CHARLOTTE, N.C.-To prepare himself for tonight’s 10 p.m. tipoff against the Washington Huskies in the opening round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, Georgia coach Mark Fox said he “forced myself to stay up late [Tuesday night] so I’ll get used to it.”
Said Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar, a longtime acquaintance of Fox, when he heard of this exercise in sleep deprivation: “Mark is a great guy, but he’s also a no-nonsense guy. Very driven person.”
The trouble with figuring out what will happen in this SEC/Pac-10 pairing is that Fox would rather drive around 69 mph (actually scoring 69 points per game), while Romar prefers life in the fast lane – 83 points a game.
“It took us dropping some games for us to really realize that you have to be able to adjust and play with a little more patience,” Romar said. “We had some games earlier in the year where we just shot lights out, but I told our guys that wasn’t realistic basketball. As the season has gone on, as we dropped a couple, I think they’ve finally begun to understand the way they need to play.”
In earning a No. 10 seed after finishing 9-7 in the SEC and 21-11 overall, the Bulldogs most closely resemble Pac-10 members Southern Cal (beaten in Wednesday’s play-in game) and UCLA, according to Romar, whose Huskies are 23-10 (11-7).