Did Georgia basketball find a solution to its second-half woes? Tom Crean hopes so
Tom Crean knew what he had to do.
With Georgia looking to protect a second-half lead against Auburn, something Crean’s team has struggled with this season, he decided to change his normal approach and call more offensive sets from the sideline. The switch worked, as the Bulldogs (13-13, 3-10 SEC) toppled the Tigers 65-55 Wednesday night.
“I think I’ve learned that I’ve got to do an even better job to call the game for them, to put them in something that makes the ball move,” Crean said after the game. “That’s a little bit what we did in that situation. Now they’ve got to execute; it’s not me. But the bottom line is they did.”
The Bulldog head coach elaborated on this strategy Friday, saying that at the end of the day it comes down to his players making good decisions.
Primarily, Crean’s players have struggled with grasping different time and score situations over the course of a game. That showed up even against Auburn: Crean noted there were a couple of quick shots his team would like to have back.
It didn’t bite the Bulldogs against the Tigers, but it has over the course of SEC play. Georgia has blown a handful of second-half leads, including a 20-point advantage against Missouri and a 22-point lead against Florida.
“I don’t want to over-call the offense, but at the end of the day we’ve got to make sure we’re getting the right look, getting the ball in the right people’s hands, and not being in a rush, and understanding what the kind of momentum and the flow of the game is,” Crean said.
That flow of the game largely boils down to transition. Crean doesn’t want his team to slow up and miss out on transition scoring opportunities. At the same time, he doesn’t want them to play too fast and turn the ball over.
It’s just one of the steps necessary when a team is as young as Georgia. Eventually, whether it be in the final few games of this year or next season, Crean will be able to take the training wheels off.
But the Bulldogs aren’t quite there yet.
“You get an older team, you get an experienced team, you get a team that’s been through the rigors and the wars and all of a sudden, they’re not playing like that as much,” Crean said. “We’re trying to help them get through that, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to help them even more so on the court.”
Next Georgia basketball game
Who: Georgia (13-13, 3-10 SEC) at Vanderbilt (9-17, 1-12)
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Nashville, Tennessee
What channel: SEC Network