I said yesterday that I was surprised that Levi Stukes would get suspended for something other than an academic or legal violation. I was hoping that he wasn’t being punished so severely for something as trivial as being late for the bus. It looks as if it was quite a bit more serious than that. Chip Towers of the AJC reports that Stukes missed a manditory weight session and then had "’an inappropriate verbal altercation’ with a member of Georgia’s strength and conditioning staff." Insubordination and disrespect for the staff, even the support staff, isn’t acceptable.

It’s just so bizarre that all of this comes days after Stukes has a brilliant game against Mississippi State. He was met and recognized by D.A. Layne for breaking Georgia’s career three-pointer mark. He reflected on his career in the Lincoln Financial postgame interview and seemed every bit the elder statesman ready to put the finishing touches on his senior season. He’s never been much of a malcontent, at least not in public, and he’s stayed out of trouble. To be on the cusp of something great as an individual and as a team and then to pop off at a strength coach and blow off a workout seems very out of character. We all have our bad days and tantrums, but what amazingly devastating timing. As the Georgia Sports Blog reminds us, these left-field stories just seem to be the fate of Georgia basketball. Unlike the 2002 game at Rupp where Georgia overcame Chris Daniels’ questionable SEC-imposed first half suspension, they didn’t have the horses last night.

It might not yet be over. Felton sounded in the postgame interview as if there were still some unfinished business regarding this incident that would have to be sorted out when the team returned from Lexington. With Senior Day coming up on Saturday, it will be very interesting to see how this story develops and to what extent the fallout affects the rest of Stukes’ career. The team needs him on Saturday; not just for offense but for perimeter defense against Tennessee guards that can shoot lights out. Some great Georgia-Tennessee games have been decided by Georgia’s three-point heroics. Who can forget Ezra Williams’ heroics in 2002 and 2003? I’d love to see Stukes get a chance to have that kind of an impact in this important of a game, but it’s still unknown whether he will earn that opportunity.

As for the Kentucky game itself, it just reminded me of the Ole Miss game a week ago. Georgia played close in the first half, but a brief flurry right at the end of the half gave Kentucky some cushion. It didn’t take long in the second half for them to push their lead into double-digits as three-pointers started raining. Georgia at least made it interesting this week with a comeback attempt down the stretch, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Steve Newman and Terrence Woodbury performed well with more playing time.

One thing does puzzle me – with Georgia’s three-point specialist at home, the Dawgs attempted more three-pointers than usual. Over 30 of them. They managed to hit 11. In January’s win over Kentucky, Georgia came back and controlled the second half by being much more assertive inside. They outrebounded Kentucky and attempted more foul shots. They attacked and fouled Randolph Morris out of the game. Last night’s game was a completely different story. Morris didn’t have a single foul. Takais Brown looked tentative inside and attempted half as many shots as he did in the earlier meeting. I understand that Georgia had to attempt more three-pointers as the deficit grew, but they were firing from outside from the beginning. It also hurt that Dave Bliss and Albert Jackson were injured, leaving little depth inside.

Our manic-depressive fans who saw this game and Tennessee’s impressive win over Florida are surely back on the ledges today. But if this SEC season has taught us anything, it’s the value of the home court. Georgia, as a rule, plays well at home. Tennessee, as a rule, struggles on the road. Georgia will have the home crowd and all of the motivation they need in Saturday’s game, and it’s in their hands to direct the legacy of this season. It’s just a shame that the postseason isn’t played in Athens.

According to the AJC, Levi Stukes will miss tonight’s game at Kentucky “because of conduct detrimental to the team”.

Team spokesman Tim Hix would not elaborate on the reasons behind Stukes’ suspension but did say it was not because of academics or for running afoul of the law.

I respect Coach Felton as a disciplinarian, but you almost have to question sitting in a game of this magnitude a clutch senior leader who is your best outside shooter, has kept his nose clean, and who apparently hasn’t shot someone or missed class.

The 2007 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament begins Thursday afternoon right here in our backyard in Duluth at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Tennessee once again is the heavy favorite after a perfect 14-0 regular season conference record, but the competition has been fierce this season among the next several seeds.

Click here for the bracket

From the Georgia perspective, the seeding worked out well. Tennessee and LSU, the only SEC teams to beat Georgia over the past two seasons, are on the opposite side of the bracket, and Georgia wouldn’t face either until the championship game. Georgia earned a #2 seed and a first-round bye, and they’ll face the winner of Kentucky-Arkansas on Friday. Should they advance to Satruday’s semifinals, they’ll likely face either Vanderbilt or Mississippi State. Georgia defeated all of their potential quarterfinal and semifinal opponents during the regular season.

Of course in a conference as competitive as the SEC, talking about ideal seedings and preferred opponents can be a matter of picking your poison. Seeds 1-11 are capable of advancing. Once you get beyond the Ole Miss vs. Alabama game on Thursday, any game for the rest of the weekend has the potential to be at least interesting and possibly much more. Here’s an overview of the teams heading into the postseason…

In a league of their own

• #1 Tennessee (14-0). The Lady Vols swept through the conference undefeated. Their only losses this season have been to ACC powerhouses Duke and North Carolina. That’s not to say that Tennessee hasn’t been pushed in the SEC; Georgia, LSU, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas proved to be tough tests for the Lady Vols away from home. They emerged with a win each time and with additional close-game experience that is very valuable in the postseason. When they are on, Tennessee can play with anyone. You have the dominant inside game of Candace Parker, the outside shooting of Sidney Spencer, the do-everything glue from Alexis Hornbuckle, and a stifling defense that creates offense. If there is a weakness, it’s outside shooting. Spencer can be streaky, and they aren’t quite as strong from the perimeter as they have been in recent years. Still, it’s not much of a weakness if they can work the ball inside to Parker.

The contenders

• #2 Georgia (11-3). Despite total of four games against LSU and Tennessee, Georgia was able to roll through the rest of the league and take a win in Athens over LSU. They are led again by forward Tasha Humphrey who is joined on the frontcourt by emerging freshman Angel Robinson. Two other freshmen, point guard Ashley Houts and dangerous wing Christy Marshall, form a solid young core for the future. It will be interesting to see how the freshmen hold up in the glare of the tournament spotlight. Guard play and perimeter shooting might be what determines the length of Georgia’s stay. Senior Cori Chambers was mired in a slump for much of the SEC season, but she shot very well in the last game against Arkansas. With a functional outside game and Humphrey operating inside, few teams can handle Georgia.
• #3 Vanderbilt (10-4). Vandy enjoyed a nice season and played themselves into this position by beating LSU a couple of weeks back. They were one of the hottest teams in the conference before a big defeat at Tennessee ended their regular season. Like most of the other top seeds, Vanderbilt didn’t lose to any "bad" teams, but losses to teams like Georgia and Ole Miss made it clear where they fall in the order of things. They’ve been ranked in the low-teens most of the season. They have all the pieces – a dynamic forward in Carla Thomas, a penetrating guard in Dee Davis, bulk in the middle in Liz Sherwood, and a potent outside shooting attack. This is probably Vandy’s best team since the 2004 SEC Tournament champions, but they still might be just short of Georgia or Tennessee on a neutral court.
• #4 LSU (10-4). LSU’s schedule caused them some problems late in the season, and they were knocked from the second place perch. They are just 4-4 in February and have lost two of three coming into the tournament. Though they still have the strong presence of Sylvia Fowles inside, they lack an explosive offense. They rely on strong defense, and it has worked more often than not for them. It’s not like they’re getting blown out; they’ve lost very close games to teams like Georgia, Connecticut, and Tennessee. The lack of a consistent playmaker other than Fowles has hurt them. Quianna Chaney and Erica White have tried to shoulder some of the burden on offense, but it’s a tall job when replacing someone like Simeone Augustus. Should Ole Miss advance, and that’s almost a certainty, LSU would get a rematch against the team which handed them their first SEC loss. It should be one of the most anticipated quarterfinal matchups.
• #5 Ole Miss (9-5). Ole Miss has been on the cusp of a really good season since beating LSU early in conference play. They feature Armintie Price, a scoring machine who is contending for Player of the Year honors. Since that win over LSU and a subsequent rise in the polls, Ole Miss hasn’t been able to sustain momentum. A loss to Auburn last weekend cost Ole Miss dearly. Instead of the #3 seed and a Thursday bye, they slid all the way to #5, must play on Thursday, and end up on the LSU/Tennessee side of the bracket. That’s a painful lesson in taking care of business, and I doubt they will make the same mistake on Thursday against a dreadful Alabama team.

Looking to make noise

• #6 Mississippi State (7-7). Mississippi State is a classic bubble team. They are a respectable 7-7 in the nation’s best conference. They have several "nice" wins over teams like FSU, Georgia Tech, and Ole Miss. But in true bubble team style, they hurt themselves with some missed opportunities such as a loss to South Carolina last weekend. As the #6 seed and finishing ahead of teams like Kentucky and Auburn, they can be considered the surprise of the conference. Their first round game isn’t as easy as it seems though. #11 seed Florida might be 2-12 in the SEC, but the Gators played MSU to within five points during the regular season.
• #7 Kentucky (6-8). Kentucky looked to be set up to finish .500 in the conference, but they blew it by losing at Florida. Kentucky is really under the gun now. They had one of their best seasons in decades last year and made the NCAA Tournament. They were ranked entering this season. But the signature wins that led them to the postseason last year didn’t come this year, and now the Wildcats find themselves in a desperate situation. The need to beat Arkansas on Thursday and possibly upset Georgia on Friday to have much confidence in a repeat NCAA invitation.

Just hanging on

• #8 South Carolina (6-8). South Carolina is reasonably hot for a lower seed. They’ve won three of their final five games with the two losses coming to Georgia and Vanderbilt. They’ve been a thorn in the side to SEC peers like Kentucky, Auburn, and Mississippi State. They might not be done yet – another win over Auburn on Thursday could sink the Tigers’ postseason hopes. South Carolina has too poor of an overall record and no wins of significance to have any NCAA aspirations, but their solid finish could land them a WNIT bid.
• #9 Auburn (6-8). Despite a sub-.500 conference record, Auburn actually holds on to slim NCAA chances. They have a freakishly high RPI (#35) considering their record and lack of really stellar wins. If they survive a rematch with South Carolina, Tennessee might be standing between the Tigers and a tournament bid on Friday.
• #10 Arkansas (3-11). Arkansas is an example of a talented young team that hasn’t come together yet. They have speed, decent shooting, and a presence inside. They won 14 of their first 15 games this season and earned a ranking, but that was before SEC play. They showed what they’re capable of in the past week by taking Tennessee to overtime and playing Georgia even for a half. They are in a position to play spoiler in Duluth; a win over Kentucky to avenge a 20-point loss just a week ago would all but end Kentucky’s NCAA hopes.

Upset Special?

• #11 Florida (2-12). With a lame duck coach and a 2-12 SEC mark, Florida might seem like an odd team to keep an eye on. But they haven’t quit on their coach and have won two games down the stretch. A win over Kentucky last weekend was huge both in terms of what it meant to Kentucky’s NCAA hopes and the confidence it could give Florida entering the tournament. Florida played their first-round opponent, Mississippi State, close during the regular season, and they are capable of shocking MSU if the Bulldogs come out tight. We’re only a year removed from a Florida team that upset LSU and Tennessee in the same season.

Didn’t pack an overnight bag

• #12 Alabama (0-14). They are abysmal. It’s year two of Stephanie Smith’s rebuilding program after a thorough housecleaning, and the program is in bad shape.

SEC women’s basketball coaches announced their postseason awards yesterday, and Georgia brought home a lot of hardware:

In balloting of league coaches, Ashley Houts was named Freshman of the Year, Christy Marshall was voted co-Sixth Woman of the Year, Tasha Humphrey was a unanimous first-team All-SEC pick, Cori Chambers was named second-team All-SEC and a trio of Lady Bulldogs earned Freshman All-SEC accolades

Houts, Marshall and Angel Robinson all were selected to the eight-player all-freshman team, the first time in league history three teammates have earned that honor. They also combined to win SEC Freshman of the Week honors eight times during the 16 weeks of the 2006-07 season.

It’s safe to say that the core is there for a solid future. Congratulations to these ladies.

Kelly Quinlan of UGASports.com has posted the football depth chart ($) entering spring. I would imagine that Georgiadogs.com or some other news outlets will have it later.

It’s pretty much as you’d expect, but some people might be surprised to see such highly-touted newcomers far down on the depth chart. That’s the point of spring – they must earn their way up the chart, and the order at the end of August will likely look a good bit different.

One place where newcomers have to be high on the depth chart is along the offensive line. Vince Vance is the starting right tackle, and newcomers make up three of the four two-deep offensive tackle positions.

Surprise…Matt Stafford is the starting quarterback. No rotation or co-anything this year.

It’s a broken record but it’s still a great tune. Georgia’s freshman point guard Ashley Houts was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season. She scored 15 points and recorded five steals in Sunday’s win over Arkansas. Two key three-pointers in the second half helped Georgia put the game away.

Houts and fellow freshmen Angel Robinson and Christy Marshall have combined to win the award eight of the possible sixteen weeks. With her fourth award of the season, Ashley is all but assured of taking SEC Freshman of the Year honors.

Photo: Athens Banner-Herald

On Sunday morning, Michael Lemon’s Georgia teammates filled three buses to support him at the memorial service for his murdered mother.

“We just want to show Michael we’re going to be here for him and be his family, and support him in any way he needs,” said Rodney Garner, defensive line coach and the team’s recruiting coordinator. Garner accompanied Lemon home Wednesday after the player learned of his mother’s death.

The murder left Lemon and his brother Marquez on their own, and tonight it was announced that the University of Georgia Athletic Association has received permission from the NCAA to accept donations on behalf of Michael and Marquez.

Individuals interested in making a donation should make checks payable to the University of Georgia Athletic Association with “The Lemon Support Fund” notated on the memo line. Contributions should be forwarded to:

University of Georgia Athletic Association
c/o Eric Baumgartner
P.O. Box 1472
Athens, GA 30603

If you are able to contribute, please follow the instructions in the athletic association’s press release. They are working hard to ensure that this fund adheres to NCAA rules, so we need to do things by the letter.

After a weekend arrest for underage possession of alcohol, Georgia linebacker Akeem Hebron has been suspended for the first two games of the 2007 season.

Akeem’s arrest falls under Athletic Department policies which require that the student-athlete miss 10% of the team’s games for a first-time alcohol-related incident. Two games might seem like a bit much for something like that, but given the climate on campus now and the precedents in place, we shouldn’t be surprised.

So while other programs hand out 24-hour suspensions for their alcohol-related arrests, Akeem will start the year on the bench.

Semmi, on the other hand, will be confined to the royal suite at the Waldorf-Astoria.

According to the NCAA, college football at all levels is packing them in:

NCAA football attendance set a new standard during the 2006 season as 615 schools combined for a total gate of 47,909,313, shattering the 2003 record by 1,764,774 fans.

Though the 12th game in Division 1 helped boost the totals, the NCAA points out that per-game records were also set. Hooray college football!

The 32 bowl games in Division 1 drew an average of 53,114 per game. That’s up over 2005, but we also had an extra BCS-class bowl introduced last year.

It’s no surprise that the SEC and Big 10(+1) with their massive shrines to the pigskin are kings of attendance. Three of the top four are Big 10 schools. Half of the SEC is among the top eleven. Overall, the SEC lives up to its reputation as the home of passionate college football fans with a conference-record average of 75,706 fans per game. Big 10 schools averaged just under 70,000 fans per game. The Big 10, along with the Pac 10, Big East, and Mountain West, saw its average attendance drop in 2006. The Big 12 came in third with its own conference-best mark of just under 59,000 fans per game.

No other conference has the disparity between its top draw and the rest of the league like the Pac 10. Southern Cal had the eighth-highest average nationally with over 91,000 per game. You then have to go down to the 24th and 25th spots to find UCLA and Cal with under 65,000 per game.

Tennessee leads the SEC as always. Georgia is second in the SEC and fifth nationally, but Georgia, LSU, and Alabama are so tightly clustered that one school setting out a few folding chairs might change things next season. Another way to look at the numbers is by the percentage of seats sold. How did the SEC do?

It’s impressive that every conference member had at least three-quarters of its seats filled. Is it a sign that the South is football-crazy, or is it that there’s just nothing better to do in Mississippi on a Saturday than to watch bad football? I do wonder how some schools count their capacity and how others count attendance. South Carolina has had announced crowds as big as 85,000, yet their official capacity is 80,250. Georgia sold out all of their home games for an average crowd of 92,746 per game, but we all know how empty areas of the stadium were for certain games.

South Carolina at 94% of capacity, even with an understated capacity, is noteworthy. They have a reputation for being a wildly loyal and supportive fan base despite the program’s history of underachievement, and the Spurrier "revolution" was still fresh in just its second year. They were coming off a relatively successful season that included a win over Florida and weren’t far from winning the SEC East. Yet they drew an average of 75,630 in a stadium that has held as many as 85,000.

The rich get richer. You can see which programs are selling all of their seats, and many of those same programs keep building but still can’t keep up with demand. Even Arkansas completed a really nice expansion and upgrade not too long ago. You have to wonder where the upper limit is on capacity and demand for some of these programs even as ticket prices climb.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see some building projects at Auburn and Florida soon. Facilities, especially stadiums, have an arms race quality to them. So while it might seem satisfactory that Florida and Auburn are ninth and eleventh in average attendance, SEC programs continue to build their temples higher and higher. Though Florida added some club seats a few years ago, they haven’t had a really major expansion project since the early 1990s. With the surge in demand sure to come from Meyer’s turnaround job, we’ll see if they feel pressure to expand the Swamp. In the meantime, Florida is focusing on a $12 million "front door" to their stadium which will house football offices and various other support facilities for the program, but it won’t affect capacity.

Auburn might be a bit more under the gun to keep up. Expansion of Jordan-Hare Stadium has been discussed as long ago as 2001, but nothing has been done. There are grand plans floating around, but university officials maintained as recently as October that expansion is "not something that we are actively considering." Auburn has turned its priorities to other facilities improvements such as a badly-needed arena.

As with most things in Alabama, the rivalry between Auburn and Alabama might be what drives expansion on the Plains. For years, Jordan-Hare was the crown jewel of football stadiums in the state. Alabama’s on-campus stadium was just a part-time home. But recent rapid expansion to Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa has pushed its capacity to 92,138 – the fourth-largest stadium in the SEC and a close second to LSU among SEC West programs. The most recent expansion in the north end zone also included an impressive stadium facade and plaza leading in from the central area of campus. Alabama currently might not have the best football program in the state, but its stadium now at least looks the part. Fans of both programs have noticed.

Men

Talk about night and day.

As poorly as Georgia played in every part of the game at Ole Miss, they responded with a strong performance at home on Saturday against Mississippi State. It started on the inside as Takais Brown scored eight of Georgia first twelve points, and then Levi Stukes took over to bury the other Bulldogs from behind the arc. Most everyone played well. Woodbury hit some timely shots. Humphrey continues to grow and develop a game inside the arc. Newman shut down the MSU offensive glass.

Most impressive was the defensive job inside. Though Georgia gave up six three-pointers to Reginald Delk and saw MSU shoot 43% from outside, they held Charles Rhodes and Jamont Gordon to a combined 15 points. Last year in Starkville, Rhodes had a career-high 27 points and dominated Georgia inside. Gordon had 13 points and 12 rebounds. MSU outrebounded Georgia 48-31 in that game. What a difference a year makes: Georgia owned the boards 38-27 in Saturday’s win. That loss in Starkville last year more than any other game made Georgia look helpless inside. This weekend’s win is occasion to reflect just how much Takais Brown has brought to the team and how much the returning cast has grown and developed in the past year.

The play of the game to me was a Sundiata Gaines (who else?) steal with about 12:30 remaining. MSU had closed to within six points for the second time in the final half and had the ball. Georgia was on its heels a bit, and MSU had scored four straight. Gaines made a play on a pass near halfcourt that reminded you of your favorite pick-six by Georgia defensive back. He intercepted the pass and took it the other way for an easy layup, and Georgia had righted the ship. MSU never seriously challenged again.

As the Georgia Sports Blog noted, the assist numbers were eye-popping. 23 assists on 33 field goals. That tells us that the shots came from within the offense. Though Georgia (Stukes especially) was effective from the outside, the team only attempted 19 three-pointers. That’s an efficient offense that looked inside more often than not and was able to create open looks from outside through penetration and ball movement. Consider that the team had only nine assists in Oxford on Wednesday.

Georgia still has to show that they can play like a quality team away from home. They’ll have that chance Wednesday night against a reeling Kentucky team. A lot of SEC teams are in a similar boat. Several are hovering around .500 in the league, and they can’t buy a win on the road. Tennessee hasn’t beaten much of anyone away from home (and we pray that continues through this weekend), and they were drubbed in Columbia not too long ago. Ole Miss looked unstoppable against Georgia last week, and they lost at South Carolina on Saturday. Georgia has also had its struggles on the road, but damn…at least they won at South Carolina.

Women

The Lady Dogs struggled with shooting and perimeter defense for the first ten minutes before coming to life and beating Arkansas 69-51 in the regular season finale. Once Cori Chambers got going and the outside shots stopped falling for Arkansas, it was over. It didn’t help Arkansas that they had a tough overtime loss to Tennessee during the week and that Georgia was fresh from a full week of rest.

The Lady Dogs finish the regular season with a 24-5 record (11-3 in the SEC). All of their losses came against ranked opponents (Tennessee (x2), LSU, George Washington, and Middle Tenn.), and their wins include LSU, Stanford, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, and Ole Miss. For the second straight season, Georgia’s only SEC losses came against Tennessee and LSU.

On the strength of that record and the ability to beat the other SEC teams head-to-head, Georgia earned the #2 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament in Duluth. This should be an incredible tournament. Georgia’s #2 seed by no means assures them of a spot in the finals; they will be tested right away in Friday’s quarterfinals. They’ll either play #7 seed Kentucky or #10 seed Arkansas. Kentucky took the Lady Dogs to overtime just a few weeks ago, and Arkansas had Georgia in a big hole yesterday. It’s a testament to the strength of the conference that Arkansas at the #10 seed was once ranked and even forced overtime against top-seeded Tennessee last week.

I’ll have a much more thorough preview of the women’s tournament tomorrow, and I’ll be on-site in Duluth starting on Thursday. There’s nothing better than postseason basketball.

What lousy timing. With Georgia trying to make a push towards the end of the regular season, we got a reminder we didn’t need last night of where this program was a few years ago. The Bulldogs saw a close first half spiral into a second half disaster and a 67-49 loss at Ole Miss.

Georgia started the second half of last night’s game at Ole Miss by hitting two of their first fifteen shots and going over ten minutes without a basket. You know, it’s one thing to try to look at a game and break down all the little things that might make the difference in a game, but all of that goes out the window when the team just flat can’t hit shots.

But in the truly spectacular fashion of most good meltdowns, this wasn’t a one-dimensional loss. Every element of the game was a failure. Georgia shot 33% for the game and a horrific 19% in the second half. They were 23% from outside. Starting guards shot 8-for-29. You get the point, but it gets better. There’s defense. On an otherwise poor-shooting team Ole Miss had one weapon from outside, Clarence Sanders. Georgia couldn’t defend him, and he hit five three-pointers and scored 21 points.

Let’s keep going. As I said yesterday, Georgia was one of the conference’s best rebounding teams, and Ole Miss was quite a ways down the list. The rebounding margin in this game was essentially equal, and Ole Miss recorded nine offensive rebounds. Georgia’s frontcourt, dominant in last year’s game against Ole Miss, was beaten in every way by Ole Miss’s group last night. Rebel forward Jeremy Parnell had as many rebounds as Brown, Bliss, and Singleton combined. Parnell had a double-double in just his second SEC start of the season, and center Dwayne Curtis added 14 points and 7 rebounds. Georgia failed to attack inside; point guard Sundiata Gaines had over half the team’s free throw attempts.

From offense to defense to rebounding to coaching, Georgia was soundly beaten. It was a bad performance, a bad effort, and a disappointment given what was and still is at stake for the team.

While we want to win the three remaining games, the most important thing is holding serve at home. Georgia has to win its remaining home games and then see what they can do at Rupp. Right now, Georgia has seven conference wins, and we have to worry about getting #8 before even thinking about how many wins gets us in. Mississippi State is one of the hotter teams in the league now, and they bounced Vanderbilt last night. That’s life as a Georgia basketball fan now. We went from the "manic" (wondering if we could turn 7-5 into 9-7 or better) to "depressive" (will we even win another game) in the span of a single game.

But hey, some guru’s Bracketology had us "in" last week so no worries, right?

Tonight’s men’s basketball game at Ole Miss is a challenge on many levels. The big story is that Ole Miss has lost only once at home this year. They are led by a trio of senior guards, and the Abernathy-Gaines matchup should be very entertaining.

Despite the challenge, this is very much of a “how much do you want it” game for the Bulldogs. It’s a chance for a valuable quality road win in the conference. It’s a test against another quality team also trying to play its way into the postseason.

Georgia’s advantage is on the inside, and this game will pair one of the SEC’s better rebounding teams against an Ole Miss team that is in the bottom half of the rebounding stats. If the rebounding numbers are anywhere near close, something is going very wrong. Limit them to one shot, give ourselves more chances on the offensive glass…that’s Georgia’s formula for success tonight. Our guards rebound well, and our bigs are more than capable against what they have.

As you might expect with such a veteran group of guards, Ole Miss’s strength is in the turnover numbers. They lead the league in turnover margin as the only SEC team with a +4 advantage. They are second only to Vanderbilt in the assists-to-turnover ratio. Though they aren’t the best shooting team in the conference, they are going to get a shot off: only Tennessee has attempted more field goals.

So the game will likely come down to possessions and which team can use its advantages to create and limit possessions. Georgia will try to limit Ole Miss possessions by controlling the defensive glass while creating more opportunities with offensive rebounds. Ole Miss will try to get as many shots as they can through efficient ball control while taking advantage of a turnover-prone Georgia team.

We saw Georgia’s frontcourt advantage shine in last year’s meeting in Athens. I understand the Rebels have a new coach and aren’t quite the same team last year, but as thin as Georgia’s frontcourt was last year, Ole Miss was the one game where we had and used the advantage up front. Bliss played big. Kendrick Johnson was a factor. We had 16 offensive rebounds. We won despite shooting 21% from outside because we were so effective inside.

Brown, Bliss, and Singleton have no better chance to make their mark on Georgia’s run to the postseason than in this game.

Phaba Hollingshed-Lemon, the mother of Georgia defensive end Michael Lemon, was killed in a house fire this morning at her home in Bibb County. Our prayers are with Michael and his 15-year-old brother Marquez.

For the second time this season, Georgia freshman wing Christy Marshall has been named the SEC Freshman of the Week. Marshall averaged 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in two big road wins for the Lady Dogs last week, and she has scored in double-figures in all four games since moving into the starting lineup against Alabama two weeks ago.

With Marshall’s second award, Georgia has taken seven of the possible fifteen Freshman of the Week awards this season. Ashley Houts (3) and Angel Robinson (2) have the others. The discussion now might be which Lady Dogs freshman will take Freshman of the Year honors at the end of the season. Houts has been impressive and steady from the beginning, but Marshall has just really started to put her foot to the gas.

Georgia registered on the all-name team with Rambo’s commitment, but I don’t think we’ll hear a better one this year than Yourhighness Morgan, a linebacker from Florida. Morgan has a brother named Handsome and a cousin named Gorgeous.

Yourhighness might go on the all-time college team along with such past greats as I-Perfection Harris and the Mapp brothers, Scientific and Majestic.