The SEC Tournament loss was a fitting finish to a dismal season
Georgia's worst offensive 12-game losing streak of the season has left coach Tom Crein awaiting a final decision on his future with the school.
Georgia fought a bit in the Bulldogs' last chance to make a case for Creen, losing 86-51 to Vanderbilt in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Tampa on Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs finished with 26 losses, the most in the school's history. There was no way Creen could find a way to prevent a free fall of 20 defeats in the final 21 games.
The defeat of the SEC tournament was a fitting end to a disappointing season. Georgia was held without a field goal in the last 12 minutes of the first half and trailed 35–14 at halftime. The Bulldogs set the season low for the lowest point in a game and a half.
"A lot of the things that hurt us year-round, hurt us today," Creen said. "Too many turnovers, too many open 3s, too many missed communications and too much we lose our sense of humor when we're not scoring points."
Asked whether he had addressed his job situation with his players before Wednesday night's game, Creen said: "You know what? Anything with my position, has to go through the athletic department. It's not something that I spend a lot of time on and I just coach my team every day. That's what I focus on."
Creen's future now rests on athletic director Josh Brooks. Creen was hired by Brooks' predecessor, Greg McGarrity.
The buyout clause in the six-year, $19.8 million contract signed in 2018 decreased from $7.2 million with the end of the season to $3.2 million.
Creen is 47–75 overall in four seasons and 15–58 in SEC games. He has been unable to duplicate the success he enjoyed at Marquette, where he advanced to the Final Four, or Indiana, where he coached three Sweet 16 teams.
Georgia (6–26) lost 18 of 19 SEC games, setting a new low for the program in the conference. The Bulldogs suffered the most losses in a season in the program's history, while holding out only one SEC win for the first time.
Creen could not overcome his inability to keep his best players in the off-season. Two of Georgia's leading scorers from last season transferred to other SEC schools—point guard Sahveer Wheeler to Kentucky and guard K.D. Johnson to Auburn. Yet another player who could have been instrumental this season, Ty Fagan, relocated to Mississippi.
The loss of three players through the transfer portal was devastating. Georgia lost two players to a knee injury at the end of the season.
The Bulldogs' only comeback starter, forward PJ Horn, was injured earlier in the season. Jailyne Ingram averaged 10.7 points and six rebounds through nine games before she injured her knee in early December. Creen said he didn't have a true power for the rest of the season. As a result, the Bulldogs fell to the bottom of the SEC standings.
Krin's highlight in Georgia was the signing of Anthony Edwards, who became the NBA's No. 1 overall draft pick by Minnesota in 2020 after a season in Athens. But even with Edwards' dynamic talents, Georgia finished the 2019-20 season only 16-16 on aggregate and 5-13 in the SEC.
Creen said the coronavirus pandemic, which dramatically cut in-person visits, closed his opportunity to take advantage of a recruitment boost that would otherwise have led to the Georgia player as the NBA's top draft pick. I hoped to be selected. Instead, Krein was forced to rely on rapid transfers.
Georgia's only winning season under Cree was a 14–12 finish in 2020–21, when the Bulldogs were 7–11 in the conference.