What lousy timing. With Georgia trying to make a push towards the end of the regular season, we got a reminder we didn’t need last night of where this program was a few years ago. The Bulldogs saw a close first half spiral into a second half disaster and a 67-49 loss at Ole Miss.

Georgia started the second half of last night’s game at Ole Miss by hitting two of their first fifteen shots and going over ten minutes without a basket. You know, it’s one thing to try to look at a game and break down all the little things that might make the difference in a game, but all of that goes out the window when the team just flat can’t hit shots.

But in the truly spectacular fashion of most good meltdowns, this wasn’t a one-dimensional loss. Every element of the game was a failure. Georgia shot 33% for the game and a horrific 19% in the second half. They were 23% from outside. Starting guards shot 8-for-29. You get the point, but it gets better. There’s defense. On an otherwise poor-shooting team Ole Miss had one weapon from outside, Clarence Sanders. Georgia couldn’t defend him, and he hit five three-pointers and scored 21 points.

Let’s keep going. As I said yesterday, Georgia was one of the conference’s best rebounding teams, and Ole Miss was quite a ways down the list. The rebounding margin in this game was essentially equal, and Ole Miss recorded nine offensive rebounds. Georgia’s frontcourt, dominant in last year’s game against Ole Miss, was beaten in every way by Ole Miss’s group last night. Rebel forward Jeremy Parnell had as many rebounds as Brown, Bliss, and Singleton combined. Parnell had a double-double in just his second SEC start of the season, and center Dwayne Curtis added 14 points and 7 rebounds. Georgia failed to attack inside; point guard Sundiata Gaines had over half the team’s free throw attempts.

From offense to defense to rebounding to coaching, Georgia was soundly beaten. It was a bad performance, a bad effort, and a disappointment given what was and still is at stake for the team.

While we want to win the three remaining games, the most important thing is holding serve at home. Georgia has to win its remaining home games and then see what they can do at Rupp. Right now, Georgia has seven conference wins, and we have to worry about getting #8 before even thinking about how many wins gets us in. Mississippi State is one of the hotter teams in the league now, and they bounced Vanderbilt last night. That’s life as a Georgia basketball fan now. We went from the "manic" (wondering if we could turn 7-5 into 9-7 or better) to "depressive" (will we even win another game) in the span of a single game.

But hey, some guru’s Bracketology had us "in" last week so no worries, right?