University of Georgia Athletics
Dog Notes: Seniors Get Another Win
March 05, 2016 | Men's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
It was a poignant moment, Georgia men's basketball seniors Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann hugging it out on the center-court "G" at Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs' only seniors were honored prior to tipoff against Alabama in the regular-season finale. This important duo, one of the most successful classes in program history, weren't the stars in the Dogs' 70-63 win over the Tide, but they made some big plays and walked off the court with an important win.
Thanks to the win by Georgia (17-12, 10-8 SEC), and other league happenings on the final day of the regular season, the Bulldogs will be the No. 6 seed in next week's SEC tournament. They will face 11-seed Mississippi State in the second round on Thursday.
Gaines and Mann each received big rounds of applause pregame from the crowd of 8,280, and the cheers were even louder with 5.7 to play in the game when coach Mark Fox brought in subs so that his seniors could get a final ovation as they left the floor.
Coming off three straight games with at least 20 points, Gaines struggled from the field, going 2-for-8. He finished with seven points and five rebounds. Not great, but he didn't care.
"Beautiful — as long as we got the win, I'm smooth," said Gaines, who has played with a hand injury for several games and said it was bothering him some Saturday.
Like all seniors, Gaines and Mann had in previous seasons seen teammates go through all the Senior Day ceremonies. It's a little different when you're the one going through it. The seniors received lots of hugs from their teammates beforehand and then stood with their families at mid-court as the public-address announcer bragged on their achievements.
"I'm an emotional person, I always say, but I was just trying to focus on the game and not feel too bittersweet about the moment," said Gaines, who was scoreless in the first half before starting the second with a 3-pointer.
"This was my last game playing in this building [probably], but it was fun. I can't wait to look back at the film because I know I made some ugly faces."
It was fitting that Mann's final act in a regular-season game at Stegeman — what happens with the Bulldogs in the postseason remains to be seen — was a free throw. He went 6-for-9 from the line, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds.
For his career, Mann is No. 1 all-time at Georgia with 596 free throws made and 864 attempted.
For Mann and Gaines, Saturday's win guaranteed three straight seasons with a record above .500 in SEC play, something that's been achieved only once before at Georgia. It was their 50th SEC win and 53rd win at Stegeman, the most ever in a four-year span.
"It's something great," Gaines said.
"It means a lot," Mann said. "Of course I wish we could have done more, I wish we could have been a guaranteed bid this year in the [NCAA] tournament, but we can't dwell on things we can't control any more. We're just trying to win the next game."
Rolling To Nashville
Georgia will enter that next game on a three-game win streak, having defeated Ole Miss, South Carolina and the Tide — three teams all in the middle of the pack or better in the league — to close out the regular season. The Dogs haven't entered the SEC tournament having won three straight since the 1996-97 season.
This run comes after the disappointing loss at Auburn on Feb. 24. That loss to the Tigers (5-13 in SEC play) was a setback, but it might also have been the springboard the team needed.
"It definitely was a wake-up call," said sophomore forward Yante Maten, who led the Dogs with 19 points Saturday.
One area where the Dogs have definitely performed better the past few games is at the free-throw line. Against Ole Miss the Dogs were 18-for-24; at South Carolina, a stellar 23-for-27; and Saturday, with junior guard J.J. Frazier leading the way with a 12-for-12 game, the Dogs went 26-for-32 at the line.
In tight games, in postseason play, it's often the team that excels at the line that prevails. Fox said he wasn't expecting anything but tough games in Nashville, where every game will be "a dogfight."
Georgia's first game certainly will be, against Mississippi State. The Athens Dogs beat the Starkville Dogs, in Starkville, 66-57 on Feb. 13. Maten had 25 points that night and Mann scored 21.
Board Hoarding
Sometimes you're watching a game and eye-popping statistics just sneak up on you. Like when you look up with about five minutes to play and see that Georgia is outrebounding the Tide by a stunning 41-21 margin. The Dogs finished with 48 rebounds to Bama's 26, leading to a 13-3 advantage in second-chance points.
No one Bulldog had a huge game on the glass. Instead, nearly everyone got in on the act. Mann led the team with seven, Frazier and junior forward Houston Kessler had six each and Maten, freshman forward Derek Ogbeide and Gaines have five rebounds apiece.
"That's just being determined," Mann said. "Just going out there and playing the way we know how to play — great defense and outrebounding, and that's what we did today."
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
