Inside the Numbers: Georgia 72, Vandy 58

by Train Island on Feb 8, 2010 11:33 AM EST in Basketball Comment 2 comments

Missed layups were a nice complement to the team's missed mid-range jumpers. (AP Photo/David Manning)

The statistics pretty much say it all about Vanderbilt's disappointing 14 point loss on Saturday:

Category	Georgia	Vanderbilt
2^nd Half Scoring	49	32
2^nd Half Shooting	67% (71% from 3pt)	33% (9% from 3pt)
Total Rebounds	43	28

And probably the most disturbing:

Overall shooting: Jermaine Beal/Brad Tinsley - 14-28, 39 points, Rest of team - 6-33, 19 points

Judging by the numbers, it looks like Vanderbilt was lucky to come out with only a 14 point loss. The only key statistic that the Commodores came out ahead on was turnovers - 11 for VU compared to 21 for UGA. That opens up a whole other can of worms though - how do you force 21 turnovers and lose by 14 points?

Lots of Vandy misses led to huge numbers for Georgia's defensive rebounds. Shot selection was, at times, terrible. Even though Beal was making shots (and keying a big first half rally), he was taking some pull-up threes that even Alex Gordon thought were questionable decisions.* On top of this, two of the team's key players put in performances that could be considered their worst of all time:

Player	FG	3-pt	FT	Oreb	Dreb	Tot	PF	A	TO	BLK	S	PTS	Min
Andre Walker	0-3	0-0	0-0	2	1	3	4	3	2	2	2	0	25
John Jenkins	0-9	0-7	1-2	0	1	1	2	0	1	0	1	1	18

Jenkins and Walker combined for 43 minutes of court time and contributed zero field goals. That's an absolute black hole at two key positions - fortunately Brad Tinsley's play was enough to balance out Jenkins's first bad performance in black and gold. Andre Walker didn't have that benefit, as the overall failure of the frontcourt as a whole emphasized his lackluster play. Walker, A.J. Ogilvy, and Festus Ezeli combined for eight points, 14 rebounds, and four blocks on 3-14 shooting against a Bulldog team with only one legitimate big man - Trey Thompkins. Thompkins put up 17 points and seven rebounds against the Commodores.

The team uncharacteristically fell apart in the second half after playing the first held together by streaky shooting and Bulldog mistakes. The only reason this game was close at any point was because of Georgia's incompetence. As a wise man said in the game thread: "Georgia's primary offense play is[/was] the turnover." Once the Bulldogs played with the composure of a Division I team, it didn't take them long to unravel the 'Dores.

Hopefully this game puts the team on alert. The team played impatiently on offense and incompetently on defense in putting on one of the worst performances of the season. They'll need to bounce back better than Tennessee did after the Vols lost at Georgia; that team then lost to their in-state rivals at home. Vanderbilt is a stale half away from being in the same situation.

*Just kidding. Alex Gordon has never thought a three pointer was a bad decision, ever.

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I don’t think it’s fair to say that Georgia played with the composure of a DI team. Their shot selection and passing, not to mention fan attendance, had DIII written all over it, even in the second half. (DIII: Like good high school sports, only worse.)

by VandyFanwithaTie on Feb 8, 2010 12:03 PM EST reply actions 0 recs