Georgia eager to make up for last year's early exit

The Georgia Lady Bulldogs have several objectives in this year's NCAA basketball tournament.

Improve. Advance. Atone for last season.

Georgia slid into the NCAA tournament last March as an 11 seed and was embarrassed by Arizona State, 58-47. The whipping occurred less than an hour from Athens in Duluth, Ga.

"Our veterans have a real distaste still for how we played a year ago in this tournament," Georgia coach Andy Landers said Monday night.

Georgia was invited to its 27th NCAA tournament Monday when the 23-8 and 24th-ranked Lady Bulldogs were tabbed a fifth seed in the Sacramento (West) region. They will play Conference USA champ Tulane late Saturday night in Tempe, Ariz., with the winner to face either fourth-seeded Oklahoma State or 13th-seeded UT-Chattanooga.

The only program with more NCAA tournament trips is Tennessee, which is a perfect 29-for-29 under coach Pat Summitt.

Summitt and Landers suffered surprising one-and-done showings last year, and Landers kept the Athens newspaper with coverage of the loss to Arizona State for a year. He had it on his desk as a reminder "of the way we don't want to be" and put it on a conference table Monday for his players to see.

"It definitely didn't bring up good memories," said senior point guard Ashley Houts from Dade County-. "Nobody wants to remember that. I remember the feeling of walking off the court, and it probably summed up our year."

Said sophomore guard Meredith Mitchell: "We definitely don't want to have that feeling again."

Georgia finished with an 18-14 record last year, setting a single-season record for losses under Landers, but this year's team started 16-0 and ascended to No. 6 in the country. The back half of the season was a bit more adventurous, as the Lady Bulldogs followed an upset over Tennessee with five losses in six games, but they enter NCAA play having won three of four.

When asked if he hoped to regain the form his Lady Bulldogs displayed in their start, Landers said, "That form is not what we're after. We're looking for something a little bit more than that, and I think we're capable of finding it."