3 things we learned from UGA basketball’s season. And 3 key questions for next year
Remember one week ago?
The Georgia men’s basketball team came off an 81-63 win over Ole Miss in the SEC tournament flying high with confidence. Tough matchups loomed, but the Bulldogs looked like a team that could cause some problems.
Then the impact of the coronavirus swept across the sports landscape. It forced the cancellation of virtually every event on the calendar, SEC tournament included.
That brought an abrupt end to what was an up-and-down year for Georgia. An even 16-16 final record doesn’t quite do justice to how much this season swung from one extreme to the other.
Now there’s nothing for the Bulldogs to do but look ahead to the 2020-21 campaign.
Here’s a look back at some major takeaways from this season, as well as some questions Georgia will have to answer the next time it takes the court.
Three takeaways from this season
1. Expectations might have been a bit unfair
This statement applies both to the team as a whole and specifically to superstar freshman Anthony Edwards. People who thought Edwards would swoop in, cape fluttering behind him, and lead the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament ended up being sorely mistaken.
Edwards was fantastic, no doubt about it. He earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors by averaging 19.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in the regular season. But he also had his ups and downs, struggling with his shooting and shot selection at times and going through the growing pains every freshman deals with.
“I didn’t really know that much about scouting, scouting players, scouting teams,” Edwards said. “When I got here, I just thought I was going to score 20, 30 every night, you know, just kill every time. But I had to realize I’m the key to everyone’s scouting report.”
Edwards is just one of 10 newcomers — nine freshmen and graduate transfer Donnell Gresham — on a team that entered the season as one of the youngest in the country. That youth showed up as immaturity throughout the year in blown leads, defensive lapses, communication breakdowns and struggles with awareness.
Head coach Tom Crean said his team might have been too quick to adopt a “defeatist mindset” at times this year, getting discouraged on the court and hurting performance. That’s just another part of building the program.
“It’s not necessarily immaturity, as much as we haven’t grown into it yet,” Crean said. “So immaturity is when you’re silly, when you’re not trying, but growing into maturity is where we’re at. There’s times we’re good at it. There’s times we’re not. That’s why we’re so inconsistent, and that’s the hard part.”
2. Wheeler and Hammonds are good foundation pieces for 2020-21
When next season tips off, the Bulldogs will have one of the best inside-outside tandems in the SEC.
Inside will be Rayshaun Hammonds. Barring an incoming transfer, Hammonds will be the lone senior on next year’s team. He dealt with inconsistency just like his teammates but still averaged career highs in points (12.6) and rebounds (7.3).
Wheeler, on the other hand, is the diminutive point guard who turned heads with his ability to get to the rim and make plays for his teammates. He earned a starting spot midway through the year and finished the season with 139 assists, a Georgia freshman record.
There will be plenty of other questions about next season’s roster, but Crean has a strong foundation with Wheeler and Hammonds set to return.
3. The shooting just isn’t there for Crean’s system — yet
Crean’s offensive system is built on pace, space and shooting the ball at will. So far in his tenure, the Bulldogs have not been able to shoot the ball well enough to have the system operate at full operation.
The overall field goal percentage in the 2019-20 regular season was mediocre — 43.1 percent, good for eighth in the SEC. The 3-point percentage, however, sat at 28.8 percent, tied for last in the conference with Auburn.
“It’s been a problem all year, and we’ve got to continue to develop it as much as we possibly can, continue to work on it,” Crean said. “We do every day, right? We work to get better with our shooting, with our spacing, with being prepared to shoot, with our ball movement, with our cutting — all those type of things.”
Crean also noted that shooting is something he looks for when recruiting players. Going forward, the team will have to vastly improve its shooting percentages to unlock the full potential of Crean’s offense.
Questions for next season
1. Where will the leadership come from?
Leadership by committee has been a topic of conversation all year. With all the departures from the 2018-19 team, different players had to step up and fill that void.
The Bulldogs struggled with that all year. There weren’t those players who could be looked to as a calming presence on the court, which contributed to some of the lapses and breakdowns.
Heading into next year, the same leadership question persists. The most obvious candidate to step up is Hammonds, who will be the most experienced player on the team. He’s said he’s worked to become more vocal throughout the year, but that will become even more imperative next season as the only senior.
Others should also feel tasked with stepping up, such as Wheeler and rising junior Tye Fagan. No matter who it is, someone on the team or an incoming player, the Bulldogs will need much better leadership to take the next step in 2020-21.
2. Who will replace the scoring void left by the departures?
Georgia will also be tasked with making up for a sizable scoring void that departs from this year’s squad.
The three seniors — Gresham, Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris — combined to average 18.6 points per contest. Edwards, who many presume will be leaving school for the NBA, scored 19.5 points per game.
That’s nearly 40 points per game that will need to be replaced. Where will they come from? Some of the answers can likely be found in the three returning starters.
Wheeler and Hammonds averaged 8.8 and 12.6 points per contest, respectively, leaving some room to shoulder more of the scoring load. Returning big man Toumani Camara also showed the potential to be a future double-digit scorer by averaging 6.5 points per contest.
Outside of those, the answers come from incoming freshmen and those who haven’t scored a whole lot in their college career. One name to watch is Fagan, who nearly doubled his scoring output from his freshman to sophomore season.
3. Will more experience make up for the size deficit?
One of the smaller teams in college basketball this season, the Bulldogs will likely be in that same boat next year as well.
The two forward recruits who are committed stand at 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-8. That will add more depth for the Georgia big men, but size-wise the situation will be much the same.
But as Crean said many times throughout the year, rebounding is as much about physicality and a tough mindset as it is about size. When the season gets underway, it will be interesting to see if a more experienced team can rebound better with some of the same size disadvantages.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 9:47 AM.