Still a Dawgs Fan

Proud of the team for beating Kentucky.  That almost never happens.

UK's team is no slouch, either.  They have some good athletes and have won 21 games on the year.  Calipari's team will make it to the tournament, especially since they rebounded from the loss to us and went out and beat Florida.

At the end of the day, however, Kentucky - Nerlens Noel = beatable team.  Since losing Noel to his knee injury, Kentucky has gone 4 and 4.  They'll go to the NCAA's, but I doubt they do much.

The silver lining for Calipari is that there isn't a sure-fire one and done guy on his roster.  He may actually have talented sophomores next year.  Bring a healthy Noel back, add in their all-world recruiting class and--   let's just say I'm just glad we beat them this year.

After the victory over Kentucky, we lost the close one to Alabama.  I've said it before.  I don't like losing to Anthony Grant.  He's beaten us 5 times straight, I think.  Somehow, someway, he seems to have our number. 

We're having our third losing season out of four.  Not doing much on the court or on the recruiting trail.  Meanwhile, Grant just notched his third-straight 20-win season.  He has momentum and he's going to be around for a long time.  He's also our main competition for some of the blue-chip recruits we're targeting for 2014.

Bad enough that Grant out-athletes us.  Now he outlucks us to boot. 

Shouldn't have gotten down to luck or a last-second heave.  We needed to jump on them early, establish a lead and put pressure on them to score.  We had to have a good-shooting game from KCP and didn't get one.  We needed a good game from our bigs.  Didn't get that either. 

Alabama's Nick Jacobs is an Atlanta kid I hoped Fox could bring in.  He had 11 points on 3 of 5 shooting, 5 of 5 from the line.  He's just a sophomore and if he stays healthy, he could really blossom over the next couple of years.  Meanwhile, Dixon, Florveus, Donte and Cannon were a combined 2 of 5 in 51 minutes.  I really want those guys to step up.  They have enough talent, in my way of thinking, but for some reason, aren't quite playing to their potential.

Although Charles Mann had the late turnover, I am confident he will be a good player for Georgia.  Nemi had a solid outing and Brandon Morris showed that he can score the ball, shooting 4 of 5 from the floor and 2 of 2 from behind the arc.  If Morris can add an on-target outside shot to his driving ability, the sky's the limit for him.

Georgia ended its regular season at 15 and 16.  I wanted us to at least do better than .500.  Having a winning season would have been a morale boost after we started so poorly.  The good news is that we can still get into the NCAA's by winning the SEC tourney.  If KCP regains his form, Brandon Morris shoots well and we have scoring from one other guy, like Nemi or Kenny Gaines, it could happen.

A dose of good luck wouldn't hurt, either.  Here's rooting for a tornado!

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.

Stopped Watching

Hate to say it, but that's the truth. We looked terrible. Struggled just to get Florida's lead down to 13, and I guess that was a moral victory. From there it looked like they might win by 25. Hopefully, Donovan will put in the bench-riders and we can make the final score look respectable.

I didn't post after the Alabama game because I was frustrated. I don't like losing to Anthony Grant because Georgia's continued losses only strengthens Grant's ability to recruit our state as well as his. I think this year's loss to Alabama makes it three straight over UGA in just a short period of time (end of last year and this year). As I have posted before, Grant doesn't need any help. He is an elite recruiter, getting all or most of the talent from Alabama, plus picking up the best big man from Georgia in Nick Jacobs.

A blow-out loss to Alabama, and now the same to Florida. Vanderbilt might be worse. They are more talented than Florida, in my opinion. Don't know when it ends. Discouraged.

Alabama and Anthony Grant

They lost to Georgetown tonight. Great game. Georgetown won on a three-pointer at the end of the game.

Alabama will be a tough game for anyone in the SEC.

Don't like having Anthony Grant next door. In his last class, Grant brought in five 4-star or better players. His guys are playing really, really hard, too.

They don't have the height that Kentucky does, but Alabama's guards might be better. Tony Mitchell is a budding superstar.

Billy Donovan, Anthony Grant and John Pelphrey

United in tragedy.

Don't know if any of the Blog's readers saw this story, but it was so important that I wanted to link it.

Loss of a Child

When was the last time that

Kentucky was last place in the East?

Georgia was in third?

Alabama was in first for the whole conference?

UK has a tough road ahead playing against Tennessee and Vandy. Either one of those teams could go into Rupp and pull out a win. The issue is that Kentucky does not have a big-time presence in the post. No Patrick Patterson. DeMarcus Cousins is gone. As a result, the team is decent, but definitely not great.

Georgia, on the other hand, has post scoring. If Gerald Robinson gets hot again, we're tough to beat. Hate to jinx us, but this team reminds me of the championship-winning squads that Florida had, with Horford, Brewer and Noah. Not as athletic and not as good defensively, but with balanced scoring and a good mix of bigs and shooters.

In fact, but for Florida's long-distance three at the end of regulation, Georgia would be in first place in the East.

As for Alabama, I don't know what Anthony Grant told his kids, but they have shocked me. Grant's players have bought into the defense-first game plan, and they're shutting other teams down. I did not expect to see them at the top of the SEC-- at least not so soon. I knew they would be good when Nick Jacobs arrives, but they are ahead of the curve at 7 and 1 on the year.

Should be fun to see how the rest of the SEC season turns out.

Alabama loses to St. Peter's

I don't remember ever having heard of St. Peters before. Sounds like a junior high where all the kids wear uniforms. In a Rubix Cube solving contest, Bama would not have stood a chance.

But there they were. St. Peters, winners in basketball over the University of Alabama by a score of 50 to 49.

Bear in mind that St. Peters is the same team that scored a total of 30 points in an earlier match-up against Robert Morris.

In the Alabama contest, a guy for St. Pete by the name of Blaise Ffrench made a key bucket. Did Buffy and Jody score, too? A player named Yvon hit two three-pointers. I mean it's bad when a team uses their cheerleaders against you.

Their mascot is the Peacocks. The St. Peters Peacocks. There's something that's just wrong about that name. But I digress. I'm sure they are very proud about the win.

It could have happened to us, so I'm not gloating. Besides, teams better get Bama this year, because with the freshman class Grant is bringing in, they will be significantly better next year. Even still, Crimson Tide fans are not going to be happy about losing to the 1 and 3 St. Peters team.

At any rate, even though I had some fun at their expense, it's a great win for St. Peters. Congratulations to them.

SEC RPI to Take a Hit

Rider defeated Mississippi State. That was a surprise. Jarvis Varnado had his normal dominating game, but finding other scoring will be an issue for State this year.

In an even bigger upset, Cornell beat new coach Anthony Grant and his Alabama squad. Senario Hillman went just 2 of 6 from the floor. Never have figured out just what happened to him, but I thought Hillman was going to be a dominant player over at Alabama. Maybe he still will develop, but other than a few highlight-reel slam dunks, he just hasn't been much of a factor over his college career.

Grant will have Alabama performing at a high level. I am confident that they will get there. Tony Mitchell, JayMichael Green, and others are very talented players.

But Cornell was not to be denied. Congrats to them, and to Rider.

Getting a Little Bit Better

Mark Fox is one of the three new basketball coaches in the SEC.

John Calipari was the high profile addition for the league. He was brought in at Kentucky and immediately started to make waves in recruiting. Anthony Grant was considered the up and coming coach, and was lured to Alabama. Fox was the least known quantity, coming from Nevada.

Fox is quoted as saying he wants Georgia to get a little bit better. I know it's early yet, but hopefully, Fox is using the "Vince Dooley understatement approach."

The guys will have to work hard, but Fox has some athleticism on the roster. Maybe Fox can instill his offensive system, get a couple of high profile recruits on board, and start to get Georgia rolling.

Interview with Anthony Grant

I was very impressed with the interview. I think that Grant could have done quite well at UGA, and he will have Alabama very competitive, very soon.

Hope he loses against Georgia, though. We'll have to work hard on recruiting, since Alabama always seems to get more than their fair share of the best ballplayers from our state.

Poll Results: Anthony Grant will be UGA's Coach

Based on the opinions of the readers of our Blog, I'm calling the UGA coaching search for Anthony Grant. A full 83 percent of our responders believe Grant is the guy.

When the poll began, VCU was still playing in the Tournament, and Grant was just an unofficial candidate. However, as soon as VCU lost, reports came out that Grant was the front runner for the job at University of Alabama.

The Tide's decisiveness may have created a fire underneath our athletic department. Rumors over the last day or so suggest that our head coaching position was offered to Coach Grant.

I seriously doubt that any of the readers of this Blog are part of the athletic department. We had no early inside information. But we may have some accurate guessers. We'll see.

If Grant does get the top job, he brings a lot to the table. He understands the SEC, having been an assistant coach at Florida. He reportedly was the main recruiter at UF and the principal architect of the roster for UF's championship teams of a few years back.

And although he coaches at a smaller school, he has had his share of success. His teams at Virginia Commonwealth have been in the NCAA Tournament, beating Duke one year, and coming up just 1 point short of beating UCLA this past season.

Maybe he'll be a younger version of Tubby Smith. If he signs with Georgia, let's make the buyout provisions very steep, and if he is successful, let's hold onto him against aggressive suitors.