Heading to Athens on an eight-game winning streak, it was tough to figure out what kind of Georgia team the Ragin’ Cajuns were going to face Wednesday night. The Bulldogs had unimpressive wins over Furman and Morehouse, but had close losses to much better competition in Clemson, Kansas and Marquette.
The Cajuns were very well aware of 6’8” Yante Maten (21pt/8reb) an imposing figure inside with point guard JJ Frazier (14pts/4 asts) scoring outside. Throw in a 10-day layoff for Georgia and it appeared Louisiana may hang with the SEC opponent.
So much for a 10-day layoff. Georgia jumped out to an 11-0 lead on top of what could absolutely not happen, early foul trouble for Bryce Washington. Unfortunately, Washington and his now nation leading nine double-doubles, picked up a pair of fouls in the first 1:35 of the game.
In the first half, Georgia mostly had their way with the Cajuns except for Justin Miller. Down 34-17, Miller sank three 3’s plus a traditional and one, and the Cajuns were pulled within nine at half (38-29).
Louisiana kept the run (15-2) going in the 2nd half, down just two at 40-38, but Georgia went on a 7-0 run of their own and Cajuns never got closer then seven points the rest of the way, losing 73-60.
There is no shame in losing to a more athletic and overall much bigger team. Those type of mismatches happen all the time in college basketball. Especially when it’s Sun Belt vs SEC. However, the Cajuns kept on doing Georgia’s bidding for them. The Bulldogs average four blocks a game, but because the Cajuns kept driving in against their big front line, they swatted away 11 shots.
We have seen this story before from the Cajuns. They either shoot layups or threes. And while that’s a great game plan going in, you’d think after 4, 5, or 10 blocked shots, Head Coach Bob Marlin, Director of Ops Mike Murphy, Trainer BJ Duplantis or SID Matt Sullivan, would suggest a slightly different and perhaps a more effective attack.
Make no mistake, this Cajuns team is very talented and has some depth with Kadavion Evans still to come. The issue they need to address down the road, and especially in March as Marlin likes to say, is to make necessary adjustments. Otherwise, this season may be swatted away.