Apologies for this update being a day late. Up very late watching the Oscars on Sunday night and then a full day of life on Monday. Not enough hours in the day…

Florida – 74, Georgia – 71.  You’re probably mad. This isn’t how any of us wanted the regular season to wrap up…with a three-game losing streak that drops the Lady Bulldogs from second to fourth in the SEC in less than a week. Still, a little perspective is in order. This team lost two All-SEC starters from last season (Ashley Houts and Angel Robinson) and still won 20 games. They still achieved double-digit conference victories and earned a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament. Last year’s squad did neither of those things. Yes, we’re a little shorthanded and more than likely a little tired…but, like Georgia superfan Jermaine King said on Facebook yesterday, everybody’s tied with a 0-0 record right now. I’ve seen the Lady Dawgs get up off the mat and shock folks in the postseason. You’ve seen it, too. Keep the faith, Fastbreakers…this is when it gets fun.

It wasn’t too fun yesterday, however. It was encouraging to see J.J. knocking down some shots and you much prefer the errors of commission that we saw yesterday over the errors of omission that doomed Georgia against Auburn last week. Still, that season-long bugaboo combination of missed easy looks and missed free throws made the difference in a game that went down to the last possession. J.J. led the Lady Dawgs in scoring with 23 points while Po’ did her double-double thing one more time (15 points, 17 rebounds). Anne Marie chipped in with a dozen points and Khaalidah scored 11.

Now it’s on to the SEC Tournament in Nashville, where on Friday night the fourth-seeded Lady Bulldogs will take on the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between fifth-seeded South Carolina and Ole Miss, seeded twelfth. We’ll have a complete SEC Tournament preview posted right here sometime Wednesday evening.

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

I guess the most surprising thing about this story is learning that there’s actually a basketball Hall of Fame out there that Tee’s not already a member of. This just in from the UGA Sports Communications Office:

ATHENS, GA. — Former Georgia Lady Bulldog Teresa Edwards (pictured), a two-time All-American for the Georgia Lady Bulldogs and the only U.S. basketball player – male or female – to compete in five Olympic Games, is one of a dozen finalists for induction into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2011. The finalists were announced by the Hall of Fame on Friday.

The Class of 2011 will be announced on Monday, April 4 at a news conference in Houston prior to the NCAA’s Men’s Championship game. A finalist needs 18 of 24 votes from the Honors Committee for election into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2011 will be enshrined during festivities in Springfield, Mass. on Friday, August 12. The complete list of finalists include from the North American Screening Committee: players Maurice Cheeks, Chris Mullin, Dennis Rodman, Ralph Sampson and Jamaal Wilkes; coaches Herb Magee, Dick Motta and Tex Winter; contributor Alvin Attles and referee Hank Nichols. From the Women’s Screening Committee: Teresa Edwards and Tara VanDerveer.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I truly believe Teresa Edwards is the greatest competitor to ever lace up a pair of high tops,” said Georgia head coach Andy Landers. “She is the ‘Wilma Rudolph’ of women’s basketball. Teresa blazed a trail that I’m not sure anyone can or will ever follow. Five Olympic Games? To be one of best, if not the, best players in the world over three decades? I’m not sure we’ll ever see that again.”

Edwards, a native of Cairo, GA, enjoyed a spectacular four-year run that turned Lady Bulldog Basketball into one of the nation’s premier programs. She helped lead Georgia to its first-ever Final Four appearance as a freshman in 1983, to an NCAA runner-up finish in 1985 and to SEC Championships in 1983, 1984 and 1986. The Lady Bulldogs compiled a 116-7 record during Edwards’ four seasons at UGA.

Edwards also began her unparalleled international playing career while still in Athens.

In 1984, the summer following her sophomore year, Edwards was the youngest member of the U.S. team that captured a Gold Medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. She started for virtually every U.S. National Team to enter a major international competition for the rest of the century. She captured additional Gold Medals in 1988, 1996 and 2000, as well as a Bronze in 1992.

In 1996, Edwards was the one competitor among the 10,318 competitors in all sports representing 197 nations at the Centennial Olympic games chosen to read the Athlete’s Oath at the Opening Ceremony.

In 2000, Edwards co-captained the U.S. to the Gold Medal in Sydney, giving her the unique distinction of being both the youngest and the oldest women’s basketball player to earn Olympic Gold.

All told, Edwards played in 216 games representing the United States and compiled some incredible statistics – 2,000 points, 890 assists, 576 rebounds and 372 steals and a career field goal percentage of 50.3 percent. Of a possible 18 medals competing for USA Basketball, Edwards won 14 gold, one silver and three bronze, and the U.S. teams with Edwards on their roster compiled an overall record of 205-14 for an almost unfathomable winning percentage of 93.6 percent.

Edwards enjoyed an extremely successful professional career with stints in Italy, Japan, Spain, France and Russia. She also played a formative role in the development of professional women’s basketball in the U.S. Edwards was on the board of directors of the ABL and served as player/coach of the league’s Atlanta Glory. She wrapped up her playing days in the U.S. with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, she received the WNBA’s Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award.

Edwards has been inducted into six halls of fame. She was a member of the inaugural class for the UGA’s all-sports “Circle of Honor” in 1995 and was inducted to the State of Georgia’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the Grady County (GA) Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Dominque Wilkins was the first former Georgia Bulldog inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2006. Ironically, Wilkins departed Athens after two seasons in the spring of 1982. That fall, Edwards arrived at UGA to begin her collegiate career.

It almost feels like order has been restored in women’s college basketball this week as Connecticut returned to the number-one spot in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls. Maybe UConn’s been on top for so long that “Stockholm Syndrome” is settling in among women’s basketball fans. In news of interest much closer to home, the Lady Bulldogs snuck back into the national rankings this week, checking in at number twenty-two in the AP poll (even though it’s sure to be another short stay with the back-to-back losses this past week). So…with that, here’s our weekly look at the top five in both major national polls (and, where applicable, Georgia’s ranking):

AP

1. Connecticut

2. Stanford

3. Baylor

4. Tennessee

5. Texas A&M

22. GEORGIA

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Connecticut

2. Stanford

3. Baylor

4. Tennessee

5. Texas A&M

Click here to see the entire top 25 in both major polls.

The Lady Bulldogs will close out the regular season tomorrow afternoon with a rematch of this year’s most memorable game. Georgia would probably do well to not fall behind by 16 points midway through the second half this time around, though. As the Lady Dawgs found out a few weeks ago versus Vanderbilt, those miraculous comebacks don’t exactly grow on trees. The SEC standings will be in a state of flux tomorrow afternoon. It doesn’t even do any good to run them down right now when they could be completely jumbled up by dinnertime on Sunday. Georgia (20-8 overall, 10-5 in SEC play) has clinched a first-round bye in next week’s SEC Tournament. Depending on whether or not they take care of business against the Gators…and how the rest of the league schedule plays out tomorrow…the Lady Bulldogs will enter the tournament as either a second, third, or fourth seed. So grab a seat by the TV, radio, or computer and pop some popcorn. It’s going to be a wild and unpredictable final Sunday of the season.

Georgia and Florida will tie a bow around the 2010-11 regular season tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 PM (Eastern) in Gainesville. CSS cable subscribers can catch the game live on the tube. If you don’t have CSS, you can watch the Georgia/Florida game online at ESPN3.com. We’ll have a game recap, web links, and SEC Tournament seeding and tip-off time information for Georgia’s second-round game sometime late Sunday night.

Click here for the official Georgia/Florida game notes.

Here’s a link to the Florida women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Gator roster.

We’ve got two galleries of photos from tonight’s Fastbreak Club Senior Reception posted for your perusing pleasure. Make sure you scroll down to see all of the pictures! (Apologies in advance for some of the pictures being dark. This is due to lighting conditions in the venue.)

Auburn – 63, Georgia – 58. Too many turnovers and way too many missed layups and chippies from close range. In fact, Georgia’s very first scoring opportunity tonight was a missed layup. It set the tone. Despite some heroic three-point shooting from Khaalidah (6-of-12 from beyond the arc and 20 points to lead all Georgia scorers) and Porsha closing out the Stegeman Coliseum portion of her Lady Bulldog career with yet another double-double (13 points and 12 rebounds), Auburn snuck out of Athens on Senior Night with a huge win to keep their long-shot postseason hopes alive for another day. It was actually a thrilling game, one that wasn’t decided until J.J.’s attempted three-jack that could’ve tied the game with less than ten seconds left clanged off the rim….but there’s no doubt that this is one that the Lady Dawgs will look back upon and think they should’ve won. Still…again…nothing’s over yet for this season. For our Lady Bulldogs, redemption lies just over the state’s southern border against one of their fiercest rivals. They probably wouldn’t want it any other way.

Yes…Georgia’s last shot at taking a semblance of control over their own SEC Tournament seeding destiny is this Sunday afternoon down in Gator Country. With a win over Florida in Gainesville, the Lady Dawgs would finally lock down an SEC first-round bye and, depending on how other games shake down around the league that day, possibly a second-place finish in the conference standings. We’ll have a Georgia/Florida preview posted right here sometime during the day on Saturday.

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

Unbelievable. Last home game of the season…already. We covered the larger ramifications of tomorrow night’s Georgia/Auburn game in the Tennessee game recap. To sum up: The Lady Dawgs need one more win in their last two regular-season games to clinch a first-round bye in next week’s SEC Tournament. Win both of those games and Georgia ends up with a sparkling 12-4 SEC record and a possible #2-seed at the tournament. The Tigers (14-13 overall, 7-7 in SEC play) need to win out in their last two games and probably win an SEC Tournament game or two if they want to have a shot at picking up an invitation to The Big Dance. Both teams have plenty to play for and…hey…Georgia/Auburn also just happens to be one of the oldest and best collegiate athletic rivalries in the nation. So expect this game to be an old-school slobberknocker. And don’t forget…our senior players and team personnel will be honored in the traditional Senior Night pre-game ceremony. See you there!

Immediately following the game, Fastbreakers will head over to the Coliseum Training Facility for the annual Fastbreak Club Senior Reception. The reception will be held in the Richard B. Taylor Room and this year’s honorees are Porsha Phillips, Jaleesa Rhoden, Nicole Stroud, and Student Athletic Trainer Meagan McKinnon.

Georgia and Auburn will close out the home season tomorrow night at Stegeman Coliseum starting at 7:00 PM. No TV or webcast for this one…so you’ll either need to hit-up your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station or, even better, show up in person to say goodbye to our seniors and congratulate the whole Lady Bulldog family on another stellar 20-win (and counting!) season. We’ll have a game recap, web links, and exclusive photos from both the Georgia/Auburn game and the Fastbreak Club Senior Reception posted right here sometime late Thursday night.

Click here for the official Georgia/Auburn game notes.

Here’s a link to the Auburn women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Tiger roster.

Tennessee – 77, Georgia – 44. All you Fastbreakers are good, loyal Lady Bulldog fans. The truest of the true. I have no doubt that you watched tonight’s Georgia/Tennessee game on the tube. So you all know exactly what went down. Which is good…because there’s just not much to add to what you saw and I lack the prose right now to put it into any kind of perspective. With this loss, Georgia is now 20-7 overall and 10-4 in SEC. There are two very winnable games left on the regular season schedule: Senior Night at home this Thursday versus Auburn and then Florida down in Gainesville. If the Lady Dawgs can bounce back from tonight’s performance and knock off those two scuffling-around-.500 opponents, they can finish 22-7 overall and 12-4 in conference play. Take those records, make a little noise in the SEC Tournament, and you’re set-up to do serious business in The Big Dance. This is no time to gnash teeth and be bitter about a game here or there that might’ve/should’ve been won. There are still plenty of attainable goals out there for this year’s Lady Bulldog squad. They’ll redouble their efforts in practice this week…we should redouble ours in cheering them on.

As was said just above, Georgia will be back in action this Thursday night at the Coliseum as they host Auburn on Senior Night. We’ll have a Georgia/Auburn preview posted right here sometime during the day on Wednesday. Go sleep tonight’s game off, Fastbreakers…there’s still plenty of work left to be done this season.

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

The Lady Bulldogs are unranked in both major polls this week as the voters continue to under-credit Georgia for wins and over-punish them for losses. Can anybody explain why the Lady Dogs bounce in and out of the polls while Kentucky has yet to be unranked this season? It’ll be real interesting to see where Georgia is in comparison to Kentucky next week…seeing as how the Lady Dawgs are 2-0 (a win in their gym and a never-in-doubt blowout in Athens) versus the ‘Cats this season. Oh, well…here’s your top five in both major national polls for this week:

AP

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Stanford

4. Tennessee

5. Texas A&M

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Stanford

4. Tennessee

5. Texas A&M

Click here to see the entire top 25 in both major polls.