Georgia basketball brands Longhorns with the Triple T

Georgia basketball invited Texas on over to the Steg Saturday afternoon. The Dawgs shot hot as Texas Pete to turn the party into a Longhorn barbeque.

Three and a half years into the Shaka Smart era, Texas basketball was supposed to be pretty good. Six months into the Tom Crean era, Georgia basketball is not.

Psych.

The Georgia basketball team marked the Longhorns Saturday with the Triple T branding iron as Teshaun Hightower scored on five of five shots, Turtle Jackson on four of seven, and Tyree Crump on six of eight shots. The final head count – Georgia 98, Texas 88, and it wasn’t really that close.

Georgia basketball dynamite

The Georgia basketball team shot a remarkable, incredible, unbelievable 67 percent from the floor to overcome a remarkable, incredible, unbelievable 26 turnovers. As if to prove the hot shooting wasn’t a fluke, the Dawgs shot 71 percent from beyond the arc and hit 22 of 28 free throws for 79 percent.

The field goal percentage mark is the fourth-highest in the 114 seasons of Georgia basketball. All this from a Georgia basketball team ranked 267 in three-point shooting percentage before Saturday.

Come on, cowboy – saddle ’em a tough bronc.

Write that down

“When teams are making shots like that and they’re on a roll, you’ve got to find a way to make them miss,” Shaka Smart said.

Mark Texas basketball head coach Shaka Smart down for an A for stating the obvious. Put the Longhorns down for an F for doing nothing about it.

With the Longorns sitting at 11 – 9 and Smart’s career Longhorn record also just two over .500, Texas fans are not amused. In fact, Texas fans sound a lot like Georgia fans three and half years into a basketball head coaching tenure.

“Rick Barnes is the standard in Austin, and Shaka Smart isn’t even Tom Penders. Shaka may not even be Coach Matthew McConaughey.,” Mac Engel of the Star-Telegram.

(You’ll beg their pardon if Georgia fans are enjoying Smart’s problems. They had some Smart problems of their own this past New Years, and the Texas Smart troubles are soothing balms.)

Season best effort

Said Dawg forward Nicholas Claxton, “I feel like today was one of our most complete games offensively.”

Put Big Clax down for an A for stating the obvious, too.

Georgia also had 25 assists and 27 rebounds, beating the Longhorns in both categories. Turnovers continue to be a problem, and will probably be a problem – if not a plague – the rest of the year as the Dawg’s undermanned back court transitions to Coach Crean’s style and expectations.

Stegeman fire toasts Texas

There was no doubt the Bulldogs would need a little special sauce to compete against a Texas team stocked with eight top 50 recruits and a McDonald’s All-American.

I don’t think there’s any question they want to have a successful basketball program.

Said forward Rayshaun Hammonds before the game to Chip Towers of Dawgnation.com, “We are

going to need [the fans] to bring the energy for us”

The Dawgs got the sauce from a sellout crowd that refused to let the Bulldogs relax, waver, or retreat.

Why do they come?

How does a 10 – 9 team dragging behind it the SEC’s greatest tradition of disappointments generate sell out after sell out? Well, there’s Georgia head basketball Tom Crean, a turbo-charged version of the Energizer Bunny.

There is also this, Crean’s description of the Georgia basketball fans to Brian Davis of Hook‘Em.com.

“I don’t think there’s any question they want to have a successful basketball program and they enjoy basketball.”

They enjoyed basketball Saturday, that’s for sure.