This just doesn’t make sense…

Prior to SEC play, the Diamond Dawgs were perfect at Foley Field. They remain perfect against nonconference competition, even beating highly-ranked Clemson.

But in SEC games, Georgia is 1-5 at home. Meanwhile, they are 4-2 on the road in the SEC including a series win at #3 Mississippi State this weekend. It’s still a bit too early to think of things in these terms, but a road series win over a Top 5 team is pure gold come NCAA selection time.

Is there any way we could contact future home opponents like Tennessee and South Carolina and see if they wouldn’t mind hosting the series instead?

The good news is that Georgia is at Tech this Wednesday. Let’s hope the road is kind once again.

It’s a big weekend in Athens on both the academic and athletics sides.

Academics first – two people at the top of the political food chain stop into town:

• Former President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush, Gov. and Mrs. Sonny Perdue, and a host of other dignitaries converge on campus today to pay tribute to the late Sen. Paul Coverdell at the dedication of UGA’s new $40 million Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.
• 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards will deliver the keynote address at the UGA Law School’s Working in the Public Interest conference.

The Coverdell Center is an important addition to campus. We’ve seen this structure go up in the Coliseum parking lot for the past couple of year, but I don’t think many of us know about the hi-tech science that is going to be going on in there.

On to athletics. Three major events from which to choose:

• G-Day of course will draw the most people to campus on Saturday afternoon.
• The NCAA Gymnastics Southeast Regional will also be held on campus Saturday night
• Georgia’s track teams will also host the Spec Towns Track & Field Invitational

All that’s missing is some tennis and a baseball series. It’s spring, and Athens is in bloom.

One of the great stories of this year’s basketball season was the Army women’s team. The Army program was more or less in wretched condition, and new coach Maggie Dixon, at 28 years of age, took over the team just 11 days before the start of this season. What happened was an improbable storybook season – Army came from nowhere to win their first regular season and tournament Patriot League titles and earned the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bid.

Dixon was hailed for her turnaround job. Her brother, Jamie Dixon, is the head coach at Pitt, and both Dixons led teams to the NCAA Tournament this year, earning quite a bit of national attention. The entire Army and West Point communities rallied around the success of the women’s team. When they won the conference championship, Army cadets – the guys – rushed the court to hoist the triumphant women on their shoulders.

On Wednesday, the 28-year-old Dixon collapsed during an afternoon tea after suffering an “arrhythmic episode to her heart.” She passed away Thursday night.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski followed the Army story during the season and has a very fitting tribute to Dixon’s passing.

In the span of three weeks, this incredible story right out of a Disney script has turned into a gutwrenching tragedy.

I’ve tried to remind people many times over this offseason of the QB battle before the 2001 season. Richt had just taken over, and he had to choose between redshirt freshman David Greene and junior Cory Phillips. A freshman DJ Shockley would redshirt. Phillips of course had game experience starting several games over the last half of the 2000 season. In hindsight, it seems like an easy decision. But as late in the process as a couple of weeks before the season opener, Richt kept the competition alive and still referred to the two as “co-starters”.

The situation in 2002 was a bit more muddled. Greene was the starter, but Phillips had slid to third team behind the impressive freshman Shockley. Though Greene kept his starting job, this time was the birth of the infamous rotation that would define the Georgia quarterback position for three seasons. Had an early-season foot injury not derailed Shockley in 2002, the line between starter Greene and backup Shockley might not have been so tidy.

All this is to put the current quarterback derby in perspective. Richt has not two or even three but four candidates to evaluate. He has been deliberate not to shake up the depth chart during spring and has used words like “marathon” to describe the extent of this process. Those expecting serious movement or shuffling of the depth chart much before mid-August will likely be very disappointed and unnecessarily frustrated. With several candidates, Richt has said that the process might even stretch into the season.

That’s where I have a bit of concern. I can’t see very much good coming from a midseason change unless that transition is planned and very well explained beforehand. If someone starts the season and loses the job because of poor play (or even, God forbid, a loss), he and Richt will be crucified for having the wrong guy out there to begin with. If on the other hand the starter is undefeated and playing reasonably well and still gets replaced, there will be plenty of outcry from the “if it ain’t broke…” crowd that was out in full force during the David Greene years. A tough situation either way if this isn’t settled in large part before the season.

Coach Bobo has at least indicated that the decision might at least be pared down to two guys at some point in the preseason. That’s a good step, but it means that the race for the #2 spot is just as interesting and has some pretty important implications of its own. Consider…

• Barnes. It’s not necessarily his last chance, but not making the top two means that at least one younger player has moved ahead of him. In order to start or see significant playing time, he’d have to improve enough to beat out younger players in the future. A thumb injury late in spring practice probably doesn’t matter much to the coaches, but not seeing him in action at G-Day will definitely leave him out of the fan discussion as they parse every snap of the spring scrimmage.
• Tereshinski. Not making the top two means he would have been dropped from the pre-spring starter to the third team. It’s not unprecedented – see Cory Phillips who went from significant starting action in 2000 to the third team in 2002. And no one, I would hope, thinks any less of Phillips’s contributions to the program. It has been assumed that Tereshinski would simply be left behind in the wake of the freshmen, but he’s had an outstanding spring and is not going down without a fight. But you’ve seen him on the field for three years – would you expect any less than a strong fight from him?
• Cox. Not making the top two is a little less dramatic for Cox. He’ll still have plenty of time to rise on the depth chart. But another season back on the scout team might be a little frustrating. He’s been described as steady, smart, accurate, and consistent. Comparisons to Zeier and Greene don’t hurt either.
• Stafford. The wunderkind. The book on Stafford is becoming pretty clear, and it makes perfect sense. Part of becoming a college or even pro quarterback is learning when to take a sack or throw the ball away because the play is busted. The 60-yard jump balls across his body that made for great high school highlights turn into interceptions in college. But, honestly, if this is the main shortcoming in Stafford’s game right now, he’s ahead of most college juniors out there. It’s hard to imagine Stafford not making the top two, but if he doesn’t, it’s an instant sign that he’ll be redshirted. On the other hand, if he is among the top two it would be a huge waste of a potential redshirt season if he does not see significant playing time or even a starting role.

Lots to think about. But as this plays out, just keep Richt’s track record in mind. He’ll take his time, but he’ll also have the right guy(s) out there at the end of the process. It will be interesting to see the reactions (and overreactions) to what we see tomorrow. For most, it will be our first glimpses of Cox and Stafford, and we’ll see how Tereshinski looks now that he has stepped out from role of backup and caretaker. It’s unfortunate that Barnes won’t be part of the discussion, and I hope fans don’t totally write him off because he is not part of the action tomorrow.

Are you ready?

In just two days, fans will get their one brief fix of live football between the bowl game and the 2006 season. Like the addicts we are, we’ll head to Sanford Stadium to watch a controlled scrimmage. And like addicts, we’ll take the closest thing we can get and obsess over it hoping it gets us through to our next fix.

That said, there are a few areas I’m interested in. Most are on defense. Linebackers seem like a hodge-podge and have since Tony Taylor injured himself two years ago. Depth and stability used to be the cornerstone of that position. Linebackers weren’t especially a strength nor a liability last year, but when you’re used to some outstanding production from the position under VanGorder, that’s a drop off. We’re also switching out three of four starting defensive backs, and the fourth is in a fight for his starting job. There’s no shortage of talented candidates back there, but I’ll be interested in how they shake out.

As for the offense, we know it will be more or less plain vanilla. Defensive pressure won’t be anywhere near up to season levels. There will be some nice runs. But of course most everyone will be looking at the four three healthy QB candidates and ready to proclaim the season starter based on Saturday’s performance. Woe to he who doesn’t impress; the “bust” label is waiting for you.

But the best part of G-Day is the Johnny Brown Award. This is given by fans who see a reserve have a great G-Day and want to know during the season why coaches don’t play him or have him much higher up on the depth chart. Ronnie Powell was a two-time recipient of the award. This year, I bet it will be one of the many young defensive backs. For their sake, I wouldn’t be upset if it’s a wide receiver (Kris Durham enters the game as the favorite) – we need some good press in that area.

As anticlimatic as the men’s NCAA final was on Monday, the women made up for it on Tuesday. Maryland trailed Duke by as many as 13 points and looked beaten in every way during a bad first half. But they put together a run midway through the second half to set up an incredible finish. Down by 4 with less than a minute remaining, Maryland hit two huge baskets, including a deep three-pointer by Kristi Toliver with less than ten seconds remaining to force overtime. Toliver is a freshman, and she stuck a three-pointer over 6’7″ Allison Bales with the game on the line. That’s what the NCAA Tournament is all about. Duke held the upper hand for most of the overtime, but a missed free throw by Bales opened the door for Maryland to take the lead, and they did with just over 30 seconds remaining. Duke didn’t score again and couldn’t get a good look on a potential tying three-pointer of their own as the clock ran out.

I know many of you don’t follow the women’s game, but this was as good as it gets in sports. Good storylines (Maryland’s youth vs. Duke’s veterans desperate for a title), good drama (Maryland’s comeback), good individual moments (Bales’ dominant performance, Toliver and Coleman leading the way as freshmen), and a Hollywood ending. This was a very memorable tournament all around.

The women move right into the WNBA draft today, and two Lady Dogs – Alexis Kendrick and Sherill Baker – hope to get the opportunity to play professionally. I’ll have their draft results later today.

This should come as no surprise. That smile was too big for Georgia. It was too big for Pittsburgh or even the United States. In his first visit to South Korea, the home country of his mother, Ward’s infectious personality has made him as much of a hit there as he’s been at every stop along his path to NFL superstardom.

Ward of course is not just a sports icon; he’s also a symbol of hope for the historically-repressed children of mixed race in Korea. “You came back a hero,” South Korean President Roh said. “Children growing up in South Korea can have big dreams by watching Hines Ward.” We think Ward’s a pretty decent example for kids back here in Georgia as well. Character like his crosses borders and cultures.

After watching most of the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, two disappointing themes run through both tournaments.

Where were the stars?

Look at the finalists for the Naismith Award. Rudy Gay (UConn), Adam Morrison (Gonzaga), J.J. Redick (Duke), and Allan Ray (Villanova). None made it to the Final Four. Zero. Redick and Morrison fell flat in the Sweet 16, and Ray and Gay couldn’t lead their teams past the regional finals. The tournament allowed other players like Davis, Skinn, Noah, and Farmar to step forward, but honestly none except maybe Noah had the impact on the game that one of the Naismith finalists could have.

It was a good story to see George Mason and three other semi-surprise teams in the Final Four, but when you combine the lack of the superstars with the absence of some traditional powers made for a Final Four that didn’t interest many people, and you saw that in some low ratings for the final. Oh, I know UCLA is a big name, but this program had been on the back burner for so long that the name doesn’t pack quite the same punch. There was no traditional East Coast or Midwest power in Indy, so there wasn’t much interest.

On the women’s side, you had Ivory Latta (UNC), Seimone Augustus (LSU), Courtney Paris (Oklahoma), Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers). Might as well count UT’s Parker there also. Pondexter and Paris bowed out in the regionals. Parker and her “dunk” also didn’t play in Boston. (Cue ESPN slitting their wrists over no UConn or UT in the Final Four.) Latta and Augustus made it to the Final Four where they didn’t play like Player of the Year candidates. Latta, fighting through injury, was out of control and ineffective. For all the showmanship and the love affair she claims to have with the camera, that camera showed her coming apart and her teammate Larkins looking much more like the leader. Augustus couldn’t get open because her teammates couldn’t hit open shots and gave Duke no reason to discontinue a double-team on Augustus. As with the men, the absence of the Naismith finalists give some exposure to deserving players like Duke’s Currie or Maryland’s Langhorne. Still, the absence of some stars and the others falling flat makes for a tough Final Four to follow.

Where was the offense?

Don’t tell me it’s good defense. There has been some dreadful offense right up to and including the Final Four. It started with South Carolina and Florida setting offensive basketball back 40 years in the SEC Tournament final. LSU’s upset of Duke featured long scoreless stretches for both teams and a poor shooting night for Redick. LSU made it into the Final Four scoring 50-60 points. UCLA made it to the Final Four with spotty offense and only a late collapse by Gonzaga kept them from paying for it sooner. Villanova’s Player of the Year candidate Allan Ray shot 5-for-19 in the regional final as that team’s explosive guard-led offense sputtered to 62 points.

It doesn’t get much better for the women. LSU stayed in the top five and made it to their third-straight Final Four with only two scoring threats and zero outside game. Tennessee became vulnerable on offense as their point guard situation deteriorated. UConn had a great tournament from Turner, a bit less from Strother, and very limited help elsewhere. Even Carolina’s loaded offense sputtered from outside and nearly cost them as early as the Sweet 16. Maryland is in the national title game with freshmen and sophomores because they can score. Duke might be the deepest team in the tournament, and they need it as their players – even Currie – show up on offense inconsistently.

Put it all together, and these tournaments have been a lot more about coming up short than they have been about excellence. The battle last year between superstar-packed Illinois and UNC seems a world away. The limited stories of excellence like Noah and Langhorne shine brightly as a result.

As an aside, there’s a lot of sniping, mainly from college football snobs, that this year’s tournament is a good example of the downside of the playoff format. Maybe so – this was a down year and for the first time since 1980 no #1 seed made the Final Four. There were serious flaws in the quality of play and players as I note above. But it’s a bit like judging the BCS on 2001 where Nebraska made the national title game without even winning its conference. Every game counts, indeed. College basketball will be back, and there is still nothing in sports like the entire month of March which unfortunately went out more like a lamb this year.

Damn.

Looking back, hindsight shows that Florida won because they were one of the more complete teams in the tournament. UConn was another, but their arrogance took away their edge. Florida had great guard play, dominant posts, role players off the bench, and momentum. Nice formula for success these days. So many other teams had much more gaping holes. Duke had a dropoff in consistency after its two stars. Villanova found out what would happen when its guards weren’t hitting. UCLA showed that they don’t yet have the offensive punch to match its defense. LSU showed that it didn’t have the class of guard play to support the strong frontcourt.

Florida didn’t have many of those shortcomings, at least not at a significant magnitude, and so the only question would be whether or not this team could buck the trend of Donovan’s former teams and hold themselves together. The departure of talented headcases Walsh and Roberson were supposed to hurt the team, but they were young, talented, and didn’t know better as they made their way through the season as a team of role players playing at a high level. From Noah to Green, the one thing the Gators did have was speed. Pure speed. When your forward is the first man down the court, you’ve got a tremendous advantage. It was humbling watching Noah against Georgia’s frontcourt this year – he made the Dawgs look even slower than they were.

A lot was made of the Florida offense vs. UCLA defense showdown, but that made people ignore the other matchup – Florida’s defense against UCLA’s offense. As I posted on the DawgVent over the weekend, Florida plays decent defense themselves, and UCLA would have to prove that its defense wasn’t just a crutch for poor offense. Turns out that was pretty accurate. Florida played some shutdown defense, swatted away any shot near the basket, and there was no way that Farmar was going to carry UCLA singlehandedly.

Any SEC fan who had the pleasure knew what was going to happen at the beginning of the second half. The Gators, true to form, came out of the locker room firing from outside and quickly turned a situation where UCLA was just hanging on into a bloodletting. Donovan, only a year removed from some questions after a few high-profile teams and superstars made a habit of packing it in early in the postseason, now has a national title.

Can they repeat? The superstars of the tournament fizzled in the regionals, and new names like Big Baby, Farmar, Noah, and Skinn shone through. Noah’s NBA stock has to be at a peak now. Taurean Green is an incredible guard who has pro skills. But even if it’s just a cast of guys like Horford, Humphrey, Brewer, and Richard coming back, Florida is as stocked as any SEC team and still has a potent inside-outside game.

Damn.