Good Game, Dawgs

Gave it our all.  They have Malik Monk and we don't.

We lost by 9, but it was an overtime game.  UGA was right there.  If we had some outside shooting in the first half against their zone, we would have blown them out.  Like I said, they have Malik Monk and we don't.  He can rise up over defenders and knock down shots.  Monk scored 37 for the game and was 7 of 11 behind the arc.

Disappointed that we missed key free throws.  Yante missed two straight that we vitally needed.  Turtle missed one that would have put Georgia up three before their final possession.

All in all, no complaints here.  I don't particularly care for putting KPG in without having other scorers on the floor, but even so, Geno had a nice drive and dish to Ogbeide.  I suppose that it's not playing Tyree Crump earlier in the year that I have issue with.  Hard to expect him to come in at Rupp and do much.  Even still, Fox coached well enough to win.

J.J. didn't have his best game, struggling in the first half.  Hard to take him out, though, because we just don't have many other scoring options.  Frazier bounced back in the second and really toughed it out, especially after getting knocked in the head.

Really concerned that Turtle Jackson is not giving us much of a lift.  Kind of dribbles it around 30 feet from the basket.  Glad he can help break the press.  But like I said, if he does break the press and gets fouled, then he has to be able to knock down the free throws.

Anyway, after J.J. Frazier graduates, UGA could be in trouble.  Tyree Crump plays like a short two guard, and I fear that Teshaun Hightower will play like a tall one.

Yante played a great game. He had a few turnovers here and there, but he was doubled all night, so a few miscues are to be expected.  Maten still outplayed the higher ranked Bam Adebayo and Wenyen Gabriel.  Yante ended up with 22 points and 5 boards.

Great game for Derek Ogbeide.  He's a load in the post.  18 points and 13 boards on 7 of 9 shooting is one of the best games by a UGA big man at Rupp that I can remember.

Jordan Harris, for one, was not scared.  He was 3 of 5 from the field and 2 of 2 from long range.  When he gets his confidence up and his turnovers down, he will score a lot of points for Georgia.

Give it to Kentucky, though.  They find a way to win.

UGA is 13 and 9 overall and 4 and 5 in the SEC.  In danger of sliding down into the lower reaches of the SEC if we don't steal at least one of these next two.

Proud of the Dawgs (Seven Thoughts)

1.  Momentum

 Knew we couldn't pull it out when J.J. got hurt.  He's the only guy on the roster with the speed to get past UK defenders off the bounce and finish with off-balance lay-ups or floaters.

It was one of those floaters that unfortunately led to Georgia's defeat.  Frazier penetrated, lofted up a floater, which went in, but he landed on one of their guys' foot.

Turned ankles happen like that all the time when you play basketball, but J.J.'s occurred at the worst possible moment for Georgia.

Calipari noted after the game, "The break we had was when J.J. hurt his ankle."  "That was a big break for us because we couldn't guard them."

2.  UK Strategy

Kentucky went right after J.J., post-injury, and Briscoe took advantage by driving him right to the basket.  J.J. is a willing defender, but with one bad wheel, Briscoe overpowered him.  Don't blame Calipari at all.

3.  UGA Strategy

Kudos to Coach Fox for finding a way to put UK on their heels.  Great coaching. It worked, too, for 3 quarters of the game.  In the end, we ran out of gas.  Kenny Gaines had a couple of good looks rim out that he might have hit when rested.

I guess J.J. probably "deserved" to have a chance to play through pain and give it his best shot. However, in retrospect, it probably would have been better to close out the game with Turtle Jackson at the point,

4.  Big Men

Once again, our big men outplayed Kentucky's.  Happened last year when Marcus Thornton and Nemi Djurisic led the charge.  This time, Maten went for 20 and Ogbeide did a great job on the boards.  Houston Kessler was scrappy.

UK starters Poythress and Labissiere didn't hurt us.  Lee was neutralized for the most part.  Kentucky has great depth, though, and as Georgia got tired, Willis hit free throws and open looks.

Proud of Derek Ogbeide, Mike Edwards, and Yante Maten.  Those guys will play a lot of great basketball for Georgia in the future.  Maten has another level to reach.  Want to see him come out chiseled next year.  When Edwards gets stronger and adds three or four inches of leaping ability, and Ogbeide gets down an improved right-hand jump hook, look out!

5.  Recruiting

I hope some guys watched UGA today.  Nothing better than representing the Dawgs on the floor.

Sure, you can choose to play way across the country, like Jaylen B. at California, Tony Parker at UCLA, or Kobi Simmons at Arizona.  But no one from this side of the country gets to see you play in person, and the games aren't even on t.v.  Tony Parker is finishing his senior year at UCLA.  His 13 points and 8 rebounds a game would have been huge for us.  Meanwhile, the Bruins are 10th in the PAC-12, and not going to the NCAA's.  With their losing record, it doesn't even look like they'll be invited to the NIT.

Some elite players may want to head north up the east coast.  Same answer as above.  Why go to Duke or another school, when you can be the man at Georgia?  Even out of state players should give Georgia a serious look.

Who wouldn't want to come in and help?  J.J. and next year's four sophomores will be that much better, and Jordan Harris and Tyree Crump will ratchet things up on offense.  We're just a player or two away from having an incredible run.

6.  Coach Fox

For those who wanted a coaching change, it ain't gonna happen.  If Fox will use his momentum and continue to play fast on offense and zone on defense, that would be enough of a coaching change for most of us.  That, and #5 above.

7.  NCAA Tournament

Makes sense to me to have four teams from the SEC in the NCAA Tournament:  UK, Texas AM, South Carolina and UGA.  I think we're in.  Sure, I'm biased, but Georgia closed the season with five straight wins and a close one against Kentucky.   That's a lot for the selection committee to disregard.


All in all, great game, Dawgs.  A win would have been huge, but you represented us well.

Can Dawgs Win at Rupp?

Very, very difficult to win there.  We have had some talented squads at Georgia, and we go up there and the environment, the talent and the refs get us all flustered.

With that said, we almost beat Kentucky last season (at Stegeman, though), and this year's Kentucky team isn't nearly as good.  Besides that, we haven't had a game all year during which Gaines, Mann, Frazier and Maten all play well.  If we can hit some outside shots and UK has a let-down after their big Florida win, UGA might steal one.  If we do, Georgia and Kentucky will be tied for second place in the SEC with matching 7 and 4 records.

Come to think of it, it's not inconceivable that Georgia could end up winning the SEC.  LSU will have to lose some, and Texas A&M and South Carolina will have to stumble, but it could happen.

Let's see what Fox does with the match-up zone.  Maybe Poythress will be out with an injury.  Perhaps Fox will start Mike Edwards and see if he can beat their big men off the dribble.

Are you ready?  Let's get started!

Revisiting the Kentucky Game

As painful as this is, yes, I'm going to go there.

Kentucky is just man-handling teams in the NCAA tournament.  The game against West Virginia was brutal.  Didn't watch it.  Didn't need to.  Knew Kentucky would win in convincing fashion.

Hard to believe that UGA gave Kentucky one of its toughest outs of the year.  Sure, there were the games against other SEC foes.  Sure, Kentucky barely outlasted a couple of teams(LSU and Missouri?), winning late or in overtime.  But neither of those teams were beating Kentucky by 9 points in the second half.

Besides, I don't care about the other teams.

Georgia should have won that game.  The game in Athens.  The game in which we were beating them soundly, and the Kentucky guys looked confused.

We needed a few things to go our way:

1.  Free throws.

Maddening to watch us go 9 of 18 in the most important game of the year.  50 percent!

2.  Balanced Scoring.

By and large, we had it.

3.  Good game by J.J. Frazier

Didn't get it.  He went 2 of 8 from the field, 1 of 5 from behind the arc.  He even missed his two free throw attempts.

4.  Great Game from Our Bigs

Was so proud to see Marcus Thornton, Nemi Djurisic and Yante Maten all shoot 50 percent or better from the floor.  Our three big men each outscored Dakari Johnson and Willie Cauley-Stein.  Nemi played out of his mind.

5.  Take away the Lob Pass

Mission accomplished.  Sure they must have had a couple, but I don't remember any.

6.  Great Coaching by Fox

We had it.  Great game plan.  We bodied their big men and made them shoot over the top.  Slowed the game down.  Made them defend our big men off the dribble.

7.  Win the Turnover Margin

They only had 3 turnovers the entire game.  We had 11.

8.  Get some Home Cooking

Think the refs hurt us more than helped us.

9.  Out-Shoot them from Deep

We went 3 of 17.  They shot 4 of 15.

10.  Be Tough on the Glass

We actually out-rebounded them, 41 to 38.


On the whole, we did what we needed to do.  

Their big man, Towns, was 8 of 12 from the floor.  He was hooking our defensive player with his elbow and shooting the jump hook.  I was practically screaming at the t.v. for Fox to call a double-down to make Towns go to his left.  Every time he bounced the ball, I would have had one of our guards running at him full speed.

In the end, we lost by 8.  We were right there, though.  If we had hit two more three-pointers, just 5 for 17, and shot 70 percent from the line, we would have won.

Woulda, coulda.  I know.  Frustrating.  They'll probably go 40 and 0 and win the whole thing, but we had them.

Free Throws!

Arggghh!

We didn't get the key call when the Dawgs were up and they clearly hacked Mann across the arms.    They went down and scored.

Marcus and Nemi were getting fouled going to the hole and the refs didn't call that either. Karl Anthony Towns used his elbows to create space and the refs let it go.  The foul-calling disparity was a key to the game,

But the larger issue was that UGA went 50 percent from the line!  A number of those misses were one-and-ones toward the end of the game when we could have pulled close and tied the game.

Proud of the team in any case.  Coach Fox coached a great game.  We needed big games from Mann and Gaines, and we didn't get it.  We shot 3 for 17 from behind the arc.  That won't cut it against Kentucky.

The team fought hard, so perhaps it will all come together in the tourney.

Disappointed, but UGA played a whale of a game.

Yante and Nemi Playing Huge

Great to see.  Our big men have 28 of our 32 points at the half.  Owning their bigs.  Willie Cauley-Stein, 2 points.  Karl Anthony Towns, 2 points.  Trey Lyles, 2 points.

Meanwhile, Nemi has 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting, Yante has 6 on 2 of 3 from the floor, and Marcus has 8 on 3 of 6 shooting.  Wish our guards would get hot!  Please, no more careless passes and dumb fouls!

UGA, you gotta win this game.

Hunker Down One More Time!

Okay, Kenny Gaines Time

UGA will pack it in to the post tonight and force UK to shoot over the top.  They will be fairly efficient.

The key, then, is whether UGA can do something on offense.  I've been waiting for Gaines to play up to his potential.  Tonight will be his night.  He gets started early with a three-pointer, then continues to fill it up.

Georgia hits free throws late.  Dawgs edge Cats.

So Cold in the G

How we s'pose to win the SEC?

Dawgs seemed to be playing well.  14 and 5 with a game coming up against South Carolina.

Well, we're Georgia, and the good basketball vibes can only last so long.  After Georgia successfully worked through one strange injury after another, Marcus Thornton went down with concussion symptoms after the Vanderbilt game.

As most expected, we didn't show up against South Carolina.  We tried, but our shots were just not falling.  Now, tomorrow night we play against Kentucky at their place.  Same place when we didn't have any shooting guards (Kenny Gaines and Juwan Parker were out last year).

Marcus Thornton has been ruled out.  We have no center.  Kentucky has like 10.

Things could get ugly tomorrow.

We need another miracle game from J.J. Frazier or for Kenny Gaines to just go off.  Rooting for the Dawgs, but not optimistic.

Well. so much for showing up

How many turnovers is that?

Embarrassing, but we don't have the horses.

Hard to show up when your shooting guards aren't dressed out.

Gaines not playing

Dawgs can't win, in my opinion.

What other guards do we have, other than a gimpy Juwan Parker?

Ughh.  No JP either, just heard.

Sigh

I know they're Kentucky and we're Georgia, but it would be nice to get excited about hoops recruiting.  C'mon.  Six McDonald's All-Americans?  And we can't get one signee for 2014?

Embarrassment of Riches

Here's hoping William Lee announces for us tomorrow.

If Kentucky Thinks They're Going to Win the SEC,

they need to know that Patric Young is going to battle them. Young and the other bigs at UF were already chiseled. Well, this summer they added to their physicality a level of explosiveness that the freshmen at Kentucky probably aren't ready to match.

This video was impressive.

Strength and Conditioning

Man, I sure hope that the Dawgs can have a good season. There are no easy victories in the SEC, though, so we'd better be working hard.

Stopped Watching

Not that anyone out there cares, but I just had to express my frustration. Kentucky seems to double our score constantly. We make a basket, then they shoot a three and get another bucket somehow. They miss one, and we don't have the athletes to get the defensive rebound.

We had irrational exuberance there for a while, beating a short-handed Florida team with only one serviceable big man. Patric Young is good, but he is no Anthony Davis.

Kentucky is just way better than we are. Calipari is an elite recruiter. Translates into a wide margin between us and them in shooting, inside play, defense. Hope we can get better next year.

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.

Ugly Game. (UK Recap)

We didn't get what we needed, and that was a big game from a big gun. Trey was off, Travis had an 0-fer, and Gerald Robinson seemed too helter-skelter.

I don't think our guys were overwhelmed by Rupp. We lost by six. If we had hit our free throws, we would've won the game.

The positives were that Dustin Ware played well. Marcus Thornton seems to be coming along. Jeremy Price gave us some key buckets.

I guess Thompkins was hurt. Not sure that that caused him to miss all the three's, but something wasn't working for him.

Both Florida and South Carolina lost to teams from the SEC-West. With a victory, we would have moved into second place in the division. Now, we're still in last. Not good.

Dawgs Win! (Prediction)

Odds are against us, I know.

And Calipari has them playing "kill ball." I think that's what we used to call it when basketball was played like football and no fouls could be called.

The article is correct that Kentucky is playing better. And they will be at home. Likely to get all the calls.

I'm still saying that Kentucky is a much weaker team than last year. Then, they had Demarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson and John Wall. They could bring in length off the bench with Perry Stevenson.

Lamb and Knight are terrific guards. They'll score a lot of points before their careers are over. Still neither one projects to be the first draft pick taken.

Meanwhile, Georgia is a much-improved team. At least it is when Gerald Robinson plays well. I don't think we'll be bullied by these guys.

Let's play the 3-2 zone and see if these guys can shoot it from the outside. Meanwhile, if one of our guards gets hot, we can run out to a quick start and keep the crowd out of the game.

Time for us to win a close one. Dawgs over Cats (as it should be), due to our fast start and their missed shots and free throws down the stretch, 86 to 82.

Red and Black Recap

I agree with Coach Fox. We were right there and could have won the game. Too many mistakes on in-bounds plays. The unforced turnover at the end when Ricky McPhee was trying to set up for a three, and Dustin Ware expected him to attack the basket, was critical.

R&B

We're within Three

Late in the game. 65 to 62. Under four minutes. We have the ball. Can we steal this one?

McPhee has missed a few three-pointers. Any one of them could have been clutch. We had the key throw-away when McPhee got behind them. That was huge. But the key to the entire game was the referee calling the lane violation on the missed one-and-one. When have you ever seen a call like that in an important game?

UGA Up One at Half

Score: 35 to 34. Our kind of game.

They're 0 of 9 from behind the arc.

Cut off the turnovers and they will get nervous, tight, pressure-filled.

Let's close it out.

Dawgs up Three

Game is slow-paced. Just how we want it. Their big guys are starting to get some fouls called on them. Thompkins is going to the line and knocking them down.

The zone has them a little tentative on their shots. As I posted a couple of days ago, we need to make their guards prove to us that they can shoot. Play the drive and make them shoot over the top.

Thompkins is cleaning the glass. If we stop giving them lay-ups, we will win.