Florida vs. Georgia, Game Thread: Gators begin SEC schedule against Dawgs

Florida's Wednesday night game against Georgia (7 p.m. Eastern, CSS/Cox Sports and ESPN3) is the Gators' SEC opener.

It's also a chance for redemption of a sort: Florida's loss to Georgia in Athens in February kicked off a three-game losing streak that probably ended up costing the Gators a couple of seed lines entering the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

But that game was in Athens, and this one is in Gainesville, and Florida doesn't lose to Georgia in Gainesville: The last Gators loss to Georgia at home came in 2002, a result that the school was later forced to vacate (Jim Harrick was a great person), and the last one before that came in 2000. And since 2004-05, Florida's won all but one of the O'Dome meetings with Georgia by double digits, with the outlier being a win by nine points in 2011.

Georgia may have the best player on the floor on the night in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a future NBA player, but the Dawgs don't have much at all on offense beyond him, barring the possibility that Nemanja Djurisic (13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds per game against Florida in 2012) goes off against the Gators again. Djurisic is having a much worse year than his effective freshman campaign, though.

As always, you can follow along here with me in the Game Thread and on Twitter.