You probably watched this game on the tube…so there’s not a whole lot of need for rehashing what we all saw. All the stats and details can be found by clicking the link below. It was not the way anybody wanted the season (or, especially, Ashley and Angel’s Lady Bulldog careers) to end. But this tournament starts off with 64 teams. Ultimately, only one of them gets to cut down the nets. Do the math and you realize that a team making The Big Dance has a 98.4% chance of having their season end with a loss. Winning a national championship is not easy. Let no one tell you or even insinuate otherwise.

The good news? Even with Ash and Angel departing, this Lady Bulldog roster has a young core that is absolutely crazy talented. They lifted a just-over-.500 team from last season to the best start in program history, 25 wins, and a trip to an NCAA Tournament Regional.

And they will only get better.

That core will be bolstered next season by the arrival of a recruiting class ranked by the women’s college basketball media as one of the best in the nation. J.J., Jazz, Anne Marie, Meredith, Candace…they all got merely a taste of what going deep in the NCAA Tournament is all about. It will leave them hungry for more. On this glorious Sunday morning in the Lady Bulldog Nation (and, yes, the sun did in fact come up…I just checked), the future is bright. Believe.

Click here for the official Georgia/Stanford recap and a link to the stats and box score.

Again, no hype needed. Sweet Sixteen action at 9:00 PM (Eastern) tomorrow night in Sacramento. Our Lady Bulldogs vs. the number-two team in all of the land, the top-seeded Cardinal of Stanford University. The winner will face either Gonzaga or Xavier (squaring off in the second half of the Sacramento Regional doubleheader) for the right to advance to the NCAA Final Four. Yep, that’s how close the ultimate prize is now. Georgia will need to knock down their shots, hold their own on the boards, make their free throws, and run the Cardinal’s legs off to win. Is that a tall order? It absolutely is. Are the Lady Dawgs capable of pulling it off? They absolutely are.

NCAA TOURNAMENT (THIRD ROUND), MARCH 27, 2010

Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona

#5 GEORGIA VS. #1 STANFORD (9:00 PM, Eastern)

TV/Radio: ESPN/Georgia Bulldog Radio Network

We’ll have a Georgia/Stanford recap and web links posted right here sometime Sunday morning. As J.J. is so fond of saying: “Let’s do this!”

Click here for the official Georgia/Stanford Sweet Sixteen game notes.

Here’s a link to the official Stanford women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the entire Cardinal roster.

You may still need to boil a pot of coffee…but Georgia, in Sacramento for the Sweet Sixteen, will finally be playing before 9:40 PM in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Georgia and Stanford will tip-off at 9:00 PM (Eastern) this Saturday night with a berth in the Elite Eight on the line. ESPN will carry the game live. We’ll have a full Georgia/Stanford preview posted sometime tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.

Georgia. Tennessee. Kentucky. Mississippi State. Four out the six SEC teams in The Big Dance are going to the Sweet Sixteen. And…LSU and Vandy both came within heartbeats of making it six out of six.

Just sayin’…

Well, now…that was worth staying up late for, wasn’t it? Last night, the nation learned something we’ve all known for a while now: Jasmine James is a very special prime-time player. Have you ever seen a better individual performance in a five-minute overtime period? Has anyone? J.J. hit two clutch three-pointers and shot an absolutely calm, jitters-free (smiling, even!) 8-of-8 from the foul line to finish with 14 points in overtime, leading the Lady Bulldogs to a scintillating 74-71 over Oklahoma State and into the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen. Now it’s on to Sacramento and a Saturday date with that Regional’s number-one seed, Stanford (a tip-off time for that game has yet to be announced).

J.J.’s 14-point overtime performance propelled the freshman sensation to a new career high of 27 points overall. But it’s well worth noting that it was the outside shooting of Meredith Mitchell (15 points) in the first half and the second half surge by Angel (16 points and 15 boards…another double-double) that kept Georgia in the game and gave the Lady Bulldogs an opportunity to perform some late-game magic. Just a great all-around team performance from a Lady Bulldog squad that, thankfully, doesn’t require one player to jack up almost forty shots a game in order to succeed.

Georgia and Stanford, as most Fastbreakers know, are hardly strangers to each other. Over the years, deep into March Madness, the Lady Dawgs have hooked up with the Cardinal in Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four match-ups. So this will be fun. We’ll post the tip-off time and all other details of the Georgia/Stanford Sweet Sixteen game is soon as they are announced. In the meantime, just take a couple of days to savor last night’s big win. The magic is back.

Click here for the official Georgia/Oklahoma State recap and a link to the stats and box score.

Everything’s now in place for tonight’s second-round NCAA Tournament match-up between our Lady Bulldogs and Oklahoma State. We’ve finally got a tip-off time: 9:40 PM (Eastern). If you’re not in Tempe, the game can been seen live on ESPN2 (check your local listings for channel number). It will be, as you all know, a showdown between the number-four and five seeds in the Sacramento Regional and an “A”-List battle between two of the finest guards in the nation (State’s Andrea Riley, the third-leading scorer in the country and the All-SEC floor general, our own Ashley Houts). The winner is in the Sweet Sixteen and plays in Sacramento next weekend. Got it? Okay, let’s ball.

NCAA TOURNAMENT (SECOND ROUND), MARCH 22, 2010

Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona

#5 GEORGIA VS. #4 OKLAHOMA STATE (9:40 PM, Eastern)

TV/Radio: ESPN2/Georgia Bulldog Radio Network

We’ll have a Georgia/Oklahoma State recap and web links posted right here either  sometime late, late tonight or first thing in the morning. Let’s get back to that Sweet Sixteen and remind the nation of what Lady Bulldog basketball is all about…

Click here for the official Georgia/Oklahoma State game notes.

Here’s a link to the official Oklahoma State women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the entire Cowgirl roster.

It was Angel early and Ashley late last night as the two senior superstars combined for 40 points and 20 boards to lead the Lady Bulldogs to a 64-59 victory over Tulane in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. That five-point margin of victory is a little misleading as the Lady Dawgs had the game well in hand with a 14-point lead with less than two minutes left to play. At that point, Tulane made a pretty impressive garbage time run (that was aided by some ridiculous non-calls as Ashley was repeatedly mugged, resulting in “turnovers”) to close to within a respectable-looking point margin at the end…but the bottom line is: Georgia lives to fight another day and moves a step closer to the Final Four.

Ash, as noted, was phenomenal down the stretch as she led all scorers with 22 points to go along with seven rebounds and six assists. Angel went double-double (18 points and 13 boards) and was a dominant factor down low all night. J.J. and Meredith played all 40 minutes (as did Ashley) and while they both had off-nights shooting (a combined 5-of-18 from the field), they hit key shots down the stretch and played some pesky defense. Anne Marie also came up big in 14 minutes of play, grabbing five rebound and knocking down a couple of long outside jumpers.

The Lady Bulldogs will now face an Oklahoma State team that had to fight like the devil to fend off an upset bid from Chattanooga in last night’s early game. The time for that second-round game was not yet set as this updated was posted…but ESPN2 will be looking to air the most competitive match-ups during prime time. You have to figure that a four-versus-five showdown between two outstanding programs and two of the best guards in the nation (Ashley Houts and State’s Andrea Riley) is a strong candidate to be shown at a time when most of the nation can see it. We will, of course, have an update and game preview right here as soon as the particulars of Monday night’s Georgia/Oklahoma State game are known.

Click here for the official Georgia/Tulane recap and a link to the stats and box score.

Finally…time to dance in the desert. Tonight our Lady Bulldogs, seeded fifth in the Sacramento Regional, will take to the floor for the first time since the SEC Tournament a couple of weeks ago as they face twelfth-seeded Tulane in opening-round NCAA Tournament action. If you’re not already naturally amped-up on March Madness, you may need to slam a couple of NoDoz…the game, played in Tempe, AZ, won’t tip-off until sometime around 10:30 PM (Eastern), depending on when the preceding Oklahoma State/Chattanooga game concludes. The winners of those two games will meet Monday (at a time not-yet-determined) for the right to advance to Sweet Sixteen play in Sacramento.  If you didn’t make the cross-country trek to watch the Lady Dawgs in person tonight, the Georgia/Tulane game can be seen live on ESPN2 (check your local cable/satellite listings for channel number). And…with that…the table is pretty much set. It’s The Big Dance. No hype necessary.

We’ll have a Georgia/Tulane recap and game links posted right here sometime tomorrow morning. Hopefully, that update will also include all the particulars on a second-round NCAA Tournament match-up with either Oklahoma State or Chattanooga. Go get ‘em, ladies…

NCAA TOURNAMENT (FIRST ROUND), MARCH 20, 2010

Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona

#5 GEORGIA VS. #12 TULANE (around 10:30 PM, Eastern)

TV/Radio: ESPN2/Georgia Bulldog Radio Network

Click here for the official Georgia/Tulane NCAA Tournament game notes.

Here’s a link to the official Tulane women’s basketball page.

Click here to to see the entire Green Wave roster.

Big news out of Atlanta for Lady Bulldog fans today: The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream franchise has just announced that Kelly and Coco Miller (pictured), two of the most exciting and popular players to ever don the red-and-black, have each signed two-year deals with the team. That’s right, Kelly and Coco will be playing just down the road in Philips Arena. And, as you’ll read in this quote from the Dream’s press release, Kelly’s already looking forward to seeing some Fastbreakers in the crowd: “I’m so excited to be playing for Atlanta. Coco and I have dreamed about playing on the same team again and are so grateful for this opportunity. I loved my years at the University of Georgia and have a lot of great memories there. I’m sure I’ll see many familiar faces at our games.”

We’ll have ticket and schedule information for the Atlanta Dream posted right here as the WNBA season draws a little closer. But adding Miller Twin Magic to a team that rose from the league basement to the playoffs in one year is more than enough reason for some early excitement. (Yes, Coco was already a Dream teamer last season…but it’s all about the Twin Magic!)

Click here to read the Atlanta Dream press release about the signing of the Miller twins.

Courtesy of the absolutely invaluable Roadside America website, you can click the link below for rates and reservations at hotels near Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona. You’ll get each hotel’s distance from the Arena, the most recent lodging rates, and reservation info. In addition, we’ve also provided a link to an online vacation guide for Tempe. Westward Ho, Fastbreakers!

Click here for information on hotels near Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

Click here for the Tempe online vacation guide.