KCP on a Tear

Just looked at the stats for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope over the last five games.

KCP shot 63 percent (!) from the field, 55 percent from behind the arc, and 80 percent from the line.  He averaged 20.1 points per game.

He also snagged 7 bds an outing and got 1 steal per game over the same period.

Georgia has gone 4 and 1 during this stretch and KCP is obviously the reason.  Pretty amazing performance.

Meanwhile, Kentavious continues to rise up the charts in just about every SEC statistical category for the 2012/2013 season.

Category                            Average                    Rank

Scoring                              17.8                            2nd
3-ptrs made                         2.5                            2nd
3-pt pct                              38.4                           4th
Steals                                   2.2                           2nd
Free Throw pct                  78.7                           4th
Field goal pct                     46.5                           4th
Defensive rebounds             5.4                            3rd
Minutes played                   33.4                           3rd

If KCP's recent performance were stretched out over the entire season, he would be #1 in scoring, #1 in field goal percentage, #1 in three-point percentage, #1 in three-pointers made, and #4 in free throw percentage.  Of course he can't go back and re-play the earlier games, and at some point he'll likely hit a wall if he keeps playing just about every minute of every game.  However, if he avoids injury and somehow keeps going the way he is, he could arguably have the best SEC season ever for a UGA hoops player, and maybe for the entire league.

Faster Style for the Dawgs?

We'll see how this looks. My concern is that the SEC teams against which the Dawgs will compete have very talented guards, and for the experience we have, we don't have much in the way of back-court depth.

Up-Tempo

R&B Article about the Dawgs, Schedule, Etc.

It was encouraging to read that Fox thinks Cannon and Florveus have some potential to help in the front court. I have no idea what the Dawgs have in those guys. I think Florveus can give us minutes on the defensive end, but I'm really not expecting much from Cannon, Dixon and the other post. Would love to be wrong, though.

Red and Black

SEC Preview

The SEC East is going to be tough. Kentucky, Florida, and Vandy are all superior teams. Georgia will probably struggle this year unless Marcus Thornton plays big.

Fox Preview

Mark Fox Interview: Around the Rim

Decent interview. Nothing particularly new, but interesting nonetheless, since we haven't played a game in a while.

Fox on ESPN

SEC Football: The Gold Standard

The New York Daily News has it spot on. SEC Football is king, has been for years, and there are no real competitors for the throne.

People talk about Mark Richt being on the hot seat. Everyone is on the hot seat in the SEC. Fans have the trigger finger on their laptops, ready to fire off flaming hot missives at fellow fans or lob complaints in the general direction of their school's administration. "Fire (insert name of coach) now.com" registrations go up whenever a coach loses his first couple of games.

Athletic directors pay huge salaries, schools build huge stadiums, and advertisers commit huge amounts of money, all in a bid to harness the passion of the SEC's huge fan-base.

And it works. Fans show up. Buy tickets. We're engaged. Alumni send checks.

It works on the field, too. Our best is the best of the best (shucks, our also-rans would be the darlings of most other conferences). Four straight BCS championships.

And not just the fact of the BCS victories. It's the way the SEC has won. Over the last 4 years, the SEC has beaten their BCS championship game opponents by a combined 67 points. That's an average of two touchdowns and a field goal per contest.

The games aren't even interesting in the 4th quarter. The margin of victory would no doubt be higher if the SEC coaches did not graciously put in the third-stringers and walk-ons. Good thing for our opponents that Steve Spurrier's teams aren't any good.

It's getting to the point that the BCS championship game should be canceled and the SEC championship substituted in its place.

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.

Blast from the Past

Storm hits Georgia Dome. What to do?

One of the great moments in Georgia sports history was unfolding.

Draft Dodgers

Point taken. Georgia is predicted to finish at the bottom of the SEC East again. Sure, it's an article from The State.com, but it's hard to argue with their analysis.

It's mid-June and the decisions are in. Unlike past years, the SEC didn't have a lot of guys go early to the pro's. Instead, the conference had a bunch of "draft dodgers." That's the State.com's term for guys who wanted to test their draft stock without hiring an agent, thus leaving open the option of returning to school.

In the end, players like Patrick Patterson at UK, Tasmin Mitchell at LSU, Tyler Smith at Tennessee, and Devan Downey at South Carolina-- dipped their proverbial big toe in the NBA waters, and decided that they would rather have fun for another year in the shallow section of collegiate basketball.

The bottom line is that several SEC teams have kept their rosters roughly intact, while adding in some marquee recruits. Result?

The SEC will be back in big way for the 2009/2010 basketball season.

Interview with Jeff Lebo

I thought Jeff Lebo did an incredible job last year. Auburn has been bad year after year. I wasn't sure how long Lebo would remain at the helm.

Then last year he gets some pretty good seniors, Korvotney Barber comes back reasonably healthy, and the next thing you know, people are pushing to have them in the NCAA tournament. They didn't quite make it, but the point of the article is that the SEC probably deserved more than 3 teams in the tourney, and if they had gotten one or two more in, Auburn would have been right there.

Expectations will spike with the new basketball arena. We'll see how Lebo and his squad hold up.

SEC Passes Rule on Scholarship Offers for Football

Good move, SEC. Schools have no business promising scholarships for a number of players well above the number of scholarships they have available, based on their current roster.

I am delighted that Mark Richt underscored the point of the need to avoid intentional roster churn. That's the point I made about a couple of days ago when I posted on John Calipari and "the Kentucky way." It's wrong to allow any coach to give scholarships to 5 and 6 guys when he knows that he will have to dismiss players on his current roster to get down to the scholarship limit of 13.

The SEC needs to take the new rule for football and pass something similar for men's basketball. It's a different sport, but it's the same integrity issue.

APR Score may bite Razorbacks

Arkansas basketball did not make the grade in its most recent APR cycle.

Between transfers, decisions to go pro, and other issues, Arkansas ended up with a score substantially below the NCAA's cut-off of 925. As the article states, Arkansas may not lose scholarships, but after last year's disappointing results, things are not going well for Arkansas basketball.

Gator Grumblings

Alex Tyus is out at University of Florida. I wonder what happened there? Why is he transferring and to which school will he go?

Tyus did an incredible job at UF last year. Great hands, played above the rim. We could use him at UGA, assuming that the reason for his departure was basketball-related, and not having to do with academics or off-court problems.

In any case, fans at Florida are concerned. Donovan has had success recruiting, and he'll shape his offense around the players he has. However, if you don't have quality big men, you're not going to compete well in the SEC. Some of his second year post players will have to step up.

SEC East Basketball

Not for the faint of heart.

Donovan at UF. Calipari at UK. Bruce Pearl at Tennessee. Yikes. Battle Royal at the top of the SEC East.

But don't forget the other guys. Darrin Horn surprised me this past year with South Carolina. And Stallings is always good at Vanderbilt. Just their gym gives them 2 or 3 wins a year, and once Vandy gets everybody healthy, they'll be a tough team to play.

That leaves us with UGA. What do you think the future holds?

SEC Season

Full of ups and downs, it was.

Good recap of some of the highlights from the Tampa paper.

Season

UGA Faces Tennessee

Tough way to start the SEC slate, but you play the hand you're dealt in this league. Game is Saturday at 12:00 in Athens.

I really can't see a way that Georgia wins this one. When we had Sundiata Gaines, there was always a chance. He almost willed the team to victory last year, but Georgia lost by three.

With that said, Georgia has a chance. The game is at home. Should be a good crowd. And there's no Chris Lofton. He hit 9 three-pointers one year in a close game against us. Scotty Hopson and Cameron Tatum will be challenges at the two-guard position for us, but I don't expect them to shoot like Lofton. According to one stat I saw, they shoot less than 32% from deep. Not terrible, but not world-beaters, certainly.

Tyler Smith is listed as doubtful for the game, with a bruised bone in his knee. I expect him to play, by the way, but if he is held out, or at least not 100%, that should help Georgia some.

Tennessee really doesn't have any bad losses this year. They've had 4 defeats, but 2 of those were against a Gonzaga team with a great point guard and some very good shooters. They lost against defending national champ, Kansas, and Temple beat them, but only because their 2-guard had a career night.

I think we ought to pack things down in a zone. Slow the game down. Make them run some clock and hit from the outside. If they miss, rebound like crazy. If we can keep the game close, they might get a little nervous, argue amongst themselves-- that kind of thing, and we can steal our first SEC game of the year.

If we try to match their speed, end up turning the ball over and succumbing to their defensive pressure, then UT by 18.

Oregon Blasts Alabama

I expected Alabama to lose. It's hard to travel from the East Coast all the way to Hawaii, begin a game at what is to an Alabama player's normal clock, 11:00 p.m., and come away with a victory against a good opponent.

But the issue for Georgia is that the SEC isn't looking good. Alabama lost 92 to 69. I watched part of the game, and it looked like it was going to be much closer. I guess Alabama ran out of gas. Foul shooting continues to be a problem for them. They shot only 26 of 41 from the line, and were held to .370 shooting from the field.

A few interesting notes from the game:

Alabama runs the offensive set that Georgia used to run.

Not that the average reader wants this much detail, but if any of you played for Coach Durham, you would remember. Alabama's offense starts with the John Wooden-style pass out to the wing, followed by the point guard running to the basket. If he's not open, then you pass it to the high post for the shot or the dump down into the big man on the opposite block.

Oregon was led by big man, Michael Dunnigan. Other contributors for Oregon included Billy Humphrey's cousin, Matthew Humphrey, who hit two three-pointers, and Teondre Williams, who went 2 of 5 from the floor. UGA considered both Humphrey and Williams for a scholarship at one point.

The leading scorer for Alabama was Senario Hillman, who had been recruited by UGA a couple of years ago. Hillman may be starting to play better. His freshman year was somewhat disappointing for those that expected him to take over the league with his top-flight athleticism.

Ronald Steele did not play well. JaMychal Green was only 1 of 4 from the field.

Bad outing for Alabama. They are 1 and 2 on the year.

Utah Beats Ole Miss: SEC looking Bad

The SEC is not doing as well as I expected. The West was going to be weak, I figured. However, I was not anticipating that Alabama and Auburn would be defeated by Mercer.

I definitely did not like UGA losing to Loyola. But when you combine that loss with Kentucky's loss at home to VMI, it shows that the SEC East and West have started the year out slowly, and both parts of the conference must be rated, "underperforming."

Now, Utah beat Ole Miss. I don't know if that's an upset or not, since I don't follow Utah basketball. I didn't even know they played basketball out there.

I was interested in Georgia's recruitment of Zach Graham a couple of years ago. But he went 0 for 6 against Utah, so I guess I'm not that good an evaluator of talent.

If the guys from the other conferences keep beating the SEC squads, then we may get just a couple of few teams into the NCAA Tournament.

Another SEC Preview,

another prediction with Georgia finishing last.

Okay, so these guys are biased. It's still a good read for those who are hungry for basketball information.

They have Kentucky finishing first over UT. Now, Kentucky may challenge UT this year, and I have written about it, but things have to break just right. If Meeks gets hurt again, or if Patterson gets in foul trouble, UK will have some problems.

SEC

UT is deep and talented. Losing Cameron Tatum to injury was a big deal. Not sure when he will be back. But with a healthy Scotty Hopson and Emanuel Negedu, UT has definitely reloaded. A team with a really good point guard and a big scoring center could give them problems, but UT will knock out most opponents with the press.

Florida could surprise. They had a really good year last year when most thought they would be rebuilding. Donovan can coach. If Vargas and their other freshman big man, Kadji, play well, UF could be competing for the top. Losing Lucas will hurt their depth in the back court, but not that much.

Vanderbilt lost Foster. He could score from anywhere on the floor. But as usual, Vandy will benefit by playing games on their strange court, so expect a good home record for them. Besides that, Vanderbilt has real talent in the front court. Their freshmen will be better than most expect. Not sure where they will end up if teams play zone against them.

South Carolina. No new recruits. A new coach. Downey can play and Mike Holmes will be much better. Zam Frederick and a couple of the others will score from the wing. They don't seem to be big enough in the post.

Georgia. No one knows what we have. More and more injuries have hit. Anyaorah out for the year. Thompkins with various knee and ankle issues. Jackson suffering a sprained ankle at the end of the first exhibition game. Add that to the personnel losses (Gaines, Bliss, Humphrey and Jacob), and a schedule with a series of tough games, and Georgia could start off slowly.

Feel free to leave a comment with your predictions for how the SEC East will turn out.

Gillespie in on 7-footer?

Here I was thinking that UK was done with recruiting. Now it turns out that they may be trying to bring in Jorge Diaz, a 7-footer who has played for Puerto Rico's junior national team.

Diaz had been committed to play for Nebraska. However, because his first language is Spanish, Nebraska requires that he demonstrate English proficiency to get into college. Meanwhile, Diaz has already been approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Diaz was scheduled to take the exam for English as a second language, known as the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), but a computer glitch at his school meant that he couldn't take the exam when it was scheduled.

Since Nebraska has higher standards than the NCAA Clearinghouse, it is possible that Diaz might not be admitted. The University of Kentucky has said that it is prepared to try to get Diaz into school so that he could play for Billy Gillespie.

Reminds me a lot of the snags that Georgia had with recruits a few years ago. It seems that the former University of Georgia recruit who was later admitted to Memphis, has been playing there, and playing well, for years.

Well, UK doesn't need any extra help in the post, in my opinion, so I hope that either Diaz gets into Nebraska, or that he announces that he would rather play in sunny Georgia, closer to home.