Friday, January 1, 2010

Top Ten Reasons Why UGA Beats Missouri

1. Hoops hath no fury like a Dawg scorned.

Georgia tried to hire Mike Anderson last year, and he rejected us and parlayed our interest into a nice long-term extension from Missouri with a fat pay increase.

Damon Evans has demanded that his honor be restored.

2. Vincent Williams and Trey Thompkins will help Dustin Ware advance the ball, turning Missouri's press into the "fastest 40 minutes" of alley-oops to Chris Barnes and Travis Leslie.

3. Both Georgia and Missouri have one signature win-- against the same Illinois squad, playing at a site in their home state (Atlanta and St. Louis, respectively). I figure that makes us even.

4. Missouri is overlooking us in preparation for the tough game to follow against Savannah State.

5. Missouri has beaten Tennessee-Martin, Texas-Pan American, Missouri-Kansas City, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. What's up with that? That's four teams right there with hyphenated names. Gotta be some kind of record.

Missouri may have a pretty decent record and all, but anytime you're fattening up the schedule with Kangaroo and Pooh, that counts as a loss in my book. Who are they going to play next, Christopher Robin?

Well, Georgia is better than they believe, and stronger than we seem, and smarter than they think.

6. Missouri is still trying to figure out whether they should stay with the Big 12 conference, or jump over to the Big 10. I guess if they did, that would make both conferences the "Big 11".

Stuck in limbo, they will come out sluggish against the Dawgs.

7. Their football team lost a bowl game to Navy, 35 to 13.

Has nothing to do with basketball, but that is plum pitiful.

8. Missouri lost in basketball to ORU.

Like I said, pitiful.

Having flunked the Oral exam, they're not ready to be tested by the Dawgs.

9. The Dawgs have an advantage in the post. Once the press is broken, Mark Fox will pound the ball inside to Thompkins, Barnes, Price and Ajax.

10. Because a Gold-Out is gheigh.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Langford Leads Lee

to victory over Sparkman.

Langford's school won the Huntsville Times Classic, beating Sparkman High in the championship game yesterday by a final score of 68 to 66.

Josh Langford was everywhere. Huge game. He tallied 31 points with 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.

UGA Over Pepperdine

Good game. As UGA commentator Mark Slonaker indicated, we held the Pepperdine Wave to under 40 percent shooting (34.6%), which is an appropriate goal and attainment for the Dawgs, if we are to grow into a good defensive squad. The final score was 64 to 47.

Pepperdine does not shoot the ball well at all, so a key for the game was to not let them get off to a good start. Ricky McPhee accepted the challenge to shut down the Wave's leading scorer, Keion Bell, and held him to 6 points on 2 of 12 shooting.

On the offensive side of the equation, Georgia had good balanced scoring. Trey Thompkins had 12 points and 13 boards. Travis Leslie bounced back from a sub-par game against FAU and led the team in points, with 14, to go with 7 rebounds. Ricky McPhee scored 10.

Good effort, good result, as the Dawgs move into the hard part of the schedule.

Nice Stat Line for Donte Williams

Seems to me we ought to take a second look at this guy.

In his latest game, Williams scored 24 points with 10 rebounds. He went 8 of 9 from the field, and an impressive 8 of 9 from the free throw line. He also added in 3 blocked shots and a steal.

I know we were evaluating him before we signed Lalanne. In my opinion, since we did not get Shawn Kemp, but would have taken him if he had committed, we ought to have enough room for another athletic big man-- Donte Williams.

Kessler Memorial Tournament Wraps Up

Hugh Durham speaks on excellence and effort.

$2,500 scholarships given to deserving students. Great event.

Kessler

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Pepperdine vs. Georgia

Will the Wave crash Georgia's party?

Coach Mark Fox and the Dawgs will have to show up ready to play this evening. Pepperdine is only 4 and 10 on the year, including a loss to California Baptist. But the Wave should not be overlooked. They have some players that could cause Georgia's young squad some problems.

The key match-up for the game will be Howard Thompkins against Mychel Thompson. Thompson, son of Mychal Thompson, who played 12 years in the NBA, is a legitimate player in his own right. The younger Thompson scored 25 points for Pepperdine in their most recent outing, a win over Utah.

Thompson is not as big as Thompkins, so the advantage in the post should be Georgia's. However, Thompson may seek to draw Thompkins to the outside and shoot the three-pointer or drive to the rim and get Thompkins in foul trouble. Thompson is not a great shooter, averaging just 37 percent from the field, so if the Dawgs keep Thompson from getting easy baskets early in the contest, Georgia should have the upper hand.

Pepperdine has an advantage over Georgia on the perimeter, or so it would seem on paper. Keion Bell is a 20-point per game scorer. Bell has big-time athleticism, and he should be a challenging match-up for Ricky McPhee.

Lorne Jackson and Dustin Ware will likely go at it from the point guard position. Jackson is a 6' 2", 205 lb playmaker. Travis Leslie will be paired against Dane Suttle, in all likelihood. Suttle is a 45 percent shooter from behind the arc, and was named L.A. player of the year during his junior year in high school.

Should be a good game. Again, if Georgia pounds the ball on the inside, the Dawgs should win this game handily, by say, a 12 to 15 point margin.

My prediction: UGA 77, Wave 64. The game is at 7:00 p.m.

Langford is "Special"

Josh Langford was saddled with foul trouble in yesterday's semi-final game of the Huntsville Times Classic, but he played just enough in the second half to dominate the game and lead Lee High to another victory.

Langford scored 25 points with 8 rebounds, an effort that caused his coach to glowingly describe Josh as "special."

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Josh Langford to Georgia?

He is definitely Georgia's to lose. Langford has said for a while that UGA is his leader, and when asked during a holiday tournament about recruitment, Langford mentioned Georgia as the school likely to secure his commitment.

Langford scored a double-double in his most recent contest. He had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead Lee High over Decatur of Alabama. Lee High will proceed to the second round in the Huntsville Times Classic.

A class of Langford, Lalanne and Robinson would add a lot of punch to Georgia's bench. Wonder if there is a Juco shooter out there looking for a place to call home...

Lalanne Leads Oak Ridge Again

Cady scored 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting yesterday to lead Oak Ridge to victory over American Heritage. The final score was 66 to 62.

Lalanne, whose scoring total was right at his average for the year (19 points) also notched 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

What was very different for yesterday's game was the fact that Lalanne was banged up a bit during the match, incurring a bit of a bloody nose and a turned ankle in a collision with another player. From all I understand, Cady should be available to play in Oak Ridge's next game.

Oak Ridge is now 8 and 3 on the year.

Idaho falls to Utah in Overtime

Sundiata Gaines scored 31 points for Idaho on 13 of 24 shooting. It wasn't enough, though, as Utah won 112 to 109.

I was going to say that Gaines is shooting the ball too much from his point guard position for his team to run efficiently, but anytime you're makin 'em at a rate of over 50 percent, it's hard to argue with the production. He also had 7 assists and 4 boards.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Dawgs Win! UGA Beats Aggies

Way to go, Dawgs! Fantastic way to close out the season.

Congratulations to Coach Richt and the entire staff. Terrific send-off for the seniors. Good group of guys. Cox, Moore, Atkins, Owens, Weston and the whole crew.

We couldn't seem to get anything going in the first half, but Brandon Boykin ran a kick-off back, and the Dawgs turned up the heat on defense. Converted a 14 to 14 tie into a rout, for the most part.

Dawgs win, 44 to 20.

Lalanne Leads Oak Ridge to Victory

Cady Lalanne posted a double-double on Saturday to lead Oak Ridge High to a victory over Richwood High of Louisiana. The final score was 58 to 51. Oak Ridge improved to 7 and 3 on the year.

Lalanne scored 19 points on an efficient 7 of 12 from the field. He went just 5 off 9 from the free throw line, so there is still room for improvement on that stat line. Lalanne also had 10 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.

Lalanne is averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds so far in the season. The good news for Georgia is that he will continue to get better. As has been reported elsewhere, Lalanne didn't start playing basketball until his 8th grade year. At that time, he was 6' 3" and 180 pounds, and didn't have much in the way of basketball skill.

Since that time, however, Lalanne has improved every year. He is now 6' 9" and 220 pounds. He is a versatile player that can finish at the rack and shoot from the outside as well.

Once he gets weight training at UGA, Lalanne will be a formidable post presence for the Dawgs. Should be fun to watch him develop alongside Trey Thompkins.

Battle of the Bands Prepares Fans for Bowl

It's the Dawgs vs. the Aggies this afternoon. Should be a great game.

I don't know if there will be a Dawg Walk before the contest, but the UGA band has already been gearing up for the game.

Predicting a Georgia win. I don't know how it will happen. We have no defensive coordinator. There has been a ton of upheaval in the program. We're playing a lot closer to their place than to Athens.

When you're in hostile territory, you stick to basics. Georgia should establish the run and keep after them with Caleb King and Washaun Ealey. Take the crowd out of the game and keep their fast-paced offense on the sidelines.

Dawgs tough it out, 35 to 24.

Kessler Memorial Tournament Begins

Roswell High will be participating.

Proceeds from the Tournament will help provide four $2,500 scholarships.

Kessler Tournament

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Corey Butler Pre-Season Interview

I hadn't seen this before, but I listened to it this evening. Corey Butler does a great interview, except for his love of the Yankees. Unless you're a Yankee fan, skip the first 7 minutes or 7 minutes and 30 seconds. After that point, Butler starts to talk about basketball.

One of the most intriguing parts of the interview was Butler's opinion of Gerald Robinson. Really good news for next year.

CB

Butler was one of my favorite players over his career, and I hope he and WUOG will team up in the future for other interviews as he moves on toward his medical career.

Ricky McPhee Article

Ricky McPhee has shown a lot of effort on the defensive end for Georgia's basketball team.

The attached article was published by the ABH prior to the Florida Atlantic game, so it's a little dated, but I wanted to post it anyway so that it would be among the material on McPhee here on the Blog.

McPhee

Jeremy Jacob Video

Oregon is glad to have Jeremy Jacob. He is averaging 5 points and 4 rebounds a contest in somewhat limited minutes.

Malcolm Armstead, Jacob's teammate from Chipola Junior College, is getting more playing time, but the two each are contributing, and they support each other as they go to school far away from home.

Jacob

Gaines Leads Idaho to Victory Over Utah

Sundiata Gaines scored an efficient 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting. He was 2 of 5 from behind the arc, and 3 of 4 from the line.

Gaines also had 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

The Idaho Stampede beat the Utah Flash 97 to 96.