Mike White on Georgia’s 25-point loss to Saint Louis: ‘Did not see this coming’
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Mike White didn’t mince words in the postgame press conference late Thursday night in Buffalo, after his No. 8 seed Georgia team was bounced by No. 9 seed Saint Louis in a 102-77 beatdown that was worse than the score indicated.
The Bulldogs were beaten every which way, as they became the first SEC team to bow out of this NCAA Tournament. It was a Midwest Region mismatch in the first round, and it put a sour taste in everybody’s mouth that cares about Georgia basketball after a solid regular season that saw the Dawgs go 10-8 in the SEC.
But they were outclassed by the regular-season champion from the Atlantic 10, as Saint Louis advanced to a second-round matchup on Saturday against top-seeded Michigan while Georgia was on its way back to Athens after shooting just 35% from the field and 26% from 3-point territory while allowing the Billikens to blaze away with 58% field-goal shooting.
Saint Louis (29-5) led by 17 points at halftime before things really got out of hand in the final 20 minutes, as the Bulldogs were beaten badly on the glass (47-36), finishing a season with so much promise at 22-11 and with their head coach getting brutally honest with reporters in the postgame press conference.
“Really disappointed in our effort, starting with myself,” White said. “We obviously weren’t prepared to compete at the level that I thought we would. Did not see this coming. Tough way to end the season. (We) didn’t give Saint Louis much of a game.”
White saw what everyone else did out there for 40 minutes, and it wasn’t pretty for the boys from Athens.
“I expected to win the game. These guys have practiced hard all week. We played as disconnected as we played all season,” White said.
It was a strong regular season for his program, as White again pointed out late Thursday night, but it all fizzled in March and especially in the NCAA Tournament.
“Really proud of our regular season,” White said. “We broke records, we did things that have never happened in the history of Georgia basketball.”
But it ended with a clunker in upstate New York.
“Our plan was to come here and play well and compete and advance,” White said. “A tough way to end it. I thought Saint Louis was terrific.”
With Georgia out of the picture from the SEC’s list of 10 NCAA Tournament teams, here is what the Kalshi market currently sees involving those SEC teams still alive to make the Sweet 16:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
