Georgia’s Two-Game Turnaround

A 67–67 tie, foul trouble mounting, and a season hanging in the balance—then Georgia found the playmakers it needed. We dig into how the Bulldogs flipped a month-long slump into back-to-back statement wins over Kentucky and Texas by embracing a 40-minute defensive identity, cleaning up shot selection, and finally winning on the glass. From Jeremiah Wilkinson’s instant-offense spark to Marcus “Smurf” Millender’s hot start and, most critically, Justin Abson’s six-minute momentum swing, the blueprint for sustainable winning came into focus.

We unpack the turning point when Texas erased an 18-point lead and how Abson’s back-to-back buckets, a stabilizing rebound, and a surge of composure reset the game. Blue Kane and Kanon Catchings slammed the door with timely threes and a steal-and-one barrage, showing a late-game poise this team has missed. With turnovers held to five and threes falling at a 55 percent clip, Georgia looked less like a streaky squad and more like a team that knows where its points come from. Then we zoom out to the four games left: Vanderbilt on the road, home dates with South Carolina and Alabama, and a trip to Starkville. Split the ranked battles, avoid the traps, and an 8–9 seed is right there—with room to climb if the defense keeps traveling.

Beyond hoops, we spotlight Kirby Smart’s surprisingly hilarious turn at the Steve Spurrier Awards and the competitive fire of Ellis Robinson, whose refusal to accept a routine completion hints at an All-American ceiling. We close on baseball, where the bats are booming—homers feeding the Foley Field trees and a 22–0 run-rule showcasing early power—while noting the real test arrives when Tennessee rolls in. It’s a good week to be a Georgia fan: identity forming, stars emerging, and March drawing near. If this breakdown hit your feed at the right time, tap follow, share it with a Dawgs fan, and drop your tournament seed prediction in a review.

Transcript

Georgia’s Sudden Turnaround

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The Georgia Bulldogs men's basketball team has turned their season completely around, seemingly by sheer determination in just two games. Everything that the dogs have been struggling with over the last several weeks led to them losing five out of six games. Everything they weren't doing then, they are doing now in the last two games in wins over Kentucky and Texas. This was the second game in a row where Georgia played very well, which started with uh just like in the previous game, their defense. Early in the game on Saturday against Texas, Georgia's defense was so suffocating that Texas couldn't not even hardly get the ball to the three-point line, much less get in a position to take a good shot. Um 13 minutes into the game, Texas only had 10 points. Georgia completely handled Texas in the first half of that game, particularly the first 12 or 13 minutes of the game. And a lot of those things that Georgia struggled with, such as shooting, three-point shooting, shot selection, Georgia shot 60% on Saturday and went 11 for 20 on threes. That's 55% from three-point range. That's two games in a row. Georgia has shot like a completely different team. And Georgia actually out-rebounded Texas in this game. That is huge. They didn't have an extremely large number of rebounds. But for weeks on this show, I've been talking about the rebounding problems Georgia has had. Uh, in virtually every game, Georgia has been out-rebounded, even in games that they have won. But in this game, Georgia won the rebounding margin against Texas, which was significant. We'll talk about some of the aspects of the previous matchup against Texas, which uh was very disappointing. We talked about that on this show before. Um, but Georgia also only had five turnovers in this game. That was another thing Georgia had periodically struggled with was a lot of turnovers. Well, in this game, Georgia had as many players with double-digit scoring as they had turnovers. They had five players with double-digit scoring in this game. Jeremiah Wilkinson led Georgia. He came off the bench again in this game. He led Georgia with 19 points. That formula seems to be working really well for Georgia right now. Jeremiah Wilkinson was the ACC's sixth man of the year at Cal last season, and in the last two games following his shoulder injury. Wilkinson has been coming off the bench and doing a great job for Georgia. Smurf Millinder, Marcus Millinder, as uh his given name, started the game and he started really hot, scored 13 or 14 points without missing a shot in the first half. Uh that streak of not missing any baskets went a few minutes into the second half. Millender was then out of the game for a while, and when he re-entered the game, he did miss a few shots after that. However, he had 15 points and was three or four on threes. Um, in this game, Georgia built an 18-point lead early on in the game, and they led for 97% of the game. Texas uh only led for 1% of the game. But with around 11 minutes left in the game, Georgia's bigs, Santo Surreal, Dylan James, started to get into foul trouble. And Texas started going on a run, which saw them eliminate this lead and tie the game at 67 points. And this was the key point in the game to me. In Georgia's previous game against Texas, uh, they had a lead at halftime. And then in the second half, Georgia was physically manhandled by Texas in the second half of that game. And that's why I mentioned the rebounding margin earlier, not just for the point of this was a major deviation from some of the games previously in the season, but specifically the Texas game. Texas was much more physical in that game than Georgia was. In this game, um, Jeremiah Wilkinson talked about this after the game. They had talked about that previous loss every day in practice because Texas dominated the second half of that game, and Georgia got blown out despite having a seven-point lead at halftime. So every day in practice, this this uh previous matchup had been brought up. Um, Mike White had been telling the team he they had to play defense for a full 40 minutes. That was a similar message uh in the Kentucky game, which is previous win, is Georgia had to play defense the whole game. That to win this game, they're going to have to fight Texas for 40 minutes. And that's what they did. That messaging really sunk in. Um, and instead of folding at halftime, they continued that battle throughout the second half. So with 11 minutes left, Texas has trimmed this lead, and it's a tie ball game at 67. Justin Abson, who did not play in the game against Kentucky, uh, he came in because Somto Surreal, Dylan James were in foul trouble, and he gave Georgia six huge minutes. It's hard to have a bigger six minutes of a game than what Justin Abson had. Uh after Texas closed that double-digit gap and tied it, Abson scored back-to-back baskets, including a dunk, and stretched the lead back out to 71-67. And that was the end of the run. Uh, Texas never got it back down to that low again, never tied the game up again. From that point on, the lead stayed in the about six to twelve point range of most of the game after that. Following Absence four points, catchings hit a three, um, canon catchings, Blue Kane followed that up with a steal and a huge three-point play, uh, got fouled, hit his free throw. Blue Kane then hit a big three, and the rest of the game, Georgia was pretty much back to form like they were in the first half. Um, and when Abson came in, Georgia was completely on its heels. Texas was rolling, Georgia was in trouble. Vokathitis for uh Texas had was really giving Georgia a lot of problems, but Abson had the big rebound, the two consecutive baskets, and that was what Georgia needed to settle down. And Mike White mentioned Abson in those big minutes in his post-game comments. But Abson and Blue Kane did for Georgia what uh a lot of Georgia teams in previous years, and even this Georgia team's at times this season have not done when they're on a losing slide or in a game where a team starts to come back. They somebody has to step up and stop the other team's run. Someone has to take over the game and um make good decisions and come up big. And that's what both Abson and Blue Kane did in this game. And from the last two games and the comments made by Mike White and the players, Georgia had to take a look at themselves following losing five of six. Some of those were in situations where Georgia clearly should have won the game, or uh situations like in the Oklahoma game where Georgia played very well on offense in the first half, uh, did not play well on defense at all during the game, had a very poor second half of that game. Uh, there were games Georgia just got manhandled. Uh speaking of the Florida games uh earlier in the season. But this team had to look in the mirror and say, who do we want to be and do we want to make the NCAA tournament or not? And they had to dig down and find the energy, the toughness, and had to make a decision to really start playing defense, not for five minutes, not for ten minutes, not for a half. They had to play defense for an entire game. And that's what they've been doing the last two games against a good Kentucky team, against a good Texas team who was very hot uh coming into this game. This is the best that Georgia has played the entire season. No, the scoring numbers are not as high as they were earlier in the season, where every game Georgia was trying to hit 100 points. But uh in totality, Georgia is playing even better than they were then. Their competition right now is a lot tougher than the competition they were playing earlier in the season. Defensively, Georgia is probably playing even better now than it was earlier in the season. If they can keep this up, they will definitely be in the NCAA tournament. They might win some games in the NCAA tournament. Georgia plays a very good Vanderbilt team coming off a very close uh last-second nail-biting loss to Tennessee on Saturday. They will play at Vanderbilt. That's going to be a really tough matchup. If Georgia wins that game, I would say they're a lock to go to the NCAA tournament. I can't see a situation where Georgia doesn't make the NCAA tournament after a win at Vanderbilt. Um, also on the schedule, Georgia has games at home with South Carolina and Alabama. They will also play Mississippi State in Starkville. So out of the last four games, that's two ranked teams that Georgia has an opportunity against. If Georgia even splits that's the Alabama and Vanderbilt games, I would be shocked if they didn't make the NCAA tournament. Um also, if if they can just take care of business against South Carolina and Mississippi State, I would expect that they would be in the tournament. Right now, uh you're looking at about an eight or a nine seed in the tournament right now. So if Georgia could secure a couple big wins, as long as Georgia does not lay an egg going down the stretch, they are probably firmly in the NCAA tournament. Uh none of those games are going to be easy. We've got a very good ranked Vanderbilt team. That's going to be a really tough matchup. Alabama, ranked team. You've got LeBair and Fylon. That's going to be a tough matchup. Mississippi State and Starkville. Uh, Mississippi State is not considered one of the upper echelon SEC teams. Have anybody seen Josh Hubbard? Uh, that's not going to be uh any cakewal kind of game. Georgia against South Carolina is never a cakewalk game. So Georgia's considered to have one of the easier schedules remaining in the SEC. However, this is not going to be easy. So Georgia will need to continue to play the type of defense they've been playing if they want to make the NCAA tournament. And that defense is what's fueling the better offense, is what's fueling the better shot selection, the hitting threes, the playing with confidence. And it really comes down to guys stepping up and playing big and putting in the effort. And that's exactly what Georgia's been doing. And I think it's going to turn their whole season around and land them in the NCAA tournament, which a couple weeks ago looked like they were going to miss. Now, changing gears to Georgia football. Did you see head coach Kirby Smart's comments at the Steve Spurrier Awards in Gainesville Monday night? Kirby took off his visor and took on the role of comedian on Monday night. He was, I don't know if I've ever seen Kirby quite that uh comedic, quite that happy and warm in that type of setting. He was there because cornerback Ellis Robinson was being awarded the FWAA Defensive Freshman of the Year Award. Ellis Robinson, we talked about him a little bit on the show during football season, was the number one recruit in the nation a couple years ago, and has come in and played exceptionally well last year. Start started a little bit difficult early in the season. Georgia's young defensive back struggled to um play the deep ball. Not that they were really most of the time playing bad coverage. They just weren't getting their heads turned around. Well, Ellis Robinson ended the season very well. Uh he had four interceptions on the season, made some very athletic plays. He he's gonna be a whale of a player if if he's not already, essentially. However, um Kirby was talking about how he had had a great time recruiting Ellis Robinson, getting to know his family, um, and then joked that Ellis Robinson's parents both recently had their 50th birthday parties, which he said with all the NIL money that Georgia gave them, Georgia probably sponsored those birthday parties. Then he teased uh Miami head coach Mario Christobal, who was in attendance, that if it had been up to Mario, he would have given them a lot more NIL money. Smart claimed that Ellis Robinson's recruiting decision came down to Georgia and Miami. So Georgia's so uh Kirby Smart said he did not like that Ellis Robinson was sitting that close to Mario Christobal at the at the awards, saying, you got to be careful around Mario. Sometimes he'll take your players, if you know what I mean. Referencing Miami shelling out about$4 million to bag Georgia's uh former starting quarterback, Carson Beck. So Kirby had jokes on Monday night. Him and Mario Cristobal worked together at Alabama a while back. They had a good rapport going on. Mario Cristobal definitely uh was ribbing Kirby Smart quite a bit. I encourage you uh to watch the video if you haven't. It's it's pretty funny. And I listened to Kirby talk on um not just the humorous side, but also the serious side. Smart told a story about Robinson when Robinson was playing in bowl practice as an incoming freshman. He talked about how angry Robinson got after he had given up a pass completion. And this is a guy who had, I mean, he was fresh out of high school. He wasn't really even a college football player at that point. And Kirby told him, you know, man, that's gonna happen. There's these are good athletes. You're gonna give up a catch sometimes. And he said that Ellis Robinson was irate and said, that doesn't happen to me. I don't give up catches. And he and that's when Kirby knew Ellis Robinson was gonna be a great player. And I think we're already there. I think Ellis Robinson is already a very good player, and he's going to continue to get better with that kind of attitude. Now, Georgia baseball. Let's talk a little bit of Georgia baseball. We're early in the season. Um so right now, Georgia's kind of playing smaller competition. Georgia went 2-1 in its first series against Wright State and won a game against UC Upstate. Then Georgia had a three-game series with Samford this previous weekend, Friday through Sunday. Georgia swept that series. Uh in the first two games, Georgia won 11-1 in the first game that run-ruled Samford in the seventh inning, and then won 12-4 in the next game. The third game on Sunday was an absolute shelling. If you watched any of this game, you probably caught some home runs. In the middle of the middle innings of the games, home runs were seemed like they were every other at bat. Uh feed the trees is the phrase at Foley Field in Athens. And the trees at the ballpark were well fed. Uh Georgia won this game 22 to nothing, and run ruled Samford in the seventh inning. In that game, just some uh interesting stats from that type of game. Every dog starter recorded both a hit and a run. Uh Michael O'Shaughnessy hit three home runs in the series, uh, hit two on Sunday, including a 451-foot home run. That is the longest hit of the season for Georgia. Colby Branch had a home run in three consecutive games. So starting the season, it's it's hard to imagine a much better start for Georgia than that. Obviously, you have the one loss to Wright State. That happens sometimes. However, Georgia is rolling both hitting and pitching. Um Georgia only gave up, I believe, one hit in that game on Sunday. However, uh college baseball, beginning of the year, you know, college football teams sometimes get mocked for, you know, starting the season with a cupcake. Sometimes that happens. Well, college baseball starts the season typically with weeks of cupcakes. And yes, sometimes in a game like baseball, where you're playing three-game series, you might lose one of those games. However, by and large, the first few weeks of the baseball season are more about getting your players ready for the remainder of the season than they are really about proving anything uh resume-wise. Most of these games are like this, uh completely overmatched teams. You kind of wonder, why are we playing these games? Well, that would be pretty much to get your players ready. Georgia will not play a major Power Four conference team until March 13th through 15th when they'll play Tennessee. That's going to be a major step up in competition. Uh, not only is Tennessee ranked this season, Tennessee has been one of the top programs in college baseball the last several years. So that will be a significant challenge, and we will see how will Georgia respond after playing teams like Samford, Oakland, uh, Kennesaw State. Those are teams that you see Georgia play pretty much every season to start the year. So we'll see, does this translate? Had a little of this in college basketball this year. Uh, Georgia's opening schedule wasn't exactly a gauntlet. They played some pretty decent teams, played Florida State, played Xavier, played Georgia Tech, um, played Clemson. However, beyond that, it it wasn't that difficult of a schedule. So it'll be a lot of the same. Will Georgia be able to keep this up against the Tennessees of the world? I like to think that they they will we're not gonna see Georgia run roll Tennessee 22 to nothing. That's not going to happen. But I think what we are seeing is clearly this team can hit. And it looks like they might be able to pitch quite well as well. So I think this has been a really good start for Georgia. Um, I'm pretty excited about what we're seeing right now. I think that some of those moves we talked about recently in the offseason are gonna pay off. And so I'm very optimistic based off what we've seen so far and what we've seen the previous couple years about what we're gonna see Georgia do the rest of the season. So that's all I have today on this show. It was a all Georgia show today. Uh, if you enjoyed it, please uh like, follow, subscribe, share with your friends. And if you have any comments, feedback, questions, or anything you'd like me to talk about on the show, reach out to me and let me know. Thanks for listening.