Lady Dogs in hunt again
ATHENS, Ga. — Taja Cole was 3 years old when Georgia won its most recent Southeastern Conference regular-season championship in women’s basketball. That was 18 years ago.
Still, the redshirt sophomore guard knows about her program’s rich history, including its five Final Four appearances and 20 trips to the Sweet 16.
Third-year coach Joni Taylor has made sure her players understand that history. She spent four years as an assistant under former longtime coach Andy Landers and uses lessons about the Lady Bulldogs’ past success as motivation to refresh that tradition.
“It means a lot,” Cole said. “I talk to my teammates all the time that when we play, we’re not just playing for us. The people that played here built a platform for Georgia, and we want to get it back to that to show them we appreciate them and we appreciate the things they did for us.”
Taylor has the Lady Dogs back in contention in the SEC. After moving into the Top 25 this week for the first time in three years, No. 21 Georgia (18-2, 6-1) beat No. 11 Missouri 62-50 Thursday night for a big league win. It was a season low in scoring for Missouri.
“I think that was probably the best defensive team we’ve gone against all year,” said Missouri coach Robin Pingeton, adding she believes Georgia is going “to do very, very well the remainder of the season. Joni has done a phenomenal job.”
Senior Haley Clark said the team’s “Earn Yours” slogan is based on the drive to update Georgia’s tradition.
“Basically earn your right to say you’re a part of Georgia basketball,” Clark said. “Earn your position in Georgia basketball history.”
There’s an obvious gap in that history. The Lady Dogs have never won a national championship.
Georgia missed the NCAA tournament altogether while going 16-15 last season, but this team has better depth thanks to a strong freshman class led by starting guard Que Morrison, who had 17 points and eight rebounds against Missouri. Another freshman, Gabby Connally, scored 37 points in a win at then-No. 17 Texas A&M on Jan. 14.
Cole, who sat out last season after transferring from Louisville, has helped lead the return to contention for Georgia, which will take a six-game winning streak into Sunday’s game at Florida (10-11, 2-6).
Georgia is second in the SEC standings, one game behind No. 2 Mississippi State, which is 21-0 overall and won 86-62 on Dec. 31 in Athens. Georgia’s other loss this season was to Texas, which is currently No. 6 but was ranked second when it routed the Lady Dogs in early December.
Taylor didn’t talk to her players about this week’s ranking.
“Our goal is not to be ranked,” Taylor said after Thursday night’s win. “Our goal is to put Georgia back to national prominence and to make Coach Landers proud and to make these former players proud who made all the sacrifices to make this program what it is.”
Taylor, a native of Mississippi who played at Alabama, is only the second full-time coach in Georgia women’s basketball history. She was associate head coach for three of her four years on Landers’ staff, and she’s still motivated to win for her former boss, who is now an analyst for ESPN and SEC Network.
“We talk all the time,” Taylor said. “Andy is my friend. He obviously is my mentor. In everything we do, in everything our staff does and I do, we think about making him proud because he built Georgia basketball.
“This is all him. I want to make him proud.”