tonight’s projected starting line-ups are as follows, previews for Georgia players and stats for Washington players:

Georgia Bulldogs (21-11, 9-7 SEC)

#1 F Travis Leslie, 6-4 Jr. Coming off back-back to back doubles in both SEC Tournament games.

#33 F Trey Thompkins, 6-10 Jr. Only two rebounds against Alabama, will need to rebound aggressively tonight.

#50 F Jeremy Price, 6-8 Sr. Five personal fouls kept Price limited last week, only 6 points.

#3 G Dustin Ware, 5-11 Jr. Lead SEC in 3P% and Assist-to-turnover ratio.

#22 G Gerald Robinson, 6-1 Jr. Shot 6 for 24 in SEC Tourney. Did have 11 assists and 6 steals against Alabama though.

Washington Huskies (23-10, 11-7 Pac-10)

#2 G Isaiah Thomas, 5-9, Jr. 16.8PPG 3.6RPG 6.0APG

#11 F Matthew Bryan-Amaning, 6-9, Sr. 15.5PPG 8.1RPG 1.6BLKS

#22 F Justin Holiday 6-6, Sr. 10.8PPG 5.4RPG 2.2APG

#44 F Darnell Gant 6-8, Jr. 5.1PPG 3.7RPG 0.6APG

#31 G Terrence Ross 6-6, Fr. 7.9 PPG 2.8RPG 1.0APG

Feel free to comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter to get a discussion going on tonight’s game.  Until then…

We’re a couple of hours from game time here in Charlotte so let’s discuss some so-called “keys to the game”.  In basketball, the typical key to a game is to score more than the other team before time expires.  We’ll go a little bit more in-depth here.

Shutting down Isaiah Thomas

This is one is long because this one is without a doubt the biggest key to this game.

You’ve heard the name before.  Maybe because of this.  Most likely because of this.  But above all that, you’ve probably heard of the Huskies guard because he’s really good at basketball.

Real quick, here’s a run-down of Thomas’ career at Washington:

-2011 Pac-10 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, in which he scored 43 points against Washington State, dished out a Pac-10 Tournament record 12 assists against Oregon (also had 10 points), and had 28 points and 7 assists, and that buzzer-beater against Arizona in the final.

-First Team All-Pac-10, presumably for averaging 16.8 ppg, 6 assists, and 3.6 rpg this season.

-1,690 career points at Washington, with 1,134 coming in his first two seasons, the most any Husky has scored through two seasons.

-His 6.0 assists per game is the second highest season average in Washington history.

Two other Huskies, Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Justin Holiday also average double figures in scoring (15.5 and 10.8 respectively), but no other player comes close to Thomas’ assist numbers.

If Thomas has a bad night scoring-wise, Washington isn’t necessarily done for.  What scares me obviously is his assists.  Even during down nights, Thomas finds ways to get his teammates involved.  Since Washington is third in the nation in scoring, they have plenty of options.

So the question is how exactly do you stop Isaiah Thomas.  Just looking off of his stats, it’s pretty obvious that the offense runs through him.  He wants the ball and he wants to score.  If he can’t score, he’ll find somebody else.  So what do you do?  Keep him off the ball.  And who should Georgia turn to to shut down Thomas?  Enter Gerald Robinson.

Fair warning, I’m going to use the words “at times” a good bunch here.  At times, Gerald Robinson has done a good job of handling do-it-all guards this season.  Again, at times.  As in the first half, at times.

Both Xavier’s Tu Holloway(0-5, 0-2#3P)  and Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins (0-5, 0-3) were held scoreless in the first half in their respective match-ups against Robinson.  The second half was a different story.  Tu Holloway scored 18 points, with 11 of those coming from the free-throw line.  Jenkins had 21.

Like many of Georgia’s vices this year, it’s really  story of two halves.  Pretty solid defense in the first, not so solid in the second.

In order to win this game, Georgia will need a solid defensive output from Robinson.  He has the skills to do it.  The question is whether or not he can do it for 40 minutes.

Getting aggressive down low

It seems like I type this every time I do a game preview, but it’s for good reason.  Not many teams have the luxury of a 6′11″ power forward who can score down low and stretch the floor from outside and a 6′8″ center who not only rebounds well, but is a pretty decent scorer inside.

Washington is a pretty small team so, once again, I would like to see Georgia go to Trey Thompkins early and often.  If you can establish at least one of these guys inside, you have a good chance of answering scoring charges from Washington.

When shots aren’t falling, get back on defense

You don’t score 83.5 points a game off of jump shots.  While Washington is small, they’re quick and will look to score quickly in transition.  Thomas will exploit any holes resulting from slow transition.

That’s it from me.  See you guys at tip-off.

CHARLOTTE, NC — The second day of the 2011 tournament is underway, and I will be bringing you live updates and analysis from Charlotte, NC at Time Warner Cable Arena.

The games that will take place here in Charlotte are as followed.

(8) Michigan 75, (9) Tennessee 45 — Final
(1) Duke 87, (16) Hampton 45 — Final
(2) North Carolina 102, (15) Long Island 87 — Final
(7) Washington 68, (10) Georgia 65 — Final

Sunday Schedule

(7) Washington vs. (2) North Carolina — 12:15, CBS
(8) Michigan vs. (1) Duke — 30 minutes following, CBS

Stay tuned to WUOG Sports for continuous updates during the second day of tournament action.

Follow us on Twitter @WUOGSports

For a preview of the Georgia-Washington game, click here.

For coverage of Day 1 of the Charlotte Regional, click here.

12:50: Georgia loses to Washington 68-65, read the post game recap here.

11:28: Final in Tulsa, OK as Illinois beats UNLV 73-62. The Illini will face No. 1 seed Kansas Sunday afternoon. In Chicago, VCU still holds a 49-34 lead over Georgetown.

The second half has began in Charlotte, and Washington leads Georgia 37-32. You can follow the live blog here.

10:56: Georgia and Washington are tied at halftime, you can follow the live blog here.

VCU leads Georgetown 35-24 at the half in Chicago, IL. Syracuse has a 25-14 lead over Indiana State halfway through the first half. Illinois leads UNLV 61-40 midway through the second half.

10:36: Illinois has a 57-32 lead over UNLV early on in the second half. VCU has a 30-23 lead over Georgetown with a couple minutes left in the first half. Syracuse has a 10-6 lead over Indiana State early on in the first half.

Georgia leads Washington 20-16 with 7:39 left in the first half, you can follow the live blog here.

10:08: 11-seed Marquette has defeated 6-seed Xavier 66-55. They will advance and play the winner of Syracuse and Indiana State. (more…)

The Georgia Bulldogs will face the Washington Huskies in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament in Charlotte, NC.

The Huskies clinched a berth via a Pac-10 Tournament Championship. Washington defeated Arizona 77-75 in overtime and were given a seven seed.

Georgia was on the bubble going into selection Sunday, following a second round loss to Alabama in the SEC Tournament. The Bulldogs were an at-large selection from the SEC and were given a 10 seed.

This will be the first time the two teams meet in their history. Georgia has yet to play a Pac-10 opponent during the 2011 season.

“I can’t really think of a team that reminds me of Washington right now, but they’re a great team, fast-paced team. Good rebounders,” said Travis Leslie. “They got great players overall, and I think it’s going to be a good game tomorrow.” (more…)