Looks Like Billy, Plays Like Terrance?

I recently saw a picture of Josh Langford, UGA's basketball recruit, and it occurred to me that he looked a bit like Billy Humphrey. I guess it was the tatoos that made me think that way.

Josh Langford has reportedly moved Georgia to the top of his list, and if we can get him for 2010, it sounds like a good move to me. That means that next year we would lose Albert Jackson and Ricky McPhee, and add Gerald Robinson (the transfer who will be newly eligible in 2010/11), Cady Lalanne, and Langford.

If Langford signs, I'd still be somewhat concerned with the make-up of the 2010 class, because we really need a shooter, and Langford has been described as more of a combo forward than a sweet-shooting small forward. Then I remembered Terrance Woodbury. When Felton brought Woodbury in from Coastal Christian Academy, Terrance had mostly played center or power forward. It wasn't until the last part of his high school career that Woodbury began to develop the skill-set to play on the wing.

I remembered, too, that Woodbury had transferred from Granby High School to Coastal Christian. Although I wonder about players that jump from school to school (Langford transferred as a senior to Lee High School, where he plays now, and de-committed from Louisville), Woodbury worked out great for Georgia.

Maybe the same will be true for Langford. He has good hops, and is a slasher. He likes to get to the rim. At 6' 6", he has played mostly in the post. Can he work on his handles and find his niche at the 3-spot?

I sure hope so. If Langford keeps developing his jump-shot, Georgia might be okay offensively with Travis Leslie, Trey Thompkins, Cady Lalanne, Josh Langford, and Gerald Robinson providing the team with scoring punch.

At any rate, I think Langford will end up at Georgia. He is said to have Auburn and Alabama as the other major schools he is considering, and Auburn already has a jam-packed class for 2010 (something like 6 signees already). If I'm Langford, I see the lack of a scoring wing on UGA's squad, and I sign up at the next opportunity.

Sundiata "Vinnie Johnson" Gaines Goes Off

Scores 31 coming off the bench. Shot 11 of 19 from the field, 3 of 6 from deep, and had 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a block.

Gaines reminds me of Vinnie Johnson, who was instant offense coming off the bench for those great Detroit Piston teams of yesteryear.

Sundiata is still leading the D-League in scoring. He is averaging 28 points per game, to go with 8 assists, and 5 rebounds per outing. He is shooting an astonishing 60 percent from the field and right at 50 percent from behind the arc.

Cady Lalanne Leads Oak Ridge

Lalanne scored 23 points with 8 rebounds Tuesday night to lead Oak Ridge to a victory over Harmony High.

In competition last week, Lalanne had 18 points, 14 rebounds and 7 blocked shots.

Oak Ridge is 2 and 2 on the year.

Dawgs Lose

The margin of victory was right at what I expected, but I really thought Georgia would perform better on the offensive end.

I think the Mark Fox system on offense will get there. I do not like his 3-2 defense. The best 3-pointer for a team to take is from the top of the key. By running a 3-2, in which the top man on the zone also has to defend the post, it opens up the top of the key shot for Georgia's opponents.

I wonder whether having Zlovaric play as many minutes as he did is the best use of Georgia's bench. I would like to see more of Mayfield and Anyaorah.

Georgia is 4 and 4 now. Hope we can beat Tech later, but we don't look very good as things stand.

Dawgs against St. John's

I picked the Dawgs in the last game against Virginia Tech. I admit that I'm a bit of a homer, so my predictions for the year are going to be skewed in favor of Georgia winning.

Virginia Tech won. This time I'm going to go with how things look on paper and predict that St. John's will come out the victor.

Should be a good game. I think Trey Thompkins may absolutely have a show-out performance. Sometimes when the shots aren't falling during one game, when the horn starts for the next, you can't miss.

D.J. Kennedy plays for St. John's. Kennedy was a late signee who picked St. John's over UGA. He's had a nice career so far. Kind of small forward that Georgia could really use these days. Athletic, good free throw shooter. Through 7 games, Kennedy is averaging 18 points and 4 boards per game, shooting 56 percent from the floor.

Although Felton did not get Kennedy, he bounced back the next year by successfully bringing in Travis Leslie. Kennedy and Leslie will likely be matched against each other for much of tomorrow's game.

Georgia is improving under Coach Fox. Are they getting better enough and fast enough to play well early in the season in New York against St. John's? St. John's is 6 and 1, with their only loss occuring against Duke, by 9 points.

Should be a close game, and though I'd love to pick the Dawgs, the most likely scenario is that Georgia will come up just short. St. John's 77, Dawgs 69.

Gaines Interviewed by Red and Black

Good work by the R&B in keeping up with Gaines.

Gaines

Could Georgia Lose Richt?

Let's face it.

By now, Mark Richt doesn't need the money. He's paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million per year, not counting endorsement income. If he has managed his assets, he already has enough to live on for a long, long time.

Unlike the rest of us, Richt has the capacity to decide that he doesn't want to work any longer, and the resources to back it up.

If you remove the financial aspect from a job decision, and if a person isn't tied to a job because it's his real love in life, then there have to be other reasons for a person to stay in position.

Many times those reasons are legal ("I will stay through the end of the contract"), or desire ("I just enjoy what I'm doing so much, I want to stay here indefinitely").

I'll tell you. If Mark Richt felt that his hand was forced to fire his defensive assistant coaches, then UGA, knowingly or unknowingly, rightly or wrongly, has just removed a large chunk of the "desire" quotient from Mark Richt's set of reasons for staying.

There is nothing that will bring a boss more job dissatisfaction than having other people break up his team, other people make him cut the bonds of loyalty that held his staff together.

Coach Richt is probably very unhappy these days. Perhaps he is asking himself how much longer he wants to stay beyond his contract period (2013?).

Did the fans in clammoring for Martinez to go, actually set into motion the chain of events that launched Mark Richt toward a different school, or into a different field of service?

Rashaad Singleton Contributes to Sweep

Rashaad scored 8 points to go with 13 rebounds, 3 blocks and a steal. His Oita Heat Devils bested the Toyama Grouse in their first match by a score of 90 to 79.

It was more impressive play for Singleton in the re-match. Rashaad notched 12 points, 16 rebounds and 7 blocks.

Oita has improved to 7 victories against 9 losses so far this season. Considering where they were last year, their record shows marked improvement.

Rashaad has been leading the Japanese Basketball League in rebounds and blocked shots.

More later.

Josh Langford Leads Team to Victory

UGA recruit Josh Langford is playing well these days.

In his last game, Langford scored 24 points with 11 boards.

Lee High Wins

Sundiata Gaines Has Another Big Night

Played Saturday and went for 27.

Gaines shot 10 of 17 from the floor and 3 of 6 from behind the arc. Had 6 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a blocked shot. Zero turnovers in 27 minutes.

I'll stop writing about him when he stops having such big games.

Dawgs Fall to Virginia Tech

I thought the Dawgs would perform better against these guys. We beat them at our place last year.

They lost the big-time shooter they had, so I figured that would at least help us play even against them.

I listened to most of the game. Didn't find out until late that the game was being streamed over the Net. Hard to say what went wrong, other than the fact that Trey Thompkins didn't shoot well.

Sounded like their guy Delaney got to any spot he wanted to on the floor. Guess we not only need a different offensive system, we need a stopper at the 2-guard. Having Corey Butler would have helped.