History-Making Bulldogs Reach 20-Victory Landmark

FINAL RECORDS
Overall: 20-14; SEC: 12-6 (t2nd)
Home: 15-3 ; Away: 4-7; Neutral: 1-4

The Georgia Bulldogs made history during the 2014 season. They won 20 games for just the 12th time ever in over 100 years of basketball at UGA. They tied for second place in the final SEC standings, a milestone accomplished by just three other Bulldog teams before them. And this year, that's quite an honor to finish second in a league that produced half of the 2014 Final Four.

Some of the noteworthy accomplishments of the Georgia team in 2014 include:
  • This was the 82nd year of competition in the SEC. The 2014 season marked just the 10th time that Georgia managed to win at least 10 conference games. All 10 of those years follow in descending order:
    13 wins: 1990 (won regular-season championship)
    12 wins: 1985, 2014
    11 wins: 1968, 1970, 2003
    10 wins: 1982, 1987, 1997, 2002

    For what it's worth, Georgia's 1983 team won the SEC Tournament and reached the NCAA Final Four, yet managed only a 9-9 record in conference play.
  • In that same 81-year span, Georgia has finished second or higher in the SEC standings just four times:
    1st - 1990
    2nd - 1985
    t2nd - 2002, 2014
  • The 2014 team owns seven SEC wins by double digits. That's the most by a team at UGA since 1997.
  • The 2014 team swept four of its five home-and-home series in SEC play, sweeping Missouri, LSU, South Carolina and Mississippi State. That's the first Georgia team to sweep four regular-season series in 24 years, going back to the 1990 season, when the conference played an 18-game, double round-robin schedule.
  • The 2014 Bulldogs went 8-2 in their last 10 regular-season games. Included in that 10-game span were three road victories and a perfect 5-0 mark at home. The average victory margin of the five home wins was 12.4 points; for the three road wins, it was 15.3 points.
  • Georgia begins the post-season with an RPI in the low 70s. That's a long, steep climb from its rating in the low 300s in late November, after the Bulldogs' 1-4 start. Georgia began the SEC schedule on Jan. 8 with an RPI of 256.

    The Bulldogs took a pair of wins over Missouri. The Tigers entered both games with a Top 50 RPI rating. Georgia won at Missouri on Jan. 8 when the Tigers owned an RPI rating of 21, as well as an Associated Press Top 25 ranking of 21st. Georgia's win in Columbia stopped a Missouri home-court winning streak that had reached a national-best 26 games.

    Other RPI Top 100 wins by Georgia included (RPI on game day):
    > 13-point home win over LSU (RPI of 70)
    > 9-point road win over LSU (RPI of 67)
    > 5-point home win over Arkansas (RPI of 65)
    > 2-point neutral win over Ole Miss (RPI of 86)
  • Sophomore guard Charles Mann was named by the league's 14 head coaches to their post-season All-SEC 2nd team. It marks the second consecutive season in which the coaches bestowed post-season honors upon the Alpharetta, Ga., native. Mann was named to the Freshman All-SEC team in 2013. He led the Georgia squad in the following categories: scoring (13.9 ppg), minutes (29.7/g), assists (2.9/g), steals (1.1/g), FTA (277) and FTM (195). Mann was also named SEC Player of the Week in mid-January after scoring 40 points over two Bulldog victories.
  • That Mann and the entire Georgia team made their living at the free-throw line was no secret. Mann ranked 10th among all NCAA Division I players in total free throw attempts, 21st in FTs made. Georgia ranked 17th and 30th as a team in the same categories, and the Bulldogs established a new school record for most FTs attempted in a single season (941). Mann now has the second most FT attempts (277) in a single season in UGA history, behind only Zippy Morocco's 303 in 1953. He also has the second most FT makes in a single season in UGA history, 15 behind Morocco's record of 210, also set in the 1953 season.
  • Were there to be a Comeback Player of the Year award in the SEC, Marcus Thornton would certainly have been a worthy candidate. The native Atlantan was a key factor behind Georgia's landmark SEC season. He was Georgia's top rebounder (6.9) and its third-leading scorer (9.2) in league play. He scored in double figures in four of the Bulldogs' last five regular-season games.

    All this after undergoing three knee surgeries -- and taking a medical redshirt season in 2013 -- over the past two years.
  • Thornton cleaned up in the team's annual awards, giving at its post-season banquet in April. He won Defensive Co-Player of the Year (shared with Donte' Williams), Top Rebounder, Most Inspirational and, above all, "The Rock" leadership award.

    Other team award winners included: MVP - Charles Mann; Top Assist Man - Mann; Most Improved Player - Kenny Gaines; Sixth Man Award - Nemi Djurisic
  • Georgia shot over 60 percent in the 2nd half on five occasions last season, including three SEC wins. The Bulldogs shot 73.9 percent in the second half Feb. 12 at Mississippi State, the program's best-shooting half since 2001.