Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox did a little research during the Bulldogs’ flight to Tennessee last Friday afternoon. And it had nothing to do with the Big Orange team his Bulldogs would defeat 24 hours later.
“I looked at it a little on the plane,” Fox said when asked if he had begun to pay attention to NCAA tournament projections on various websites.
“They all talk about quality wins and top-50 wins. If you believe that the selection committee still values your entire body of work, then I think we’re in good shape. But this [victory over UT] has to help.”
Ah, the entire body of work. Some years the selection committee seems to give equal weight to every game on a team’s schedule, from November forward. Other years, not so much.
For coach Bruce Pearl’s Volunteers, it may become critically important that the committee look as favorably on their opening weeks as their closing run.