Mike White calls on players to find consistency in second half of games

Georgia let one slip away on Tuesday night in Lexington as Kentucky came back to win 85-71 against them. It’s not the first instance of this for the Bulldogs, though, and that’s what has Mike White so frustrated.

White shared his thoughts on the Bulldog’s recent second-half struggles during his postgame press conference after the loss to the Wildcats. He said they did similar things in their non-conference schedule but that it never came back to bite them. However, it has impacted them over their last four games in the SEC and finding a way to be consistent through both halves has now become something they need to address

“We’ve had a couple of these where we’ve got away with it against a couple mid-majors. (We) found a way to win but we weren’t quite as sharp in the second half. And it’s always a topic of conversation amongst staffs and teams throughout a long season of college basketball,” said White. “Sometimes you’re gonna be sharper in one half than you were in another. I addressed that a few minutes ago where we’ve got to find a way to be as good.”

“It’s not about holding on, it’s not about watching the scoreboard. It’s about trying to be a little bit better,” White said.

To start this stretch, Florida came back from a 13-point first-half deficit against Georgia to take a 13-point lead of their own and win in Gainesville. The Bulldogs then had to fight off Mississippi State and Ole Miss after letting them hang around in the final half. With that said, the loss to Kentucky was the shining example considering the 25-point swing from the final minutes of the first half to the final buzzer.

White says it’s all about how they adjust at halftime. He doesn’t want his players worried about just trying to hang on to their lead. He wants them to focus on correcting what went wrong in the first half so the second half can be just as good, if not better, than the first.

“That’s why we watch film at halftime. We show some clips of some positive and some negative,” White said. “It’s about staying in the moment, the next possession. Let’s get an ‘A’ shot, let’s get a stop. Let’s clean up some of the things we could have done a little bit better. I know we’re up eight but let’s try to be ever better in the second half. Again, it’s not about the holding on mentality. If you do that on the road, good things tend to not happen.”

These kinds of losses are the most unpleasant to have to overcome. Still, the Bulldogs are going to have to use them as lessons as they try to put this stretch behind them and move forward in order to prepare for Vanderbilt this weekend.