Loyola of Chicago Whips the Dawgs: Recommendations for the Future

Embarassing loss. It's early in the season, but it's still awful to lose to Loyola by more than 20 points.

I thought that Georgia might lose this game. In fact, I had expected it, since UGA has two young point guards, the team had to travel after playing Friday night, it is much colder in West Lafayette, and the game got started at 9:30 EST.

However, I hadn't anticipated the total beat-down.

Here are my recommendations for righting the ship:

1) Start Travis Leslie. He went 10 for 14 from the floor, scored 23 points in 26 minutes.

2) Don't take Leslie out unless absolutely necessary.

3) Get Thompkins ready as soon as possible. Don't risk injury for the guy, but if he can shoot, let him pick up his conditioning by playing.

4) We're really hurting at point guard. In my opinion, drastic measures are called for.

We need to get this guy out on the court. Even if he is not available immediately, let's start the discussions now so that when he is available to the team, his transition is seamless. He is, in my opinion, the best point guard on campus-- sort of a shorter version of Travis Leslie.

Ware and Swansey might perform very well over time, but if they play like they did tonight, we need a third option.

5) Run better offensive sets. I said after Friday's game that our offensive execution was "ugly." I thought that it was true then, and although it was impossible to tell definitively from the radio, it probably hurt us again when we played Loyola. Price and Jackson were not getting the ball in the position on the floor in which they could do anything with the ball. Maybe things will improve with better players, but..,

We cannot swing the ball from side to side and expect to have success. The Lakers learned that lesson with Shaquille O'Neal. As dominant as he was, if all he did was just get the ball on the block, he could be doubled or defended by a guy like Dennis Rodman. But when the triangle offense was instituted, and O'Neal started flashing to the post, diving to the basket for designed lobs, and generally moving around more, the Lakers were ready for their championship run.

It's not an ideal analogy, but I think UGA would find, just like the Lakers, that having a designed offense opens up the floor for your skill players. We would have more assists if we ran a few set plays, with the action going toward the basket. We do some things now, I am aware, but not enough.

6) Shake the loss off. Take care of business tomorrow.