Dawgs Lose to Tide

Well, we lost by 7.  I'm okay with that, though.  Not happy about it, but just okay. 

Earlier in the year I had high expectations.  I figured that if Thornton came back healthy and Fox put Gaines, Morris and KCP on the floor at the same time, we might do some damage.

We were terrible at the beginning of the season and then I wasn't sure if we would beat anybody.  Wonder of wonders we got to the middle of the season and won 5 straight.  I knew we were playing the SEC's worst teams, but I thought we might develop some confidence and manage a break-even season.

Welll, Georgia is at 6 and 5 in the SEC and we're at .500 on the season overall.  We may still make it into the NIT.  Right now we're in the top half of the SEC.  Sure, it's a down year for the conference, but we were in last place not too long ago.  Sadly to say that after being a homer for so long, I am now a disappointed realist. 

At any rate I didn't expect us to beat Alabama.  I hoped that we would since they beat us in football.  But the fact remains that the Bama hoops squad is a notch better than South Carolina and Texas A&M. 

At some point we'll have to break through against Anthony Grant's team.  He beat us this year at home, last year at home (2011/2012) and twice the year before (2010/2011).  The issue is that he's a good recruiter and he is developing a better record than Fox as the two coaches go head to head and make the pitch to Atlanta-area recruits.

My main beef with the loss last night is that I don't understand why Kenny Gaines cannot get more minutes.  He got 8 tonight.  We are an offense-challenged team and he played well during our winning streak.  Was he hurt? 

Watch.  After KCP leaves next year, Gaines is going to get major minutes and display his talent.  Some people are going to praise Fox for "developing Gaines."  The truth is that Kenny can play now.  A good coach adjusts his system to his talent.  Fox is doing just the opposite.  The end result is that we can't score the basketball.

Maybe I missed something since I couldn't watch the game on t.v.

KCP had another great game.  The ESPN box score had him initially with a double-double, 22 points and 10 boards, but I later saw that the official numbers had him with 8 rebounds total.  Hopefully, the team will somehow ride his coattails and finish the season with a flourish.