The Georgia Bulldogs have a much brighter future compared to their present in men's basketball.
That future could begin Wednesday.
Georgia has struggled to an 11-20 record in coach Tom Crean's first season and is 2-16 in Southeastern Conference play, with those 16 league setbacks matching the program's futility standard set in 1974. The Bulldogs are seeded 13th in the SEC tournament that begins Wednesday, March 13, in Nashville with a matchup against 12th-seeded Missouri, which humiliated Georgia 64-39 last Wednesday in Athens.
"Missouri did a number on us when we played them last week," Crean said. "In a season like this, we've got to continue to focus on what we can control and what we can get better at. We need to focus on where our strengths have been and get back to that.
"We also have to stay excited, and I love where our attitudes are."
Crean's Bulldogs had shown noticeable improvement down the stretch, losing to four expected NCAA tournament participants - LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Auburn - by a combined nine points. Then they traveled to Florida, a program currently on the NCAA tourney "bubble," and pulled out a 61-55 upset behind the play of 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Nicolas Claxton, who scored 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting that included a pair of 3-pointers.
Last Wednesday's debacle against Mizzou seemed to come out of nowhere, but the Bulldogs closed their regular season Saturday at South Carolina and didn't perform much better, falling behind 44-21 at halftime of an eventual 66-46 loss.
They are entering Bridgestone Arena with the appearance of being out of gas, but Crean insists they will not show up just to go through the motions for 40 final minutes.
"I think it's all in how you view it," he said. "If you view it as a grind, then it becomes a grind. If you view it with energy and looking for those things that can help you get better - if I just came in here and focused on the fact we didn't play well against Missouri last Wednesday, that would feel like a grind.
"You have to find those things we didn't take advantage of that we can take advantage of, and it's your job to bring that to your team."
Georgia must play this tournament without 6-8 sophomore forward Rayshaun Hammonds, who underwent foot surgery last week. Hammonds is second to Claxton on the team in scoring and rebounding with averages of 12.1 and 6.1 per game.
"We're missing him a lot," Claxton admitted in a recent news conference. "He brings a lot to the table. His play really helped us out stretching the floor."
Should Georgia suffer a 21st overall loss for the first time since the 1955-56 season, there will not be much looking back.
The Bulldogs have three top-100 players in a 2019 recruiting class that ranks 13th nationally, according to 247Sports.com. The headlining act is five-star Anthony Edwards, a 6-5, 215-pound guard from Holy Spirit Prep in Atlanta, who is the nation's No. 2 prospect.
When Edwards announced his commitment, Claxton posted on Twitter, "It's time to level up!" Georgia has the potential of being significantly better next season, but Crean isn't ready to give up on his first team.
"If you don't love being involved and being in the hunt and being involved with the process in college basketball on a day-to-day basis, there are plenty of other people who would take your place," Crean said. "You can get down and you can get angry, but then you've got to move on quickly. That is exactly how I try to do it.
"Certainly I want us to be better. I wish we had a better record, but the only thing we can do about that is make sure that we're better today."
Praising Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt won its first four games this season before abruptly losing five-star freshman point guard Darius Garland to a knee injury.
Garland never returned and the Commodores never recovered, as Vanderbilt became the first program in SEC history to endure an 0-18 league record. Vandy finished with the SEC's worst record for the first time since 2003 and enters Wednesday night's opening round as the 14th seed against 11th-seeded Texas A&M.
"They had to really rebuild their team once Darius Garland went down, and you really have to respect their players and coaching staff for how hard they play," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of his state rival. "That is really, really hard to do when you've lost that many games in a row. It hurts, because you're always wanting to see the results, but from the outside looking in, I can tell you that they're doing a better job than you can probably even imagine.
"To me, that's really coaching, because their backs are against the wall and they can't seem to catch a break. They're building towards something, and I respect how hard they're continuing to play."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.