So how much weight did Georgia going 0-1 in this week’s SEC Tournament carry in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee?
As it turned out – not as much as its overall body of work.
After projections had the Diamond Dawgs on the bubble of being among the eight national seeds, something that would mean hosting a super regional, Georgia learned its postseason fate on Monday. Seeded seventh nationally, the Bulldogs will host a regional at Foley Field against Army West Point, UNC Wilmington, and Georgia Tech.
Call it SEC bias if you are outside this conference if you want, but winning in the SEC, even if you are not a frontrunner, means something. Georgia did a fair share of that this season under first-year skipper Wes Johnson, and the committee rewarded that.
What’s more is that non-conference wins for the Dawgs included a win against a national-seeded Clemson team, a sweep of a conference champion Northern Kentucky squad, and sweeps of three SEC teams that received berths – Vanderbilt, Alabama, and South Carolina.
Georgia plays Army at 1 pm Friday with the winner playing the winner of UNCW and Tech. The Yellow Jackets, who Georgia officially went 2-0 against this season, are the regional’s third seed.
The winner of the Athens Regional is matched up against the NC State regional. With the Wolfpack seeded tenth nationally, a Super Regional berth for the Diamond Dawgs would mean that series being in Athens.
Hosting a regional is hardly new for Georgia. It did so in 2018 and 2019, failing to advance each time in losses to Duke and Florida State.
A regional win for Georgia would be its’ first since 2008, when it last advanced to Omaha.
The good news for Georgia is that it got a very manageable draw. There’s no LSU to deal with that nobody wants a piece of right now. There’s no FSU-like team from 2019 that was playing over its head to honor the retiring Mike Martin.
Can this team get to Omaha? It’s got a solid chance. Its draw, though, improves those chances.
Go Dawgs!