Sunday, March 10, 2013

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!

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