It began earlier this month when Stewart Mandel wrote,

USC and LSU have to play for the national championship this season. It is no longer possible to envision any other satisfying conclusion.

Now the ESPN pundits have picked it up and are fully on board. (h/t Get the Picture)

On the inaugural edition of “College Football Live” on ESPN last night (featuring the same 3 gentlemen), we were told to expect a “national title” match up between USC and LSU.

Of course picking Southern Cal and LSU to play for the national title isn’t left-field analysis. They’re both good teams and reasonable picks. Just understand that you’ll be sick of Les Miles by August 22nd…if you’re not already.

Two storylines will collide on September 8th. This inevitable SoCal – LSU national title express meets the Virginia Tech sackcloth and ashes show. Heathers indeed. Surely the Tigers won’t be so insensitive as to actually try to win that game?

There’s an interesting discussion going on about the influence of ESPN in the college football world. We’ll pick it up with Kyle’s post here and then see responses here and here. Interesting stuff, mostly.

I have to admit that it’s good sport to watch the nascent sports blogosphere interact with the sports media. I can understand how the blogs which really began to hit their stride two years ago think that this is new ground, but it’s not. The first generation of online writers in the mid-1990s also butted heads with more traditional media, and we saw much of the same friction. If there’s a difference it’s in the competitive marketplace. Print journalism was (and still is) competing directly with a lot of these online sites. Innovations we take for granted on modern newspaper Web sites such as multiple daily updates, deeper online photo galleries, and even comments and discussion spaces were pioneered first online and adopted by print media in the fight for eyeballs. Inch-deep coverage wasn’t going to cut it as the predecessors of Rivals.com and Scout.com changed the marketplace.

Blogs have taken the interaction to a more granular individual level. Smarter journalists are jumping in with both feet and have built their own personal brands. Newspapers like the AJC have beat blogs with more frequent, brief, and informal updates from their journalists on the news beats. Several professional pundits have embraced the interaction and earned places as authorities and discussion leaders. The competition here has to do with insight, interesting ideas, and access. Unless Ivan Maisel offers compelling content, why read him instead of an interesting blog? We’re all just writers hoping that someone will find our content worth reading. Some do it better than others, and some stake their livelihoods on it.

With ESPN television, it’s a bit of a different story. There simply isn’t the competitive pressure. We have to differentiate between the ESPN punditry and the network itself. The pundits, from Simmons to Schlabach and on down, face the same competition in the marketplace of ideas as any other "print" journalist. But in terms of SportsCenter or Gameday or live coverage of games themselves, the competition (if any) comes from CBS, FOX, and other networks, not from Deadspin or DawgsOnline. ESPN Gameday might be cheesy, overdo the Virginia Tech story, or go to the wrong game. Who cares? We’ll watch anyway. Eyeballs and ratings – not well-crafted blog missives – are what drives ESPN. When someone carries more games or provides a better alternative to Gameday, the competition will tell the tale.

We complain about the influence of ESPN in college football, but what we might have seen is the Law of Unintended Consequences at work after 20 years.

Prior to 1984, the NCAA had strict control over which schools appeared on television:

Under the old NCAA plan, which had been in effect since 1952, teams were limited to six appearances during two seasons.

Schools which attempted to organize their own deals were threatened with banishment from the organization, and it wasn’t until Georgia and Oklahoma successfully sued the NCAA in that landmark 1984 case that things began to change. The CFA replaced the NCAA as the distributor of television coverage, but even that proved too restrictive for the membership. The moves by Notre Dame (NBC) and the SEC (CBS) in the early 1990s brought control of television deals down to the conference and even the individual team level.

But while NBC and CBS settled on those valuable broadcast rights, ESPN attacked with breadth. So CBS has the best SEC game of the week; ESPN will take the second-best…and the fourth-best. It’ll also add another game on ESPN2. They might even convince a couple of SEC teams to play on Thursday night. Combine that with the national and regional reach of ABC, and you have quite a network. NBC will have their Notre Dame game, CBS will have one or two games, but there’s a lot of action left over and a lot of demand for college football. Spread it beyond Saturdays, and there are even more opportunities to broadcast games with programs willing to sacrifice the tradition of Saturday afternoon for national exposure.

Think about what some of this additional coverage has meant to the game. Back in the days of few networks and NCAA limits on television appearances, would stories like Boise State or Rutgers ever catch on? Would anyone have seen all but a glimpse or two of the West Virginia backfield? It’s likely that a displaced fan in Oregon can somehow catch the UConn-Pittsburgh game. Through broadcast networks and pay-per-view, almost every Georgia game is available on television. Were such things even imaginable 25 years ago?

Increased coverage has done its part to make things more democratic. With more and more games showing up on television, there are fewer and fewer excuses for pollsters and the punditry to be provincial. Even more, it’s easier and easier for the college football fan to catch the BS and have their own informed opinions about the national landscape.

This widespread availability of games has come with a cost, and obviously networks are not bringing us more games out of altruism. Without the oversight and restraint of the NCAA or even the CFA, television networks can dangle some pretty juicy plums in front of conferences. Teams, particularly those mid-level programs who will do anything for a little more exposure, have begun playing on all days of the week. It’s hard for me as a fan of a program with plenty of exposure and cash to criticize this development, but I wouldn’t like my team taking a spot in one of those games.

There is a concern that ESPN is crossing lines in brokering out of conference games. Arranging games is nothing new. It’s how college football’s most cherished tradition and most valuable brand came to be. The Senator is nervous (with good reason) that the media conglomerate might take a greater role in the evolution of the college football postseason, yet we hold on to a postseason where matchups are already brokered well in advance by conferences and local chambers of commerce.

College football has brought a lot of the current state of affairs on itself. The 1984 decision gave greater negotiating power to teams and conferences, but it also transfered power from the NCAA to the networks. Some suggest that we’d have the same breadth of televised games regardless due to the growth of cable and satellite television, but I have to think that at some point the NCAA would have put a stop to things like Friday night college football. It could be argued that such limits would be to the detriment of smaller programs, but that’s a moot point; the CFA ship has sailed a long time ago.

We also fret over ESPN crossing over the news/entertainment line, but that’s not as big of an issue with me. I rarely rely on ESPN as a news organization. I never watch EOE productions. I watch sports. If ESPN has too much influence, it’s the tradeoff we make by giving media opinion such a prominent role in college football’s ultimate prizes. Again, media influence is hardly a new development. In recognition of that long-standing fact, ESPN and the AP withdrew from their participation in the BCS.

So what are we left with? A self-promoting media organization that brings us dozens of good college football games. Of course they have some awful commentators and analysts; that’s kind of unavoidable anywhere these days. I’ve had my criticisms of the coverage before, but it’s because I want a better product to watch and not because ESPN/ABC is leading us all down the path to prepackaged hell. I will close with this: with the NCAA more or less hands-off when it comes to the college football postseason, someone else will guide the process. The networks and their sponsors already have a large role in the BCS, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see them at the forefront of future changes.

UGA has now officially announced the cutoff levels for 2007 football tickets. Florida and Tech cutoffs are still unknown at this point (though we expect denim cutoffs for Florida).

The University of Georgia Athletic Association Ticket Office has released the following cut off score requirements for the 2007 season.

Renewable Season: Contributors who ordered and have a cumulative score of 1,991 or higher will receive adjacent renewable season tickets.

Non-renewable/Regular Season: All orders will be refunded.

Oklahoma State, Troy, and Kentucky: All contributors who ordered will receive tickets.

Western Carolina: All contributors with a cumulative score of 9,000 or higher will receive tickets.

Mississippi: All contributors with a cumulative score of 12,000 or higher will receive tickets.

Alabama: All contributors with a cumulative score of 23,500 or higher will receive tickets.

Tennessee: All contributors with a cumulative score of 22,200 or higher will receive tickets.

Vanderbilt: All contributors who ordered Vanderbilt tickets will receive tickets.

Cut-offs for Florida and Georgia Tech will be released as soon as determined.

All refund checks for unfulfilled orders will be mailed by August 15.

A few of the more popular phrases people used to reach this site last week:

“georgia bulldog quotes”: Happy to help. Georgia linebacker (and now Chicago Bear) Danny Verdun-Wheeler gave us a great one last week:

“Everyone is different, but the smartest decision you can make as a prospect is to stay in state if you are from Georgia. If a guy comes from Parkview, Thomson, or anywhere, the best thing that he can do is to be a Dawg. Everybody will know you, and it is such a big thing to play for the University of Georgia.”

“atlanta bulldog club”: Yep. It’s that time of year. The meeting is next Monday July 30th, but the location has been changed this year to the Cobb Galleria Centre.

“caleb king arrest”: Yes, he was arrested for driving (a moped across campus) with a suspended license. No big deal, and no one expects his playing time to be affected at all by this story.

“les miles comments on usc”: It’s the molehill that keeps growing. I finally decided to adopt a certain approach to these kinds of statements.

Now for some random search phrases:

“state farm bastards”: Wow. Someone’s unhappy with their good neighbor. I’m not. Great insurance company as far as I’m concerned. Thanks for the dividend check!

“penalties for fake id – misdemeanor ohio”: Sorry, kid. You’re on your own.

“ole miss eric zeier hit ware”: The “Ware” in this search is not Danny Ware but Cassius Ware. Cassius Ware was the ringleader of the defense that made me wonder who Georgia’s backup quarterback was in 1993. I have personally sat through three Georgia games in my life where I felt that the quarterback’s future might be in serious danger:

1. The 1995 Alabama game where Hines Ward in his first career start was sacrificed to the Crimson Tide defense.
2. The 2003 Alabama game where Georgia put not one but two Crimson Tide quarterbacks on the DL.
3. But that 1993 game at Ole Miss was something you can never forget. Eric Zeier took punishment from the Joe Lee Dunn defense from the opening kickoff. By the end of the night, Zeier had been sacked seven times, hit countless others, and the Dawgs took a 31-14 beating.

Will Lumpkin answer the call? Photo: UGASports.com

With just a couple of weeks before the start of preseason practice, it’s time to leave the offseason blog parlor games for a moment and focus back on the sport itself. We’ll go position-by-position through the Georgia team, recap the current status of things, and then look ahead to some questions that need answers before the season begins. We’ll start with the running backs.

When we last left the running backs: The "three-headed monster" took its lumps and was down a few heads by March. Danny Ware decided to try his luck in the NFL. Thomas Brown’s 2006 season ended abruptly with a knee injury against Vanderbilt. Kregg Lumpkin went into spring as the only returning tailback with significant game experience. At fullback, there was no doubt about Brannan Southerland’s firm grasp on the position.

What’s happened since: Lumpkin held on to the starting role during spring, but one story from spring practice was the emergence of redshirt freshman Knowshon Moreno. Moreno poured kerosene on the fire at the G-Day game with some impressive runs. Though many expected (or hoped) that Thomas Brown would use a redshirt season to completely recover from his knee injury, Brown has been cleared and will try to play in 2007. As he works his way back into the mix, Brown will have to compete with Lumpkin as well as some younger talent for carries. Redshirt freshmen fullbacks Shaun Chapas and Fred Munzenmaier had good springs, but neither established himself as a clear backup to Southerland. Last year’s utility fullback, Tripp Taylor, moved to the defensive line.

Moreno sure looks ready. Photo: UGASports.com

What to look for in preseason practice: The Dawgs have another potential logjam at tailback. Lumpkin is the incumbent starter, but he’ll be pushed by the return of Brown and two newcomers. Moreno will also earn carries. The wildcard will be the arrival of true freshman phenom Caleb King. King doesn’t intend to redshirt, but few freshman really do until reality sets in sometime in August. But King has been mentioned as a possible first-year contributor throughout the recruiting process, and he’ll join the team completely recovered from a leg injury that ended his high school career last fall. Even if King doesn’t rocket to the top of the tailback depth chart right away, he might be versatile enough to see time as a receiver out of the backfield (think Tyson Browning – only better and with hopefully more plays than just the screen pass).

In a much less-hyped area, will Chapas or Munzenmaier make a move toward the backup fullback position? The days of capable but walk-on fullbacks like Wall and Thomas are gone. Georgia has not one, not two, but three scholarship fullbacks. Will the position take a slightly higher profile? There are already the inevitable but premature calls to move one of the freshmen to linebacker.

Concerns? Optimism? Challenges? I’ve said before that the appearance of a glut of tailbacks isn’t typically a good thing. You want a standout, and Georgia still doesn’t have one. You’ve heard this every summer since 2003, but this year’s crop of tailbacks seems even more talented than the last, so will a clear starter emerge?

Few running games can excel without quality blocking, and Georgia’s new offensive line coach and inexperienced line will have a big say in the production from the Georgia running game. With a depth chart to sort out and some creative blocking challenges, how will the running game be used in offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s 2007 offense?

As we get closer to the mailing of season tickets, news from Athens about Hartman Fund (formerly GEEF) point cutoffs for away games is starting to trickle out.

Please keep in mind that these are unconfirmed and unofficial, but I have word that these will be the cutoffs for two road games:

Tennessee: 22,000 points
Alabama: 23,500 points

Though I haven’t received word yet, I expect that Vandy tickets will have little to no cutoff while Tech tickets will have a higher cutoff (if only because of scarcity). If you really want tickets to the Tech game, consider sucking it up and ordering from the source.

• Congratulations to Martrez Milner who signed his contract with the Atlanta Falcons this week. Milner, who credits teammate Alge Crumpler with helping him get up to speed, says that "it is a blessing to be able to still be playing football."
• UGASports.com had a feature earlier this week ($) looking at the progress of Danny Verdun-Wheeler and Tony Taylor in the NFL. As free-agent signees, they face a tough road ahead as they compete for roster spots. So far, the news is good. Taylor is trying to remain on with the Falcons, and he has the benefit of playing again for former Georgia coach Brian VanGorder. He’s earned praise from new Falcons coach Bobby Petrino, "(Taylor is) very smart, he can get everyone lined up, and he understands blocking schemes. He has been very well coached and we can see that. I think he’ll definitely be here competing."
  Verdun-Wheeler, meanwhile, is getting comfortable in Chicago. He feels that his experience of playing multiple linebacker positions in college will help him at the next level. Danny also had some words of wisdom for younger players. "Everyone is different, but the smartest decision you can make as a prospect is to stay in state if you are from Georgia," he said. "If a guy comes from Parkview, Thomson, or anywhere, the best thing that he can do is to be a Dawg. Everybody will know you, and it is such a big thing to play for the University of Georgia."
• By the way, it’s been a common complaint that the Falcons haven’t done enough to draft Bulldogs (going back to Hines Ward and even Rodney Hampton). UGASports points out that now "the Falcons have six Georgia players on their roster, which is more than they have from any other school. They are Fred Gibson, Josh Mallard, Nic Clemons, D.J. Shockley, Martrez Milner, and Taylor."
• I’m sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket here, but I see disappointment coming for Dawg fans who think that the Vick news this week means that you’ll see D.J. Shockley on the field this year. To begin with, it’s very possible that Vick will play unless prevented by the legal system (see Kobe Bryant). Even if he is unable to play, the moves to pick up Harrington and Redman indicate that Shockley won’t feature in quarterback plans beyond the backup role. At least he seems certain to remain with the team. I appreciate DJ for his contributions at Georgia and even more for being an outstanding representative of the University. It just might not be his time to step into a starting NFL job.

In advance of the SEC media days next week, the league has announced the coaches pre-season all-SEC football team. You’ll have to look hard to find the Georgia representatives.

Brandon Coutu and Mikey Henderson from special teams were Georgia’s only first-team honorees.

The Dawgs had just one offensive player on first, second, or third teams: offensive lineman Fernando Velasco was on the third team.

Georgia’s two defensive representatives were on the second team. Safety Kelin Johnson got the nod entering his senior season. Surprisingly, linebacker Brandon Miller was named to the second team before he’s even played a down at his new middle linebacker position.

I can’t quibble with much. Maybe Brannan Southerland should have been on there somewhere. But most of Georgia’s playmakers from last season have either graduated or left for the NFL. And there’s an awful lot of Georgia’s depth chart that hasn’t had enough playing experience to merit much recognition…yet.

I do expect the Dawgs to have a few more names on the lists that matter at the end of the season, and part of the fun of this year will be watching who emerges as those standouts.

The media should have their preseason honors next week.

Yes, it’s the middle of summer, but there is some basketball news and talk.

Kelly Quinlan of UGASports.com has a long feature up ($) that gets Dennis Felton’s thoughts on several current events. We’ll get to that in a moment.

One of the big takeaways of Quinlan’s piece was that Mike Mercer appears to be on track to play this season. My reaction isn’t so much cynicism as it is amazement. We all saw the injury. I don’t doubt Felton’s assessment of Mercer’s progress, but I’m going to remain skeptical anyway. With an injury that severe, I’m just going to be glad if he can contribute anything in the SEC part of the schedule. If before the end of 2007 he is able to be nearly the player he was becoming at the time of his injury, chalk one up for the miracle of modern medicine.

Back to Felton and recruiting. Felton has developed a bit of perspective aboout recruiting due to his relative longevity (already the longest-serving Georgia hoops coach since Hugh Durham), so it’s interesting to read him reflect on the landscape. Felton is concerned about the trend for earlier and earlier commitments for several reasons. Though physical development during high school is more of a concern for football than basketball, it’s still a factor in basketball recruiting. But Felton has a bigger concern. "The thing I am more worried about is decommitments because that is becoming more common," he said. "More and more kids are becoming comfortable with decommitting."

Though basketball recruiting can hardly be described as a clean business, commitments have traditionally meant the end of the process. That understanding might be changing. Decommittments are more of a concern in basketball because of the limited number of scholarships. If a football prospect decommits, that’s one of 25 spots that a football coach must scramble to fill. It’s a problem, but it can be absorbed through depth in an 85 scholarship situation. In basketball, that one decommitment might represent 1/3 to 1/4 of an entire recruiting class and affect, say, your point guard position for several years. "I hope we do not go to where football has been where commitments do not mean anything. It is more dangerous for basketball because there is a smaller pool of recruitable players at this level of talent," Felton continued.

Read the whole thing if you’re able. It’s a good read, and you can sense Felton becoming more comfortable in his position. "I am really excited and thankful for the support Damon Evans, our president Michael Adams, and our fans at Georgia have given me, our staff, and our players as we have rebuilt the program," he concluded.

Georgia Sports Blog has a look at the possible field in this season’s Rainbow Classic. Though none of the field really blows your socks off, it should present a decent slate of mid-level RPI opponents. In other words, winning the tournament won’t make many waves, and losing a game probably won’t be disastrous. Georgia will seek its real RPI impact games elsewhere – in Madison, Wisc. for example.

There’s an interesting discussion going on at the UGASports.com hoops board about the future of Stegeman Coliseum. With the practice facility project all but wrapped up, it’s time to begin thinking about what comes next. With SEC peers like Auburn looking at facilities improvements, the issue will start to heat up. While the breadth of ideas runs from simple remodeling to the pipe dream of bulldozing the site and starting over, the optimal plan will probably come from a convergence of money, timing, and grace.

Money – what’s available? Can additional private funds be raised? Naturally the scope of the plan will be limited by resources. With athletic association debt near $100 million recently, is more debt financing out of the question? Timing – is the program at a point where it’s easy for enough fans to get on board with the chosen plan, and will the support be resilient enough to survive the possibility of something like a year or two in Gwinnett? Additionally, will the timing be right relative to other athletic department projects and priorities? Grace – the most recent (and most expensive) major expansion to Sanford Stadium cost $33 million over two years. With $30 million already spent on a practice facility, an additional investment in a major coliseum project any time soon would be an act of incredible vision and investment in a group of sports that have historically fought for scraps not only from administrators but also from Georgia fans. A positive in this area is that it seems as if Damon Evans could be the right leader for this kind of vision and commitment down the road.

Rather than get into long and protracted conference arguments, I’m just going to apply the Stewart Mandel rule whenever an SEC coach tries to lean on the strength of his conference relative to another: he’s just laying the foundation for an excuse. Mandel writes…

So what, then, was the motivation behind his unexpected boisterousness? Here’s a guess: He’s covering his butt.

Yep. That’s right. Miles’ comments were one big excuse-in-the-making. He’s seen the prognostications. He knows the experts are projecting a USC-LSU matchup. He knows his fans are foaming at the mouth for just such an outcome. And he’s trying to diffuse those expectations — and temper the possible letdown — by saying, “Hey, I’d love to play USC, too, but if they get there and we don’t, it’s because we had to play Florida while they got to play Stanford.”

Now Nick Saban’s joined the club. Saban’s under tremendous pressure at Alabama. The man who only once lost fewer than three games at talent-rich LSU is expected to start bringing conference and even national titles back to Tuscaloosa. I’d want the job to appear as challenging as possible too.

At least it’s a change away from the recent slew of alcohol-related incidents. Incoming freshman tailback Caleb King was arrested Monday night for two misdemeanor traffic violations, one of which was driving with a suspended license. As these kinds of violations don’t carry the automatic penalties that alcohol-related arrests do, it’s not yet known whether King will face additional discipline from the team.

You would think that this kind of thing would go away once Mudcat and his car left campus.

With the annual inevitability of offseason suspensions, just who is in the penalty box at the beginning of the season can get blurry from year to year. No, Ellerbe isn’t suspended – that was last year. No, nothing has come out yet about Chandler’s fate.

The recent high-water mark for preseason suspensions was 2003 where eight players were sidelined for the Clemson game. That was also right in the middle of "Ring-gate" where a few players had caught trouble for selling their 2002 SEC Championship rings. Things aren’t quite to that level this season, but there are still some suspensions and additional possible suspensions to deal with. Some key positions (linebacker and offensive line in particular) have been hit especially hard by offseason events. If you see anything inaccurate or missing here, please leave a comment.

Long-term suspensions:

• Akeem Hebron. Hebron is technically suspended for the fall semester by the University and would not be eligible to play this season following two alcohol-related incidents. He has transfered to Georgia Military College for the 2007 season but could return to Georgia as early as the 2008 spring semester.
• Ian Smith. Smith is suspended for the first five games of the season due to his second alcohol-related arrest in late 2006. Smith was also suspended for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. His infractions came before a new University policy mandating a semester-long suspension for any student with two alcohol-related violations. Hebron wasn’t so lucky.

Pending/possible suspensions:

• Tripp Chandler and Blake Barnes. The two were arrested on alcohol-related charges in June, but no decision has been announced yet concerning any disciplinary action. Their suspensions could range from one to two games.
• Tripp Taylor. The man who made the "wham" position famous last season faces misdemeanor simple assault charges for his role in a brawl at Lake Allatoona in May. According to a post his father made on the DawgVent around the time of the incident, Taylor was more involved in breaking up the fight than anything else, but we’ll see what comes of this story as the summer goes on.

What about…?

• Tanner Strickland. Strickland was arrested in March for misdemeanor possession of a fake ID as part of a larger investigation. He was accepted into a pre-trial diversion program and will not face a suspension from the team.
• Seth Watts. Watts had been suspended for the Chick-fil-A Bowl and decided to leave the team in the spring to focus on academics.

Wake Forest got tremendous basketball recruiting news yesterday courtesy of the state of Georgia.

Forward Al-Farouq Aminu and center Tony Woods, two of the top in-state prospects for the 2008 class, committed to the Demon Deacons yesterday. Though either could have played for most any team in the nation, Aminu had been a top target for Georgia Tech (his brother plays there), and Georgia was among the finalists for Woods.

The duo adds to what might be the nation’s best recruiting class. They’ll certainly have the nation’s best incoming frontcourt. Better Wake than Tech or Florida.

There was one very troubling thing. The SI article linked above includes this line:

Woods said he considered Georgia until "I saw their true colors come out during the recruitment. I like the Ivy League education at Wake.

I’d be very interested to hear more about what he means. Those two sentences together imply something about the quality of a University of Georgia education, but it could also mean any number of things. This puzzling quote is just a few weeks after Woods had said,

“The coaches from Georgia have made a good impression on me,” he said. “I like their approach. They’ve been real persistent, but in a good way. Sometimes coaches can be persistent, but annoying. They’re not like that. I feel like we have a good relationship.”

San Diego selected Georgia cornerback Paul Oliver in yesterday’s NFL supplemental draft. The Chargers forfeited a fourth-round pick in next year’s NFL draft for the right to select Oliver.

The outcome is not as good as it might have been had he been able to return for his senior season, but he was at least picked up by a quality team and appears to have a chance to stick. He left a bit of money on the table (assuming he could have improved on his fourth-round status with another season in college), but he has a positive attitude and is looking to the future now.

"The biggest thing for me was that I was picked by a legitimate Super Bowl contender and I could not be more excited about getting a chance to play for the Chargers," said Oliver. "This marks the end of a great chapter of my life at Georgia and now the chance for a great start in San Diego. I’m just ready to go out there and play."

Congratulations to Paul. He joins four other drafted Dawgs and several others signed as free agents who will be entering the NFL this season.

World Champs! (Houts is bottom row, second from left)

Georgia point guard and reigning SEC Freshman of the Year Ashley Houts was the only rising sophomore named to the USA U21 national team this summer. That team just won the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship, and Houts was an important contributor off the bench for the national team. Though she was just a reserve, she quickly found a role as a spark that could pick the team up and get them through some rough patches. Teammates credited her for turning around a sluggish performance against Hungary. Stanford All-American Candace Wiggins said,

Ashley’s (Houts) shot and her defense in general gave us a lot of momentum going into the second half. We were able to take that energy that we ended the first half with and build on it in the second half. I think that was the biggest change of the game. Our defense intensified and you could just feel it.

Yep, that’s the player we came to love last year, and it sounds like someone ready to step into a leadership position when she returns to Georgia.

Houts kept a journal during the tournament:

• Final installment
• Installment #4
• Installment #3
• Installment #2
• Installment #1

We also learned this week that senior forward Tasha Humphrey was selected as one of 12 players to represent the United States in the Pan American games held later this month in Rio. Humphrey’s participation is very significant. Not only is it a great honor and recognition of Humphrey as an outstanding player, it’s also one of the first opportunities she’s had in several years to really work on her game. Tasha has spent the past couple of summers doing more rehabilitation than anything else. While her game has remained strong thanks to natural ability and the work put in during the season, missing that offseason work has slowed down her own development.

With the various injuries Humphrey has battled over her career, she’s often had to spend the first part of the season just getting back into playing condition. That was the case last year, and the situation was exacerbated by the suspension which kept her out of the first five games. By the time Humphrey had started to round into top form, we were into the SEC season. Things could be different this year. If she’s staying injury-free and playing against top competition at the Pan Am games, she’ll be that much better and ready to go out of the gate in November. With all eyes on her as a senior, a summer like this is just what the doctor ordered.