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Post Enigmatic season ends for Lady Dogs

Monday March 26, 2007

Following last night’s 78-65 season-ending loss to Purdue, Andy Landers said something that didn’t just apply to the Purdue game but could also serve as an epitaph for the season. "When we didn’t score, it seemed to take some of the life or mission out of us defensively," he said, explaining how Georgia’s defensive intensity waned after a strong start. The Lady Dogs had another 25+ win season and another trip to the Final Four, but in almost all of their losses they faced inconsistency on offense and a sub-par defensive effort that seemed coupled to those problems on offense.

This feast-or-famine storyline played out in dramatic fashion during the postseason. It began in the SEC Tournament where Georgia routed Kentucky in record-setting fashion. They were on the other side of the rout the following night against Vanderbilt, failing to score 20 points in the first half. Another sluggish effort followed in the NCAA opening round when they struggled to score and got a scare from an overmatched Belmont team. Thing swung back around the other way for the second round game against Iowa State, and neither offense nor defense was a problem.

Houts against Purdue
Loss hurts Houts, but she’s
got a bright future. (Photo: AP)

Inconsistent teams rarely advance far in the postseason. Georgia was good enough to advance. They’ve recorded wins over three Elite Eight teams this season. Their inconsistency buried them last night. Purdue’s consistent senior sharpshooter Katie Gearlds went for 30 points. Georgia’s starting seniors combined for ten points and two field goals.

Tasha Humphrey and Angel Robinson were effective inside. Humphrey scored 20 points, but it was on the other end where she ran into familiar problems. Foul trouble put her on the bench for key stretches in both halves. With her watching from the pine and Chambers cold, Georgia’s scoring fell to freshmen and role players. They were valiant and kept up as much as they could, but they weren’t going to keep up with Gearlds and Wisdom-Hilton.

Last season ended for the Lady Dogs with a proud and defiant Landers refusing to get down about the way with which Georgia lost to UConn. The Lady Dogs fought that game with their best effort and lost on a miracle shot. "We didn’t lose," Landers said after that game. "You lose when you don’t go out and apply the ability and talent that you have to the challenge that faces you. When you apply yourself like we did, you don’t lose. You get beat."

No such statement could be made about last night’s game. Georgia’s offense fizzled but for a few brief runs, and the defense couldn’t react quickly enough to the screens they knew they’d face. "They did what we knew they were going to do," said Cori Chambers. "They run off screens, and I didn’t do what I needed to do to stop them." She wasn’t alone, but unfortunately Cori has been the poster child for the feast-or-famine season. She set Georgia’s career mark for three-pointers back in January, but she has battled through struggles on offense for much of the second half of the season while drawing some tough defensive assignments.

This has been a tough team to figure out all year, and it must be frustrating for Coach Landers to have to pull and plead to get results and leadership. They started the season beating teams like Rutgers and Stanford without Tasha Humphrey. After she returned, the team struggled for a bit as their identity changed. Then they got it back together for a second-place SEC finish that included wins over Vanderbilt, LSU, and Ole Miss. It ended with the wild swings in both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.

Though the Lady Dogs lose Chambers and Hardrick, the future of the team is in a core of three freshmen honored this year by the SEC. At least six players will be joining the team next year, four of them in the backcourt. With Tasha Humphrey entering her senior year, the window is closing on building a championship team around her.


Post Getting Georgia back to the NCAA Tournament

Monday March 26, 2007

Georgia has made enough progress as a basketball program that we can seriously talk now about the things that stand in their way of returning to the NCAA Tournament. The Dawgs have added four or five wins to their total in each of the past two seasons, but we’re going to find out that adding each additional win from here on out will become marginally more difficult. Going from, say, 13 to 17 wins means you can beat another middle-of-the-road nonconference team and catch a conference opponent or two on a bad night. Going from 19 wins to 22 means that you can’t lose many that you’re expected to win and that you have to pick up a couple of games against higher-quality opponents in and out of the conference.

The goal for every year is a trip to the NCAA Tournament, but the urgency is turned up quite a bit next year. The pieces seem to be in place. That we can point to a handful of woulda-coulda-shoulda games makes us think that we were one or two wins away. But being so close and getting a taste of the bubble just makes the hunger that much stronger, and fans have heard "rebuilding" now for three seasons. Let’s look at a few factors that will determine whether or not Georgia can get over that hump next year.

Scheduling

I’ve talked about favoring the "Harrick approach" to nonconference scheduling ever since Georgia had far and away the nation’s toughest schedule in 2001. They didn’t get there by lining up Duke and UConn. They likely would have lost those games. In fact, they didn’t schedule many top 30 teams in 2001. The secret was to avoid the bad teams. Don’t schedule teams below the top 150.

This year Georgia played Southern (RPI 289), Jacksonville (RPI 198), South Carolina State (RPI 288), Alabama A&M (RPI 334), Gardner-Webb (RPI 268), and Kennesaw (277). Those games are boat anchors to a team’s perceived strength. The Dawgs couldn’t even count a win over Valdosta State (in terms of the RPI) because the Blazers are a Division 2 school.

"Hold on a second," you say. "Georgia had the #14 schedule according to Palm’s collegerpi.com. Why are you talking about schedule?" Sure they did. They play in the SEC East. The only SEC East team without a top 30 schedule was Florida. The strong conference schedule masks the fact that the nonconference schedule had problems. Having some really good teams mixed in with the dregs means that you’d better beat a team like Wisconsin if you want points for your schedule.

Georgia might have been a win or two away from the NCAA Tournament, but so were a lot of teams this year. Georgia’s March loss to Tennessee might have knocked them all the way from the brink of the tournament to a #4 seed in the NIT. Between the few questionable teams like Arkansas and Stanford that got in the tournament and the 1-4 NIT seeds, that’s a pool of 18-20 teams who had similar records and who all felt they were within a win or two of playing in the NCAA Tournament. Would a Top 10 schedule look more impressive among a similar group next year? You don’t have to play Kansas or UCLA to get there.

The games against teams like Wisconsin and the rumored game with Duke next year are fine and certainly high-visibility games for the program. It helps to win them; "good losses" are better than beating a sub-250 RPI team, but they’re still losses. There are 336 teams playing Division 1 ball. The key is to focus on those in the top 150. There is no reason to schedule the sub-200 teams. Look to the lower NCAA seeds and the NIT field. Georgia is 4-3 against NCAA six seeds or lower. They were 5-2 against the NIT field in 2005-2006, and three road losses made them 1-3 against the NIT field this year. No, they’re not Kansas. But Georgia can compete with these teams, win their share, and, most importantly, these opponents would boost and not drag down Georgia’s schedule and reputation before the selection committee.

The conference

Even if a team is improved, that improvement is still relative to the competition. The SEC East was a murder’s row this year. Four of the six teams received #8 seeds or higher in the NCAA Tournament, and three were still alive in the Sweet 16. The division should be tough again next year, but its strength will depend a lot on some key decisions. Player of the Year Byars is a senior, but other guys like Lofton, Morris, and Florida’s trio of Noah, Horford, and Brewer could all have an impact on next year’s SEC landscape.

We saw this year that the minimum "safe" conference record for NCAA consideration is probably 9-7. 8-8 is pushing it. 10-6 is a sure thing. The most traditional path to achieve that record is to win at home and steal a couple on the road. That strategy nearly worked for Georgia this year; a home win against Tennessee in the finale probably would have put them over the top (and dramatically altered the SEC Tournament seedings and matchups).

Georgia will have the usual home and away games with the SEC East. They will play Auburn, Mississippi State, and LSU from the SEC West on the road with Alabama, Ole Miss, and Arkansas in Athens. It’s possible that Georgia will still be picked 5th in the East next year. Tennessee has a solid core even without Lofton, and Vanderbilt will have a strong group of seniors. Everyone is starting to notice that Georgia could have a much improved team once again next year but still be facing a tough challenge to get to that nine and ten win threshold.

Personnel

Sundiata Gaines assessed next year’s team for the AJC. "I think it will be the best team since I’ve been here," he said. "We’ve got some good freshmen coming in. The guys are older. We’ll have a lot of juniors and seniors with more experience. That should get us far as we’re trying to make the postseason again next year."

He’s right. He’ll be a senior along with Dave Bliss and Takais Brown. Billy Humphrey and Terrance Woodbury developed as this season went on and will join Mike Mercer as juniors. That’s a really solid group. Then you have role players like Cory Butler and Rashad Singleton. Albert Jackson will have a year of seasoning. There is a strong freshman class bringing help at point guard and in the frontcourt.

Just in terms of returning players, the one area that jumps out immediately for me is perimeter shooting. Levi Stukes graduates, adding his name to the legacy of sharpshooting 2-guards like D.A. Layne and Ezra Williams. Though Stukes shot for a relatively high percentage on average, he definitely had his hot and cold moments. Georgia’s fortunes usually followed.

The Dawgs’ options on the perimeter next year are 1) Gaines, 2) Humphrey, 3) Woodbury, 4) Mercer, 5) Butler. That surely looks like a good, deep group. But looking closer reveals a bit weaker picture. Gaines will be running the show at point, and while it isn’t rare for point guards to be scorers (Rashad Wright as a senior comes to mind), it’s asking a lot. Mercer struggled with his outside shot all year, and we don’t know how effective he will be after his recovery. Butler might play a larger role, but will still likely be a reserve. So Georgia’s fortunes on the perimeter will likely depend on the development of Humphrey and Woodbury. Both came along nicely as sophomores. Humphrey, established as a streaky set shooter from outside, started to show more creativity inside the arc. Woodbury was usually a good shot in the arm off the bench, and he continues to come along defensively. He had one of his best games in the season-ending loss at Air Force.

We know all five of those guys can hit a three-pointer. The question and key is consistency. Can someone not only step into Stukes’ role but extend it and become a scorer rather than just a shooter or a three-point specialist? It’s likely that Felton will begin the season with Bliss, Brown, and Gaines as sure starters. There are three guys (Mercer, Woodbury, and Humphrey) left for the remaining two positions. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Humphrey and Woodbury start as Mercer is eased back into action.

If you read the tea leaves on the message boards, Felton is looking for additional help once again from the junior college ranks, and it seems as if he has that 2-guard spot in mind. The comparison kicked around a lot this week has been Katu Davis; Davis was a JUCO transfer for the 1995 and 1996 seasons, and he was a big part of the tournament run in 1996. He also provides a reference for contrast between the three-point specialist and a guy who can score inside and out from that guard spot. If there’s another Katu out there, that kind of spark from the backcourt, along with Gaines’ steady play, could really transform this team.

The frontcourt will appreciate the help. Brown is the star, and his game could really take off next year if he works on those glacially-slow moves with the ball. After Brown, you have several guys who can give a minute here, a minute there. Bliss will hopefully continue to stay well. Singleton came along on defense, and it could mean something if he developed any kind of game on offense. Jackson was limited as a freshman, and an injury really slowed him down at the end of the year. There is a nice group of freshmen coming in for the frontcourt, but we shouldn’t place the expectation of big minutes on freshman.

You can see why pwd made "find another Takais Brown" one of his suggestions for next year. Given one scholarship, I’d still choose a scorer at guard first. Brown and the rest of the frontcourt were typically effective this year when Stukes (or on rare occasions someone else) was lighting it up from outside. With Stukes gone, I’m just not as confident yet that we can replace that potency.


Post Georgia b’ball assistant applies for head coaching job

Friday March 23, 2007

John Kaltefleiter reports in the ABH that Georgia basketball assistant Mike Jones is chasing the dream that most assistants have. He has applied for the head coaching vacancy at Division II Columbus State.

Jones said,

I do, just like every other assistant coach, want to be at the top of his profession and that means being the head coach of his own program. I’d be happy to have the opportunity to coach my own team.

You can’t argue with that. We wish him the best of luck going after his goals.


Post What a tournament

Friday March 23, 2007

There have ben some duds in recent years, but this year’s NCAA Tournament has been one of the best I can recall. It started last Saturday with one of the best all-around days of tournament basketball I’ve seen. The day began with Ohio State’s thrilling overtime win over Xavier. Butler hung on against Maryland. Pitt was in a struggle with VCU. UCLA survived against Indiana. Texas A&M and Louisville was a classic back-and-forth slugfest. The Vandy-Washington State game was the best of them all – a double-overtime roller coaster.

The first night of the Sweet Sixteen continued to live up to form. Of the four games, two were decided by a single point and another had only a three-point margin. Memphis continues to prove the doubters wrong. Ohio State came back from the dead for a second straight game and showed that they still had some magic left.

Keep them coming – this has been an incredible event so far.


Post Tubby Smith out at Kentucky

Thursday March 22, 2007
Ron Jirsa
Waiting to hear from Mitch Barnhart.

FoxSports.com is reporting that Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith has been forced out and will take the vacant job at Minnesota. Not at Michigan – at Minnesota.

I’m not one to dance on graves. As a relatively ambitious man, I can understand why Tubby left Georgia for Kentucky. But I’m certainly not sad for him and definitely not sympathetic with the Cats. With the greater prestige of the job comes greater expectations and pressure. Now is the Minnesota situation in 2007 better than the situation Tubby came into at Georgia in 1995? I don’t think so.

The college basketball world now waits to see if Billy Donovan will turn down the job.

Perhaps Tubby can continue his legacy at Kentucky much the same way he did at Georgia with a recommendation for his successor. Ron Jirsa is available.


Post Around the Dawgnation

Wednesday March 21, 2007

Random bits of news today:

The Lady Dogs’ Sweet Sixteen game against Purdue in Dallas is set for Sunday the 24th at 7:00 ET. ESPN2 will have the game.

Georgia baseball beat Mercer last night for their fourth win in a row. The Bulldogs were more or less left for dead with a punchless offense after losses to Kennesaw and Western Carolina, but they rebounded to sweep a ranked Auburn team last weekend and now have a bit of momentum as the SEC schedule starts to heat up. Four games is a nice little streak, but there’s a long way to go. It’s good to see the pitching stay solid now that some more timely hits are coming.

There’s quite a bit of talk coming out of yesterday’s pro day in Athens. Charles Johnson injured his hamstring. We have the interesting story of Danny Ware. After making the questionable decision to leave early, he’s trying to impress scouts with his physique. Ching has a lot of thoughts on pro day both on his blog and in the Columbus paper. He thinks Ware might have helped himself the most of anyone yesterday.

Ching and Kelly Quinlan of UGASports.com both spoke with defensive ends coach Jon Fabris yesterday. Ching focused mostly on the defense end position, and Quinlan got a few quotes ($) looking at a more abstract concept of player evaluation. I liked his caution against placing too much emphasis on the measurables at things like pro day and basing most of the evaluation on film.

I might take some chances on recruits based on potential, but I do not want to take a lot of chances just because a guy looks good on the hoof and what he might become. It is the same thing in the NFL. You have first and second round draft picks and you do not waste those on how someone teased you on Pro-Day.

…I could care less what kind of 40 times my ends run because they are not going to run 40 yards. I care about their first two or three steps. I care how hard they want to chase the football.

Fabris is a great interview when you get him speaking candidly like this. Lots of talk about Tarzan and Jane!


Post Air Force humbles Dawgs in worst loss of the year

Tuesday March 20, 2007

Georgia’s men’s basketball season ended last night with a lesson in offensive execution and defensive intensity. Air Force took advantage of Georgia’s overaggressive man defense and lack of athleticism to roll to an easy 83-52 win last night. The Falcons spread the court and left Georgia’s big men standing in cement at the high post as Air Force ran cut after cut at the basket. When the cuts didn’t result in easy baskets, quick ball movement and reversal led to open three-point looks, and Air Force knocked down 11 of those.

The loss ends the season with a 19-14 record. It’s an improvement, but losses like this show how fragile the program still is. "The things that they do just really showed our weakness," said Levi Stukes after his final game as a Bulldog. So much of what Georgia was able to do this year was dependent on matchups, and they were a team built for the physical play of the SEC.

The lessons didn’t stop with offensive execution. "They switched up their defense a lot," Stukes said. "They went from a match-up zone to a 1-2-2 (zone). They were doing all kind of things out there to get us hesitant on offense." Tight Air Force zone defense early on frustrated Georgia inside the arc. The Bulldogs made only one two-point basket in the game’s first 13 minutes and settled for a lot of the three-point-shots-by-default that we’ve all come to dread at times this year. Takais Brown never got going. As bad as things were going on defense, the Bulldog offense had as many turnovers as made field goals (16). Only Terrance Woodbury scored in double-figures. Meanwhile, Georgia continued to get burned by overpursuit and slow recovery in their own defense.

Dennis Felton came into the program four years ago preaching defensive intensity. But that intensity was somehow missing yet again in a road game. "We were real nonchalant on defense," said Sundiata Gaines. A last-minute flurry at Arkansas notwithstanding, Georgia had only one really solid showing on the road this year, and that was at South Carolina.

While it might seem as if Georgia is a win or two away from a spot in the NCAA Tournament, those additional wins might require more improvement than you think. The Dawgs have to learn to play with purpose and fire on the road. They need additional personnel and coaching creativity to adapt against different kinds of challenges. The zone used against Fresno State was a good example of that adaptation, but the team was lost and looked unprepared for the complex Air Force offense.

I’ll have some more thoughts about the future of the program later, but last night showed us that while the program has come a long way, there is a difference between being able to do the math to slide into a postseason tournament and simply being a really good team.


Post Lady Dogs blow past Iowa State

Tuesday March 20, 2007

After Saturday’s shaky win over Belmont, Georgia coach Andy Landers challenged the leadership on his team, particularly among the upperclassmen. He went so far as to say that he would assume the leadership of the team and that everyone could decide whether or not they would follow him.

After responding with a 76-56 second round win over Iowa State last night, it looks as if some upperclassmen took that challenge personally. Cori Chambers scored 18 first half points, and Tasha Humphrey finished with a game-high 21 points to lead the way for Georgia. The Lady Dogs steamrolled Iowa State in much the same fashion that Georgia had been humbled by Vanderbilt over two weeks ago. Ashley Houts started the game by missing a three-pointer, but that would be only one of two missed Georgia shots in the first nine minutes of the game. Before fans could get comfortable, Georgia was up 29-4, and they led 51-27 at halftime.

After that start, the only question that remained was whether the Lady Dogs could keep up the intensity and hold off the inevitable Cyclone charge. The pivotal first four minutes of the second half passed without Georgia ceding any ground. They eventually led by as many as 32 points. Iowa State went on a run to come within as few as 17 points, and Georgia’s offense finally sputtered with only four points from the 16:00 through the 6:00 mark in the second half. Georgia then turned to Tasha Humphrey to finish the deal. Humphrey scored nine points in the final six minutes to keep Iowa State safely at arm’s length.

Though the second half slowdown meant that Georgia shot under 45% overall, they were still efficient. They turned the ball over only six times. They got good shots created within the offense; 20 of their 29 field goals were assisted.

They were equally effective on defense. All-Big 12 first teamer Lyndsey Medders was held to 11 points and never got on a roll. Georgia held the Cyclones to under 35% shooting and under 30% from the arc. The Lady Dogs were quick to get into passing lanes and forced eight steals and 15 turnovers. They were also menacing inside with five blocks.

Georgia showed what can happen when they turn it on and play well. But we’ve seen that before during this season, and it’s the upside of the pattern Coach Landers has talked about for some time. When things are going well, they go well and everyone steps it up. It’s when things get difficult that someone rarely comes through to carry the team. It was a bit troublesome seeing the score stuck between 59 and 63 for a good ten minutes last night, but Humphrey finally put a stop to that.

The Lady Dogs advance to their fifth consecutive Sweet Sixteen round and their seventeenth Sweet Sixteen in 24 trips to the NCAA Tournament. They will face Purdue who easily handled Georgia Tech in the second round. Purdue is the #2 seed and Big 10 tournament champion. They are led by Player of the Year finalist Katie Gearlds at guard and forward Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton. The Lady Dogs and the Boilermakers have met just once before – a 66-64 Georgia win in the 2004 Sweet Sixteen. Alexis Kendrick hit a jumper with five seconds left to give Georgia the win over the higher-seeded Boilermakers. That win over Purdue was Georgia’s most recent win in the Sweet Sixteen round; they’ve since lost to Duke and UConn.

Two players from each team were involved in that 2004 game. Purdue’s Gearlds had 8 points, and Erin Lawless scored 12 points and pulled down four rebounds off the bench. For Georgia, Cori Chambers scored 5 points in a reserve role, and Janese Hardrick had a game-high 17 points on 7-12 shooting as a freshman. Another big night from Hardrick would go a long way towards advancing Georgia to the Elite Eight, but her role on defense might be as important against Purdue’s solid offense.

The Lady Dogs will play Purdue on Sunday, and the Regional Final would take place on Tuesday if Georgia can advance. Times are still TBA, and I’ll post them as we find out. Tickets for the Dallas Regional are on sale through the UGA ticket office.


Post Four straight hours of Dawg hoops tonight

Monday March 19, 2007

First, the Lady Dogs play Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at 7:00. The game is on ESPN2 and ESPNU. In the only other meeting between these two teams, Georgia soundly defeated Iowa State to advance to the 1999 Final Four. Let’s hope the outcome is the same.

The men follow that up at 9:00 with their second round NIT game at Air Force. ESPNU is the only TV outlet for this game. A lot is going against Georgia in this game, but a win would be a huge step towards New York.

Find a comfortable corner at your local sports bar and enjoy.


Post Lady Dogs looking for direction with Sweet 16 on the line

Monday March 19, 2007

Some might say that the Lady Dogs’ sluggish performance in their 53-36 opening round win over Belmont on Saturday was the sign of a team still a bit shell-shocked from their SEC Tournament loss to Vanderbilt. Everyone wondered whether or not they could shake off that loss and show up at the NCAA Tournament with a resolve and looking to take out two weeks of frustration on an overmatched opponent.

They couldn’t. Georgia played sound defense but struggled to score. It’s become apparent that the SEC Tournament loss wasn’t the cause of Georgia’s funk; it was a symptom of a problem that has been eating at the team and its coach for a while.

What’s troubling if you’re looking for improvement is that the problems seem to be more fundamental issues of leadership. "When a team plays the way it is playing right now, there is no leadership," said Coach Landers. Georgia’s top scorers are upperclassmen, and you’d expect the team to look to them, but Landers doesn’t hold out much hope in that area. "I have asked juniors and seniors to step up and assume some accountability for that, for these kinds of things, and they haven’t. So I don’t hold out any hope that it will come from those two classes."

That showed itself in Saturday’s game. Tasha Humphrey was closely defended and double-teamed, limiting her effectiveness. Foul trouble would also limit her minutes. The close attention given to Humphrey opened things up outside, but Georgia couldn’t capitalize and shot under 20% from beyond the arc. It’s a nod to Landers’ comments that the three three-pointers Georgia did hit in the game were made by freshmen. Houts and Marshall were also Georgia’s leading scorers.

In short, this does not sound like a team with the head to make a deep tournament run. Let’s not forget that this is a team that finished second in the SEC. It has beaten Rutgers, Stanford, LSU, and Vandy. It has three members of the SEC’s all-freshman team and two all-SEC team members. But they’re in a fog now and have been for much of the season. The leadership for the future looks to be brewing among the stellar freshman class, but that’s not a present-day solution.

With the season on the line, Landers has to try a different approach. "I am the leader. I just hope I have willing followers. I don’t think by any stretch that I am perfect. I think we have got a good game plan. I am determined to come out and win and kick tail if we can. They can line up and go with me or we do something else." "Something else" at this point is going home with the season over.

Iowa State is a check for this group of upperclassmen. Georgia is a better team and has beaten teams like Iowa State all year. Georgia is bigger inside and should be able to score and rebound in the paint. That was the case against Belmont also, and they got outrebounded and struggled to score inside. Those are effort stats. As Landers said after Saturday’s game, the good defense was hurt by the fact that Georgia too often failed to "clean up" and capitalize on their defense by allowing offensive rebounds. Iowa State might not be as good of a team as Georgia, but they are quite dangerous. They have been forged in a tough Big 12 conference, and, to put even more pressure on Georgia, they can score. To make things worse, the crowd should solidly favor Iowa State as busloads of fans will make the trip from Ames, Iowa.

The Lady Dogs have been to four consecutive Sweet Sixteens and sixteen overall in the tournament’s history.


Post Surely this is unconstitutional

Friday March 16, 2007

We continue today’s legislative roundup with this nugget. Eight wins at most top football programs, if done consistently, gets you fired. One eight-win season gets the fans grumbling…even a nine-win season leaves some natives restless. Not at South Carolina.

Eight wins gets you an increase in ticket prices and also a glowing pat on the back from the South Carolina state house:

A HOUSE RESOLUTION

TO CONGRATULATE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA HEAD FOOTBALL COACH STEVE SPURRIER AND THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL TEAM FOR AN OUTSTANDING 2006 SEASON WHICH CONCLUDED WITH A TOTAL OF EIGHT WINS INCLUDING A VICTORY OVER HOUSTON IN THE LIBERTY BOWL, IN MEMPHIS, AND FOR BRINGING TO THE GAMECOCK PROGRAM A RENEWED SENSE OF PRIDE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Read the whole thing. It gets better. They commend him for winning a Heisman and titles at a competing school…in a different state. This might also be the first mention of recruiting analysts in a legislative resolution.

It needs to be investigated whether the phrase "the University of South Carolina football team recently concluded an outstanding 2006 season with eight wins including a thrilling high-scoring victory over Houston in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis" can be challenged in court. I expect to see it in negative campaign ads against the sponsors of the resolution.

As much as we know about Spurrier, this resolution probably didn’t come as an honor to him; it was surely an embarrassment to him that these overzealous fans in the state house would fawn all over an eight-win season and a "thrilling" Liberty Bowl win.

Such a legislative act isn’t unprecedented though. We’ve obtained an etching of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia deliberating a resolution to honor Joe Paterno’s first bowl win.


Continental Congress

Post Rasslin’ at Georgia?

Friday March 16, 2007

The Banner-Herald reports that some Georgia legislators are trying to use legislative pressure to revive intercollegiate wrestling programs in the state. The University of Georgia dropped its program in 1980, and Georgia State in 1998 was the last state school to drop its program.

Republican state Senator Seth Harp of Midland is behind the effort. He says,

"We’ve had a number of people who made inquires about having a wrestling program. We’re losing some very fine students to out-of-state schools."

That might be true, but I’d be a lot more concerned about the "very fine students" who are leaving the state because of the quality of Georgia public higher education rather than the availability of a wrestling program.

The Macho Man
Possible co-ed wrestling team

Look, I have nothing against Georgia colleges having a wrestling program. Georgia has a strong high school program. There are lots of other sports I’d like to see added too. We just have a few realities to face:

  • Funding. The University of Georgia’s athletic association is in the black, but it’s an exception. Tech is struggling and working through financial issues. Other state colleges can’t be raking in the cash. How do these legislators propose we fund these programs?
  • Title IX. This is really the big gorilla in the room. There aren’t many schools who don’t struggle with the requirements of Title IX. Few schools are totally compliant, and even those who come close do so with a careful balancing act. UGA’s recent addition of a large equestrian program was surely motivated with an eye towards increasing the number of female student-athletes. In a nod to the Missouri Compromise, schools attempting to keep the balance required by Title IX can’t add scholarships for male athletes without adding them for females. No, that doesn’t mean a female wrestling program or a coed program; it means that adding wrestling would probably have to come hand-in-hand with another female sport. So the funding problem is now a problem times two.

Sen. Harp can’t be all bad; he’s a driving force behind reforming the remaining Blue Laws, and I support him completely on that issue. He just needs to think this wrestling thing through a bit. "Coach Goldberg" doesn’t sound too bad though.


Post A word about the crowd

Thursday March 15, 2007

The announced crowd last night was somewhere just over 2,000. It was, as they say, "intimate" even with some great promotions going on. With the general lack of interest in the NIT combined with the ghost town that is Athens during spring break, last night’s small crowd wasn’t a surprise. The fans that were there were great. That kind of crowd is comparable in size to those we get for some women’s games, and the enthusiasm is rarely as high as it was last night. You had people who wanted to be there; there were no vast gaps left by absent season ticket holders, nor was the crowd diluted by the morgue that is the faculty/staff section. The fans filled in close to the court, and the effect was impressive considering that the gym was only 20% full.

One of the best scenes of the evening happened off-camera during player introductions. Dennis Felton often spends time in the student section before games, but last night he went up ten or more rows into the stands behind the bench with a wide grin thanking those fans for coming out. Many of those fans probably didn’t have season tickets in that area, so they saw in person for the first time Felton’s genuine gratitude for their support. After the game, he took time before media interviews to thank those who remained on the student side. His grin was as wide as you’d expect if Georgia had just advanced to the Sweet 16 of the "other" tournament. Though he’d surely much rather be playing today, this win was still progress, and he seemed truly grateful for those who are coming along for the ride.

It’s suddenly a story that Georgia basketball fans are scarce. Jeff Schultz wrote about the game and crowd last night, and Chip Towers filed a note from the SEC Tournament last weekend contrasting the thin Georgia hometown support with that of the many Florida fans in attendance.

Lucy and Charlie Brown
Life as a Bulldog hoops fan.

It’s not a recent development that Georgia basketball fans are notoriously fickle, slow to jump on board, and quick to jump off. It’s how life is for any Georgia sport other than football. and when it comes to SEC basketball nearly every school’s fan base ebbs and flows with the fortunes of their team. The exception of course is Kentucky. Mark Bradley, also writing from the SEC Tournament last weekend, noted with sadness that the Arkansas traveling fan base, once strong enough during their mid-90s run to rival the Wildcats, had lost around 80% of its size. If basketball-crazy Arkansas doesn’t turn out for a decent team that ended up in the SEC finals and headed to the NCAA Tournament, I’m not really surprised by the Georgia fans.

Dawg fans have shown that they’ll turn out for a winner. The twilight of the Harrick era was a wonderful heavyweight slug fest with Florida. Stegeman was rocking for that game as it had been for many big games over those two seasons. The game was as intense and the crowd was as electric as you’ll ever find in college hoops. Then the rug was pulled out from under the season less than a week later. Fans saw the postseason, the star player, and an entire recruiting class disappear. It wasn’t the first time that Georgia fans had a taste of success evaporate. To be a Georgia basketball fan is to be Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.

As Felton keeps building the program and the wins continue to come, the fans will come back. Considering the history of the program, I can’t blame them for being a bit hesitant to believe.


Post Stukes leads Dawgs to first postseason win in five years

Thursday March 15, 2007
Stukes for three
Chances are this shot went in.
(Photo: Georgiadogs.com)

Derrick Dukes was known for two things as a basketball player at Georgia in the late 1990s: never seeing a three-point shot he didn’t like and also attempting some of the most fearless dunks seen at Stegeman since ‘Nique.

He would have been proud of Fresno State last night. When they weren’t putting up three-pointers (40 of them to be exact, a record for a Georgia opponent), they were trying lob passes and power dunks, often with spectacularly bad results. They hit a gaudy 18 of those three-pointers (also a record by a Georgia opponent), but all those shots served to do was to keep the game from getting completely out of hand. Georgia controlled this game in every way from style to tempo to statistics en route to an 88-78 win in the first round of the NIT. They shot well, outrebounded the opponent, and had an effective inside-outside game that the visitors couldn’t match.

Fresno’s scouting report must have simply read like this: "Deny Takais Brown at any cost." The game opened with the "other" Bulldogs doubling down on Brown and leaving Georgia’s sharpshooter Levi Stukes without a defender in the same ZIP code. Used to intense pressure from SEC defenses who know him well, Stukes seemed to have a "WTF?!" look on his face when Fresno started the game by daring Georgia’s career three-point leader to hit an open shot. He hit three of them in quick succession. Fresno State called a timeout and righted the ship, even taking a 22-17 lead, but the damage had been done. Those first three shots got Stukes’ rythym going, and he didn’t let up for the rest of the night. He scored 30 points and hit 8-of-9 from behind the arc to spark Georgia.

Only a toe on the line on his third attempt of the night and a shot before halftime that was just off the mark kept Stukes from tying the Georgia record for most three-pointers in a game (G.G. Smith hit nine of them – also in the NIT and also against Fresno State).

Fresno did a decent job of bothering Takais in the first half; they held him to just six points. The slack was picked up by Stukes and Dave Bliss. Bliss in limited action was effective against the smaller Bulldogs due to the attention given to Brown. He made the most of it and scored in double-figures. Brown got things going in the second half. With Fresno tired and dealing with some foul trouble inside, the added pressure of Stukes outside opened things up for Brown. He showed everything from a nice mid-range touch to strong post moves and scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half. His tendency to be deliberate with his post moves (really…he could be timed with a sundial) might have cost some additional chances to score, but he was often able to work out of those double-teams and pass the ball to an open shooter.

Defense (or lack of it) was on a lot of minds after the game. Some wondered why Georgia stayed in a zone (either a 2-3 or 1-3-1 for nearly all of the game) while Fresno proved to be effective zone-busters from outside. Coach Felton explained after the game that we would rather they take those shots than use their size and explosiveness against some bad matchups in a man defense. As it turned out, they hit just enough shots to make it interesting and keep it from becoming an ugly game, but Georgia took advantage and built their lead during the few shooting lapses Fresno did have.

The challenges are very different in the next game. Georgia advances to play at Air Force on Monday night. The time is yet to be announced, but we expect it will be 9:00. Air Force got a little fight from Austin Peay in the first half in their first round game, but they pulled away in the second half for a comfortable win to break a four-game losing streak. Air Force will be a test of patience and discipline for Georgia. The Falcons play that Princeton-style offense that lulls you to sleep and then kills you with backdoor cuts or penetration. They have an incredibly balanced and experienced starting lineup, so you can’t count on them to make many unforced mistakes.


Post UGA-Fresno St. game on the Deuce

Wednesday March 14, 2007

Just a quick update to write that tonight’s NIT first round game in Athens will be broadcast by ESPN2 at 7:00.

I’ll be the one in the stands.