OK, one more thing about the “game I wasn’t going to discuss”. ESPN’s Mike Patrick and Doris Burke went on and on about a possible 5th foul against Tasha Humphrey that was credited to Megan Darrah. They, particularly Patrick, mentioned the foul and the supposed gift of a call at least a dozen times down the stretch. According to Patrick, Humphrey absolutely HAD picked up her fifth foul. To support this claim, they ran (one time) a replay of a play on which no foul was called. That’s right – they were looking at and ranting about the wrong replay. What’s worse is that no one on the production team reviewed this pivotal call and showed the proper replay (on which Darrah was very much involved) or at the very least slipped word to the talking heads that the call was a lot less controversial than their blunder made it out to be.

The job of the broadcast is to tell the story of the game, and they whiffed on this one. They didn’t just fail to tell the story, they told a wrong and misleading story.

I just can’t go very far into the Lady Dogs’ loss last night. Just heartbreaking. Andy Landers put it best.

“We didn’t lose. You lose when you go out and don’t apply the ability and talent that you have to the challenge that is ahead of you. There’s no shame in getting beat. The shame is in not fighting the fight.”

Amen. I don’t want to talk much about the game, but I must say something about Alexis Kendrick. Sunday night’s start meant that Kendrick had started more games than any other Lady Bulldog. From the moment she stepped on campus, she earned a starting position. In what turned out to be her final game, she played like the senior leader she was.

It wasn’t just that Kendrick scored 14 points or was a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc. It’s when those points came that mattered. She had two three-pointers early on as Georgia built a lead. But early in the second half, UConn stretched its lead out to seven points, the largest margin they would have. Kendrick hit her third three-pointer to start a 7-0 run which would tie the game and start the back-and-forth heavyweight fight that ended the game. Then on Georgia’s final offensive series an offensive rebound was kicked out to Kendrick on the left baseline, and she buried what seemed like the biggest shot of her career.

It’s been a tough senior season for Kendrick. She hit an early-season gamewinner against Santa Clara, but that was her only basket of that game on a frustrating night. That’s more or less been the tale. Kendrick’s high-profile mistakes at the end of the LSU game in Athens were more the stuff of a shaky freshman than a veteran senior. She has struggled to find her place on offense this season while Sherill Baker flourished. But in the NCAA Tournament, Kendrick ended her Georgia career looking very much like the McDonald’s All-American that arrived four years ago. She nearly had a triple-double in Georgia’s first round win over Marist, and she came up with big play after big play on offense and defense last night.

Alexis is resilient, independent, smart, athletic, kind, and humble. She has survived four years 3,000 miles away from home without much of a support structure away from the team, and in the process she wrote herself into the Georgia record books. She was a rock that Coach Landers depended on to hold the team together on the court, and she did it every night and never missed a start. She has transformed from a shy role player to a confident woman who will be successful in any area of life. Last night’s loss was heartbreaking and a tough loss to get over, but Kendrick and fellow senior Sherill Baker can walk away knowing that they gave absolutely extraordinary efforts in their final game and played up to the standard of excellence they created in four incredible years at Georgia.

There have been 25 NCAA women’s tournaments. Georgia has appeared in 23 of them. In those 23 trips, Georgia has now advanced to the regionals (Sweet 16) 16 times. It’s an amazing feat of consistency matched or bettered by less than a handful of programs.

Georgia advances to the 2006 Sweet 16 with some hard-fought wins over a pair of double-digit seeds. Neither Marist nor Hartford matched up with the talent of Georgia, but both had reasons to be confident. Marist gave Georgia a lot of trouble in a game in December 2004, so they weren’t intimidated. Hartford had just defeated a Temple team that had beaten Georgia earlier this season.

But Georgia’s talent won out in the end both times. In Tuesday’s game with Hartford, you could see the energy drain out of the underdogs as Georgia turned up the defense and went on a 15-0 run behind the play of Hardrick and Baker. It must have been demoralizing to see Georgia still blazing fast and creating turnovers while the fatigue of two tournament games caught up with Hartford.

Sherill Baker is doing her best to shed the “defensive specialist” label. She can’t shoot a sick 12-of-16 (most of which were jumpshots) and continue to have the improvement in her offense overlooked. Tasha Humphrey summed up what makes her different and special on one play in the second half – she drove from the perimeter (how many posts can even do that much?), did a spin move to create space in the lane, and instead of shooting an open mid-range shot, she in one motion came off the spin move to find Sherill Baker cutting to the basket for an easy catch-and-shoot layup. Call it vision, court-awareness, basketball smarts…it’s just there.

Tasha has piles of double-doubles now. If she ever records a triple-double, that third stat is likely to be assists. When some true centers and post players arrive in or return to the program, Humphrey could be a devastating distributor of the ball. Whether it’s from the high post to other interior players or an inside-out pass to the perimeter, she can sense where the open shot is and get the ball there.

Now in the Sweet 16 the Lady Dogs get into a situation where their talent advantage is no longer as great. UConn doesn’t have the otherworldly superstars of some of their powerhouse teams of the past decade, but they still have plenty of weapons. It’s ridiculous that people are talking about a “down” season for UConn when they have won 30 games and earned a #2 seed.

So while we congratulate them for getting this far and for some stellar performances in the first two games of the tournament, there have been some weak spots in those wins:

• Slow starts on defense. Whether it was the adrenaline of the tournament or Georgia’s own lapses, both Marist and Hartford matched Georgia on offense for at least the first half. Shots were half-heartedly contested, and Hartford was even shooting well over 50% until Georgia turned up the defense in the second half. Though Tasha Humphrey had a tremendous game against Hartford in most areas, Landers had to call a first-half timeout to light into her about soft defense. I understand the limitations: Georgia’s depth situation prevents aggressive defense for 40 minutes. Exhaustion sets in, and foul trouble isn’t easy to overcome. Still, UConn likes to come out with guns blazing, and playing from behind is not a situation Georgia wants to face in this game. They need to set a defensive tone early and especially prevent Strother from catching fire.
• Unforced turnovers. For the amazing control of her hands Sherill Baker shows on the defensive end, she too often loses control in the transition offense. One such turnover killed Georgia’s big run against Hartford and keyed a small rally by the Hawks that was fortunately short-lived. With points at a premium in this stage of the tournament, easy transition chances can’t be wasted. This was a problem in the SEC Tournament as well. Against Hartford, Georgia generally took much better care of the ball in the second half and gave Hartford very few chances to get out and run. Let’s hope that continues in the first half of the UConn game.
• Contributions from everyone. The win over Hartford was a three-player show. Baker and Humphrey stood out, but Hardrick was also key in the win. Darrah had two points on 1-of-7 shooting. Kendrick didn’t score. Chambers was still in a bit of post-suspension hangover and had seven points, far below the level at which she was playing towards the end of the season.
• Alexis Kendrick needs to play like a senior leader. Alexis played much better against Marist, coming close to a triple-double. As she struggled against Hartford though, her minutes increasingly went to Hardrick. Points have been at a premium for Kendrick lately, scoring 27 in the entire month of February. She didn’t score at all in Georgia’s final two regular season games. Of course Alexis brings so much to the team other than scoring. She doesn’t look for a lot of shots. Her defense is typically solid, she can rebound, and she runs the offense under control – just what you hope for in a point guard. But without much of a scoring threat from all but three positions opponents will have the opportunity to help on Georgia’s shooters, and Georgia’s execution is made more difficult. Kendrick is going to get some open looks, and whether or not she can provide the kind of contribution she had in the Marist game might have a big role in deciding how her Georgia career ends and her next career begins- the WNBA draft isn’t far away, and this is the biggest stage there is.

UConn can be beat, but they are still plenty good and as strong as any team Georgia has faced this year. A Georgia win will require much more steady play than they have shown so far in the tournament, and they’ll need stronger contributions on offense from some key starters. This game is a great opportunity for the Lady Dogs. With all of the good that has happened in this season of adversity, they still lack the big landmark win that would turn a nice season into a very memorable one. Getting that win over UConn in their own home state and advancing to within sight of the Final Four would be one of the biggest accomplishments in the history of this tradition-rich program.

A lot of people remember the late Bill Hartman, who passed this week, as Georgia’s kicking coach during their run of great kickers from the 1970s through the early 1990s. I don’t, since that was about the time I became a fan. But of course Hartman was much more to the program than just an assistant coach, and that job was just one step along the way in a life that took him from All-American football player at UGA to a soldier in WWII to a long career alongside Vince Dooley to a strong force heading up the GSEF and fundraising efforts in the 1990s for the school he loved so much.

I didn’t know much about Hartman. But I do know three things…

1) When Herschel Walker begins a parade of Bulldog greats to visit you in the hospital, you’re someone special.

2) Former Bulldog kicker and Hartman protegee Allan Leavitt once graciously gave me a Jack Davis print commemorating Hartman’s infamous on-field incident with Uga. Leavitt treated it as if he were giving a sacrament.

3) During my last season in the Redcoats, we broke with the tradition of spelling G-E-O-R-G-I-A after halftime and instead spelled H-A-R-T-M-A-N to honor the coach who had been basically forced into retirement by NCAA rules. It was the first and only time I had seen an honor of that magnitude while at Georgia.

I think I get why now.

So Tony Cole has resurfaced. Good for him. If anyone deserves a second seventeenth chance, it’s the oppressed and misunderstood Cole.

But the real money quote comes from Robert Morris faculty athletics representative Larry Dionne. Remember, this is a faculty representative…supposedly from the academics side of things.

Asked if he was aware of Cole’s past, Dionne said, “I am aware of it a bit, but I don’t need to know all the details. My job is to make sure he is academically eligible, and he is.”

Very nice – right from the Dave Bliss (no, not that Dave BLiss) school of “look the other way”. (Unfortunately I’m sure there are several Bulldog fans who wish that our admissions folks didn’t “need to know all the details” about the athletes they admit.) And if “(making) sure he is academically eligible” ever becomes a problem up there at Robert Morris, perhaps some new blood on the faculty might be in order.

When Robert Morris gets hauled into court in the wake of Cole’s latest stop in his heroic cross-country pursuit of academic opportunity, Mr. Dionne will wish he paid a little closer attention to those pesky details about Cole’s past.

Justin Young of Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting reports that East Hall’s Walter Hill has committed to play basketball at Georgia for the 2007-2008 season. Hall is a developing 6’5″ small forward who had offers from Georgia and Alabama and had begun to get attention from all over the South. Though Georgia’s recruiting has focused on the frontcourt, they also need that classical swingman who can handle and shoot the ball outside but is also a leaper who can get to the basket. When you think about recent Georgia players in that mold, you think of Jumaine Jones, Jarvis Hayes, Shandon Anderson…will Hill be the next explosive Georgia small forward? Here’s another article on his commitment from the Gainesville paper.

As I had hoped, the selection committee saw a very strong season from Georgia with no bad blemishes and rewarded them with a #3 seed.

Much will be made of the location disadvantages – Marist, Temple, and UConn won’t have to travel far at all – but to be honest, I’m very happy with the seeding. If you had asked me before the selection which four teams in the field I’d like to avoid, they would have been UNC, Tennessee, LSU, and Oklahoma. The bracket sees to it that Georgia wouldn’t face any of them until the Final Four.

I’ll go deeper into the bracket after a night’s sleep, but Georgia is in a pretty favorable position as I see it now.

The NIT bids are out, and Georgia was shut out as expected. The 1-7 end to the season after starting 14-8 was just too poor to merit postseason consideration.

As you might guess, the record against NCAA-bound teams isn’t good. The Dawgs played six NCAA Tournament teams and posted a 1-10 record against them:

• Kentucky: 0-2
• Tennessee: 0-2
• Florida: 0-2
• Arkansas: 0-2
• Alabama: 1-0
• LSU: 0-1
• Nevada: 0-1

Georgia played five NIT-bound teams and posted a much better 5-2 mark against them:

• Old Dominion: 0-1
• Vanderbilt: 1-1
• South Carolina: 2-0
• Clemson: 1-0
• Western Kentucky: 1-0

All of those NIT teams, except Western Kentucky, are seeded in the upper half of the NIT bracket. So while Georgia didn’t earn an NIT bid this year, they certainly showed they could play with the better teams in that tournament. I think that would have not been the case a season earlier. Another win – just one more – probably would have put Georgia over the top and earned them an NIT bid. The return to .500 is a nice first step, but a postseason berth – even in the NIT – would have been a really nice achievement to take from this season and build on next year.

OK, enough of the basketball navel-gazing for a second. UGASports.com reports that South Carolina lineman Clifton Geathers signed a (late) letter of intent with Georgia. Clifton is of course the brother of Bulldog alum Robert. We’ll see on which side of the ball and at which position he ends up, but regardless this is a big cherry on top of the recruiting class.

The State Farm Wade Trophy is the player of the year award in women’s college basketball, and only Georgia and LSU have two players among the 12 finalists. Senior Sherill Baker and sophomore Tasha Humphrey have been named finalists. Humphrey has been an All-American since she stepped on campus, and so her selection isn’t much of a surprise (though still a huge honor that shouldn’t be taken for granted). But Baker’s selection is a great personal triumph for her and recognition of the growth of her game during her four seasons at Georgia.

The Wade Trophy winner will be announced along with the Kodak/WBCA All-America Team on April 1 during the Final Four in Boston.

Also, Baker and Alexis Kendrick have been selected to participate in the WBCA All-Star Challenge. This is the sport’s equivalent of the Senior Bowl – a chance for the best seniors to show their stuff for the upcoming draft. Baker is already expected to be a first-round pick, but this is a big opportunity for Kendrick. She has been a rock-steady point guard and invaluable leader, but she has been kept out of the spotlight this season while her teammates put up the points.

Hopefully both will be unable to participate – the event is also held during the Final Four weekend in Boston (because the WNBA draft is held the next week).

The SEC has had a freshman all-conference team for 19 years, and Mike Mercer is now the 7th Bulldog to receive that honor. Mercer’s teammate Levi Stukes in 2004 was the last Georgia player to be named to the freshman all-SEC team.

It’s a shame the creativity of most SEC students stops around the “You suck!” plateau of taunting. Even the Cameron Crazies are a good bit less creative now and act more as if they are going to see Rocky Horror than a basketball game.

For the really good pranks in sports you usually have to leave it to the eggheads. MIT and CalTech have set the standard. Cal-Berkeley and Stanford figure in the strangest (and some would say greatest) finish to a college football game.

This time, it’s Cal’s turn again. They hosted Southern Cal in basketball recently, and both teams are competing for the Pac 10 title – it was a big game. Some Cal students created an online persona – a UCLA student named “Victoria” – and began instant messaging Southern Cal player Gabe Pruitt. By gametime, Pruitt had given “Victoria” his phone number and arranged a date.

As for what happened next…

When USC guard Gabe Pruitt took his first trip to the free throw line early in the game, the Cal student section hollered in unison: “VIC-TOR-IA, VIC-TOR-IA,” and then yelled out a telephone number. Pruitt glanced back at the crowd in horror and bewilderment before clanking his free throws.

It turns out that a couple of mischeivous little bastards from the Cal student section had been IM’ing with Pruitt all week under the identity of “Victoria,” a fictional UCLA hottie, and Pruitt was eagerly anticipating a date with this nubile co-ed back in Westwood after the game. In preparation for the date, Pruitt had handed over his digits, which the Cal student section recited back to him in unison.

Pruitt, a 79% free throw shooter this season, missed both shots after the “VIC-TOR-IA” chants began, and hit only three out of 13 shots the whole game. Cal beat USC by 11 for the season sweep, in part due to the Cal fans’ devious psy-ops.

Brilliant. Meanwhile students everywhere else are impressed with themselves for yelling “SIT DOWN” whenever someone fouls out.

To emphasize my point about the Lady Dogs having zero bad losses, each team that beat them either won their conference tournament or is ranked in the top 10 right now.

• Baylor: Top 10 team, still alive in the Big 12 tournament.
• UCLA: Won the PAC 10 tournament.
• Temple: Won the Atlantic 10 tournament.
• LSU: Top 5 team
• Tennessee: Top 5 team, won the SEC Tournament.

The only problem is that these are still losses. It would be a lot more impressive if they could count a win among that group.

Every so often a Georgia player will earn permanent and eternal untouchable status from me with one play or one game. Short of showing up in the next bin Laden home video, these guys could do nothing else their entire careers or lives that would remove them from my pantheon of Sacred Bulldogs.

Usually this status comes with a big play against Georgia Tech, but other events have also triggered it. Michael Johnson’s ownership of Auburn put him right up there.

I bring this up because UGASports.com has an interview today with Mario Raley discussing his expectations for his senior season. “As a leader and a senior in my fifth year, I feel like my role is to step up and lead the guys and show them the ins and outs and dos and don’ts,” Raley said.

It’s great that Raley has that outlook, but he has already stepped up in my eyes. As UGASports.com’s Brad Harrison wisely notes, “(Raley’s) biggest catch (of 2005) came against Georgia Tech, an eight-yarder that kept a Georgia drive going late in the game.” Exactly right, Brad. In a tie game late in the 4th quarter, facing third down just on the outside of field goal range, Raley caught a pass heading towards the sideline and turned it upfield for the first down. It was his only catch of the game, and it was only for eight yards, but it was the first in a trio – or dare I say trinity – of events that led to another win over Georgia Tech. Soon after Raley’s catch left the Bulldogs comfortably in field goal range, DJ Shockley found Bryan McClendon for the go-ahead score. A few minutes later, Tim Jennings stepped in front of a Reggie Ball Western Union Special to seal the win. Thomas Flowers set up the final drive with another big return, but it was Raley’s catch that kept it alive.

I hope Mario Raley does continue to improve and find an increased role as a senior. He’s not going to transform into Hines Ward, but hopefully his catch at Tech will give him the taste for making the key catch when Georgia needs a reception. If any catch this season even approaches what his reception at Tech meant to me, he’ll be an instant hero. You can do much worse as a Bulldog than to be remembered for your contribution, no matter how small, in a win over Tech.

The SEC Tournament went about as expected for Georgia. Though they fought back from a poor start and held the lead in the second half, they just couldn’t stop Tennessee’s inside game. Parker and Fluker scored at will, and Georgia was outrebounded 40-22.

I guess if there was a disappointing part of the game, it was Tennessee’s (specifically Zolman’s) success from outside. Tennessee’s dominance inside was to be expected, but Georgia did match up along the perimeter. One sequence in particular put it all together – Tennessee had a slim 3-point lead late in the second half. They hit a basket and were fouled to set up a possible three-point play. They missed the foul shot, got the rebound, kicked it outside for a three-pointer, and a three-point lead was suddenly eight. Dagger. Nail in coffin. Game over.

Now at 21-8, the Lady Dogs await their NCAA Tournament fate. The seedings won’t be announced until a week from today (Monday the 13th).

Georgia’s current RPI is 16. If that were the only consideration, Georgia would be a 4 seed, probably in North Carolina’s region. Let’s look at some other factors:

• Strength of schedule. According to the RPI figures, Georgia had the 11th toughest schedule. That’s a nice plus. Strength of schedule can help a team, but it can go overboard. For instance, NC State currently sits ahead of Georgia in the RPI because of their schedule rating of 2 despite three more losses and a .500 conference record.
• Wins and losses. 21 wins, particularly with an SEC schedule, is what you’d expect from a team making its case for a higher seed. Eight losses seems like a bit much, but five of those losses came to teams in the RPI’s top 4.
• Bad losses. Georgia simply has none. The “worst” loss is Temple – a team with an RPI of 39 who is ranked in the Top 25 and on the verge of winning its conference tournament. All other Georgia losses have an RPI better than 20. No shame there.
• Big wins. This is a negative for Georgia. The Lady Dogs have played seven games against teams in the RPI Top 20 and lost them all. The best win RPI-wise might be Kentucky, and there are several decent wins against teams like Florida and Vanderbilt who are just on the periphery of being ranked and have an RPI from 30-40. The bottom line is that they pretty much beat everyone they should have (especially in conference) and did it in impressive fashion but lack any really landmark wins that stand out.
• Finish to the season. Georgia is 7-3 over their last ten games, and those three losses were to LSU and Tennessee. The seven wins feature three wins by 20+ points over ranked teams (Florida and Vanderbilt) and a devastation of Kentucky, the SEC’s #4 team. Forget the last ten games – if the jersey hasn’t read LSU or Tennessee, Georgia has been playing at a very high level with great consistency since Christmas.

There aren’t many negatives that should drop Georgia much below a 4 seed. They might even move up. They present as good of a case as teams with slightly higher RPIs such as Western Kentucky, DePaul, and NC State. Let’s be honest -the Georgia name carries some weight, and at the end of the season they could play with all but about the top 5 teams. Could the Lady Dogs slide up into a 3 seed? It’s possible. Georgia would present a big concern for any 2 seed in a potential Sweet 16 matchup.

The NCAA selection committee, especially on the men’s side, always likes to add little twists to create matchups along the way. How would you like to see Oklahoma and their freshman phenom Courtney Paris as a 2 seed going up against Georgia and sophomore all-American Tasha Humphrey as a 3 seed?

Georgia will be extremely sensitive to matchups in this tournament. As we’ve known all season, they are thin (and short) in the frontcourt and have had problems against quality teams with strong frontcourts. A lower seed with those strengths might mean that Georgia faces a tough game in an early round. On the other hand, Georgia might get a draw where they can hold their own among the frontcourt and can get the upper hand with favorable guard matchups.