When I think of when Stegeman Coliseum was probably at its loudest/best—at least during my lifetime—I think back to this era. Jim Harrick’s 2001-02 and 2002-03 teams were really good. Those were exciting times.
Yet, entering the Kentucky game in February of 2002, Georgia was experiencing adversity like few Bulldog teams had before.
Ranked No. 15 in the country just a couple of weeks beforehand, Georgia had lost four of its previous six games, including back-to-back setbacks to Florida and Auburn entering the game. But that’s only scratching the surface.
Starting forward Chris Daniels was forced to miss the first half against Kentucky for throwing an elbow in the Florida loss. The suspension, which wasn’t handed down by the SEC until the day before, was ordered after a “belated re-review” of the elbow-throwing incident.
To make matters more interesting, there were accusations that Kentucky supplied the video clip to the SEC of Daniels’ thrown elbow. During the game, Georgia students chanted “Tattle-Tale” towards the Kentucky bench while holding up video tapes. The students also booed Kentucky head coach (former Georgia head coach) Tubby Smith in pregame introductions and jeered him throughout the contest.
More so, just a week before, the brother of junior guard Ezra Williams, Antwonne R. Williams, 24, had been shot and killed in Atlanta. Ezra, the league’s fourth-leading scorer at the time, buried his older brother just two days before the game. Although he had played in the Florida loss a few days prior, missing 11 of 14 shots from the field, Williams was admittedly reluctant to play against Kentucky.
Good thing he did.
Dedicating his game to his late brother, Williams scored a game-high 20 points, which was followed by 19 from Jarvis Hayes. In just 20 minutes of play—the entire second half—Daniels grabbed seven rebounds. Coming off a one-game suspension, big-man Steve Thomas (the team’s tallest player at only 6-foot-8) was named Georgia’s player of the game after scoring 16 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
For the Bulldogs, which entered the game as four-point underdogs, the win not only ended a seven-game home losing streak to the Wildcats but also clinched a regular-season sweep of Kentucky for the first time since the 1986-87 season.
“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” Jim Harrick said after the win over Kentucky. “We’ve had adversity for about a month. Hopefully, it’s behind us now.”
