The Search for Uga VIII

The Seiler's are waiting on two litters sired by UGA VII to sort through candidates for the Uga VIII job. If the puppy they choose is still...well...too much of a puppy for the first game, then Russ might get a few more early season games.

Why do I imagine a scene out of the Lion King when I read this article?

PWD

Bobo: Last year "lit a fire in everybody"

What was missing with last season's football team more than anything else? A massive sense of urgency. That's why this comment by Bobo is so important to me:

“We’ve had change. We’ve had turnover. We struggled last year. Eight and five. But sometimes that’s good: You need to be on the fire. And I think it’s lit a fire in everybody.”

Then again, talk is cheap. When have we not heard that "this is the best off season in our history." Let's see some of that GATA on the field. Starting this spring.

PWD

Gut Wrenching

I was at last night's heart breaker in Nashville. What can you say other than we're very, very close very, very often. Damn. As Quinton texted me post game, when the best free throw shooter on your team misses two and the worst three point shooter on their team makes one all at the end, that's pretty much not your night.

On the bright side, I did talk to the extended family of one of our players who raved about Mark Fox and the progress the team is making week to week. On the downside, I also accidentally popped off about another player in ear shot of his mom. Doh. Been a while since I put my foot in my mouth with a player's parent.

Regardless of how last night went, I do love our chances against the Gators on Saturday, and I think we have a reasonable shot at beating LSU in Baton Rouge the following weekend. As a buddy said, that would put us as the #6 seed in the East with likely Ole Miss in Game 1 and Vanderbilt in Game 2.

Given that we smoked Vandy at home, and lost by 1 point in Overtime on the road...a neutral site battle looks like a manageable situation for us.

See Also:
-- Overtime Not Friendly - RnB
-- Vanderbilt's Rally - Tennessean

PWD

wow

So...there's this
http://bit.ly/c3nnSf

Spring can't get here fast enough.

Profiles in Hope: Basketball Stats

As of Feb. 20th, here are some SEC Stats of note that may encourage you:

SEC Stats

Category	Rank
Free Throw Percentage	1st
Field Goal Percentage	3rd
3-Point FG Percentage	1st
3-Point FGs Made	11th
Rebounding Margin	2nd

Georgia spent the bulk of the past six years pissing away opportunities at the free throw line only to make a complete turnaround this year. To me that proves that free throw shooting is simply a question of emphasis. Travis Leslie's FT percentage jumped ~20 points in one year, and he's not alone.

The FG and 3-point FG shooting percentage is interesting to me because it suggests we're taking better shots, and we're picking our spots better. That offsets some of my concerns about being 11th in the league in scoring. Those stats suggests that talented players will get their looks for Coach Fox. It speaks to efficiency.

The rebounding margin is another positive all of our real contributors in the rebounding area should return next season.

However, there are some stats where we're not exactly jumping off the page...until you look closer at the numbers.

Category	Rank
Assists	7th
Steals	9th
Turnovers	11th
Turnover Margin	12th
Assists to Turnover	11th
Assists / FG Attempt	1st
Assists / FG Made	2nd

The turnover situation clearly is the biggest issue on this team, but it's followed closely by the lack of steals. Both issues are caused by the lack of athleticism and depth at the guard positions. This is an area where Gerald Robinson, Jr. should help address immediately.

If you cut the turnovers by just two per game, the team would move from outrageously bad in that category to just mediocre. That's not asking too much. A two turnover/game difference based on our field goal percentage would suggest adding two more points to the scoring average. Add one more steal per game, and you're talking reducing the other team's scoring total by roughly one per game...again based on their FG percentage.

How big is that three point swing? The Bulldogs lost the following squeakers this year:

Wofford by 3
Ole Miss by 4
Mississippi State by 3
South Carolina by 1
Arkansas by 4

If we had won 4 of those 5 games, we would be sitting here at 16-9 overall and 7-5 in SEC...ie on the bubble instead of 12-13 and 4-8 in league play.

I posted the assists per make and attempt to show that the offensive improvement with Fox is staggering, and we're definitely getting good looks created by ball and player movement. We just need to upgrade our quickness and handles with the ball. That's why so many folks are so excited about adding Robinson next year. Or as Ricky McPhee told UGASports.com:

"[Robinson] helps us out with the scout team, getting us prepared for each team we play. I'm really impressed with what he brings," McPhee said. "I really think he'd give Devin Downey a run for his money for quickness."

If Richy is right, we're not that far off.

PWD

Momentum for Hoops?

With Georgia's victory over Alabama, the team has now won 3 of the past 5 games in SEC play, and it has four overall SEC wins. This is the closest thing to in conference momentum on the win-loss ledger that we've seen the faux progress post-tornado at the SEC Tourney in 2008.

The regular season SEC win totals for Coach Felton's final few seasons were:

2009 = 3-13 (two by Coach Hermann post DF termination)
2008 4-12
2007 8-8
2006 5-11
2005 2-14 (how we ever won two is a miracle)
2004 7-9

With four games remaining, Mark Fox has a realistic shot at posting 5 or 6 regular season conference wins for the first time since 2007. Six wins would mean that we posted a better record in Year 1 than we did in four of Felton's six seasons. If you're looking for progress, there you go.

Also, a win at Vanderbilt (which is highly unlikely given how well they are playing and what a house of horrors that is for us) would be our first back to back SEC wins since 2007.

See Also:
-- Playing hard for the fans - Red and Black
-- Another Rally - ABH
-- Game proves Fox's progress - Ching
-- Great to be a Bulldog on a Saturday Night - AJC
-- Thompkins leads UGA to win - DawgPost

Dawgs Face Baptist Bears Tomorrow

The 2010 Georgia baseball season gets underway tomorrow in Waco, Texas when your Diamond Dawgs confront the angry baseball bears of Baylor.  Justin Grimm will be on the bump.  Walters will go Saturday against Duke and Palazzone and Hawkins will pitch a Sunday doubleheader against those same two teams.  As we've discussed, this year's team looks like it will be heavy on pitching and defense, but light on dingers.

Tomorrow's starting lineup could have four freshmen: C Brett DeLoach, 2B Todd Hankins, SS Kyle Farmer, and the DH Kevin Ruiz or Zach Taylor.  Taylor, Cone, and Verdin will be in the outfield.  Chase Davidson will play first and May will be at third.  That'll be one of the youngest opening day lineups in Georgia history with four freshmen and five sophomores.  Levi Hyams is likely to return to second after our first six games.  I'll bet the infield starters are very fluid all week and we might see a different combination every game.

This year's team starts off at #22 in the preseason Baseball America poll and was picked to finish third in the East by the SEC coaches.  Baseball America also has us as a two seed in the Tech regional in their projections for the field of 64, so take that to the bank.

Quinton

Basketball Headlines

Coach Fox's squad faces Tennessee tonight at 8:00 pm in Knoxville.  Here are some headlines leading up to the game:
-- Mark Fox's relationship with UNC's Roy Williams - AJC
-- Fox makes free throws a point of emphasis - ABH
-- Road Wins could extend UGA's season - Hale
-- Bench to help Dawgs - RnB
-- Vols may shuffle their line-up - Knoxville News

By the way, I saw a message board comment that Coach Fox said during a recent Bulldog Hotline that he likes his chances of getting a future home and home with UNC.  He scheduled Roy Williams' teams when Fox was at Nevada so it seems possible.

Tubby was the last coach to book UNC in the regular season, and he got us a 2 for 1 with the #1 ranked Heels rolling into Athens in Jirsa's first year after Tubby left.  Helluva a game with Georgia taking Vince Carter, Antoine Jamison and Jerry Stackhouse into overtime. Sadly, that was Jirsa's last and only flirtation with greatness. Fun game though.

PWD

Hoops Recruiting: 4 Star Officially Visits UGA

Dwayne Polee (6'6" and 180 lbs) is a big time small forward from California who is currently on an official visit at UGA per Dan McDonald of UGAsports.com. Polee (2010 class) original committed to Southern Cal, but backed out after the NCAA sanctions were announced.

You can see his athleticism in the mix tape above. I'd wager that Travis Leslie's SportCenter highlight packages may have helped us with this high-flyer who also has offers from Arizona, Oregon, UNLV and others.

See Also:
-- DWayne Polee Profile - Rivals.com
-- DWayne Polee Profile - Scout.com

PWD

Georgia Topples South Carolina

Georgia overcame a 10 point Gamecocks lead with nine minutes remaining to beat South Carolina at home by five. Georgia has twice been on the receiving end of a 15 point swing like that, and it's nice to be delivering those sort of punches for a change.

Georgia was lead by Trey Thompkins' 21 points and 10 rebounds, but it was Jeremy Price's 33 minute, 16 point, 7 rebound and only two turnovers that pushed Georgia over the top. UGAsports.com has a premium article up about Price's big night as does Charles Odum.

When Georgia only turns the ball over 10 times, they are a very tough out for anyone. Especially at home. Combine that with a 19-7 foul advantage and a 23 to 6 free throw attempt advantage, and that's a W.

It'll be interesting to see how many recruits were at this game and what their reaction was. So far, the 2011 recruits seem to be slowly warming up to the program and the CLEAR difference in Athens.

PWD

Tonight's Game

As of Friday night, we were within about 700 seats of a sellout. We need folks to brave the cold and show up. Its all about momentum for future recruiting at this point.

Go Dawgs.

Damn

I was there. It was worse in person. I'm certainly no stranger to watching bad basketball, but the effort was a joke. The season overall is still an improvement, and we're still heading generally in the right direction.

We've generally done a good job of hustling in the losses. That's why the games were so close. This team isn't good enough to not hustle.

But last night wasn't a step forward. I have nothing positive to say about it. The effort was ridiculously poor. I will say that Trey got rooked on his last two fouls. Beyond that, what a wasted opportunity. Fox will have to move them forward from this, but it was a frustrating night to be a Dawg fan.

PWD

The Wow Dawg hits the Road

Tonight, Georgia faces Auburn on the road at 9:00 pm on CSS. It will be the last time the Dawgs play at Auburn's old gym. As I said earlier in the week, it's one of our two best shots at a road win on the season. The other being the finale against an LSU team that's inexplicably bad and winless in the SEC.

If Georgia wants to participate in any sort of post-season tourney, this is a must win. We have to get 16 wins to make the NIT, CBI, CIT or any other tourney. Fletcher Page of the Macon Telegraph talks about the need for a road breakthrough. I think Felton had 7 or 8 wins on an opponent's home court in 5.5 seasons. To say that we have limited success outside the State of Georgia would be a gross understatement. But this is as winnable as it gets.

Luckily, we're bringing Travis Leslie and his Cavalcade of Wow to The Plains. Check out the AJC's profile on Travis' growth and development. Also, check out the ABH's piece to get the skinny on Vincent Williams (pun very much intended).

Oh...and you ain't gonna believe today's Game Day Trick Shots from Connor Nolte and Gerald Robinson, Jr. Damn.

See Also:
-- Profiles in Hope: Travis Leslie
-- Travis Leslie the basketball player - DawgsOnline

PWD

Make that 4 ranked teams the Dawgs have beaten?

Georgia defeated Illinois at Gwinnett Arena back in December. That win looks better by the minute. The Fighting Illini are now 17-8 overall and tied for first place in the Big Ten at 9-3 after beating #11 Wisconsin in Madison last night. It was the first loss at home for the Badgers on the season. (ht - MonkDawgs Bro)

Illinois' RPI is still only 65 due to a ridiculously low strength of schedule, but they get #16 Ohio State at home on Sunday. Win that game, and they'll likely be ranked. Giving UGA four wins over ranked teams this year.

We have the quality wins...now we need quantity.

PWD

NCAA Tournament Expansion

Typically the NCAA Tourney expansion talk is driven by coaches who are almost always on the bubble. They want expansion because going from 65-96 teams will add girth to the middle of the field...not the bottom.

The other reason is TV revenue. A 96 team tourney is too big for CBS to cover, and they would need help from ESPN to televise it all. Neither of those are good reasons for expansion to me.

But this piece by Andy Katz actually references an interesting point beyond self preservation and money.

Of course, I could be totally wrong, if the NCAA pushes through the idea that it already has 97 teams in the postseason (since it runs the 32-team NIT). The NIT television contract ends after this season, so that is still a curveball in these discussions. The NCAA could always do a bridge deal with the NIT and ESPN again to get it through the next round of negotiations for television partners in 2014 and beyond. (Emphasis added)

The NCAA acquired the NIT a few years ago. An argument could be made that the NCAA doesn't need a second class tourney when it could make its members much happier by rolling those same teams into the big dance.

Personally, I think it simply dilutes the quality of the flagship product, but it's an interesting take. Apply that logic to the bowls and a playoff. You could easily see the NCAA starting with a 4, then 8 and then 16 team play off and then saying...."Well, we already have a post season for 68 teams (34 bowls), why not expand the tournament to 32, 48 or 64 teams?"

It's the same argument as the NIT take above.

PWD

Kwame Geathers Profile

If you're a Scout.com subscriber, check out this article on Kwame Geathers by David Hale. It talks about the transformation his body has undergone after showing up absurdly and shockingly out of shape last year at 355 lbs. He was so badly out of shape from a cardiovascular standpoint that he couldn't run a *half* gasser to the 50 yard line when he arrived. Damn.

He's now down to 310, and feeling great. He's making it happen in the weight room, and he's ready for ball. Good for him and the strength guys for turning the kid's body and football future around.

PWD

Baseball TV Schedule Released

The SEC released the baseball TV schedule today.  The Dawgs are fairly represented on the slate.  The entire LSU series will be on the tube, but you'll have to tune into three different networks for the three different games.  Parts of the Vandy, Arkansas and Florida weekends are also slated for broadcast.  

It's good to see college baseball getting some serious TV coverage.  The ESPN deal surely helped, as the Dawgs will make appearances on ESPNU and ESPN2 during the season.  Plus, all games that aren't broadcast on ESPNU will be on ESPN360.

Quinton

Profiles in Hope: Gerald Robinson

(from Connor Nolte's Passer'sRemorse.com)

During the off season, I frequently used my typical joke about Georgia basketball. "We're only two players away...Shaq and Kobe." Actually, now that I think about it...that might be an adaptation of a very old Dantzler line from Harrick's first season.

In reality, we're probably not two players away from being a tourney team right now. The wins over ranked Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Georgia Tech (plus an Illinois team that will likely be ranked by tonight) show this team in its current construction can beat anyone on any given night. The painfully close losses at Kentucky, at Mississippi State and at home vs. Arkansas and Ole Miss further reinforce that we could be much closer than I anticipated.

Maybe we're only one player away. Maybe that player is an experienced ball handling handling guard who can create his own shot, break the press and perform under pressure. Fox thinks we've got that guy now in Gerald Robinson, transfer from Tennessee State.

In an interview last week with UGASports.com he said this about Gerald Robinson:

"For instance if we had Gerald Robinson and he did not have to sit out we would have five, six or seven more wins," Fox said. "That's a lot to put on one kid, but we've had a lot of single possession or two possession outcomes where an experienced, a guard with some quickness and some athleticism , the ability to score and break down a defense, would make a huge difference in our team, but the reality is we don't have him for another year."

Robinson, who started both his years at Tennessee State, averaged 15.2 points as a freshman and 17.8 as a sophomore, going over the 1,000-point mark in his season finale at the school.

He led the Tigers in every major statistical category his sophomore season.

How good is Robinson? The scuttlebutt around the program preseason suggested that he was the second best player on the roster. Even today, the rumblings and whispers are all extremely positive.

Here are some of his stats against BCS opposition while at Tennessee State:

Freshman Year:
at Georgia Tech: 24 pts / 3 steals (his 2nd college basketball game)
at Indiana: 7 pts and 3 steals
at Vandy: 24 pts and 5 rebounds
at Illinois: 9 pts and 2 steals (TTU won this game)

Sophomore Year:
at Alabama: 15 pts, 7 rebounds and 5 steals
at Kentucky: 25 pts, 5 rebounds and 3 steals
at Georgia Tech: 16 pts and 5 assists

Additionally, he'll have the advantage of practicing the Triangle Offense for a year and getting familiar with SEC opposition via his role as The Leading Scorer for the "Best Scout Team in America(TM)...according to walk-on Connor Nolte.

We just need Trey to do the right thing this off season and stick around for his junior year.



As for this season...if the Dawgs are ever going to figure how to win a game on the road in the SEC, it should be at Auburn on Wednesday night. The Tigers aren't a very good team, and their fans are passionately ambivalent towards their b-ball program. Win on the plains and we have a chance to take three in a row with the Gamecocks coming to town on Saturday.

See Also:
-- Dawgs will be tough out in the SEC Tourney - Legge
-- Fox ranks among the SEC's Best - Ching

PWD

*Note the videos don't support my thesis that he's going to help us next year. They are just cool. For more gameday trick shot videos, follow Connor Nolte on Twitter.

About the new LB Coach Warren Belin

Yesterday, Georgia added Warren Belin to the coaching staff as a linebackers coach. He joins us from Vanderbilt where he was linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator. David Hale has a great write up on his resume, but it's this reaction from a Vandy blogger that intrigues me more.

Belin was with Bobby Johnson for the past eight years and helped develop linebackers Hunter Hillenmeyer, Marcus Buggs, Moses Osemwegie, Jonathan Goff, Patrick Benoist and now Chris Marve. If you're a Georgia fan and don't recognize those names, let's just say that all those guys were two-star recruits who developed into All-SEC players under Coach Belin's tutelage. Most of those guys are playing or will play in the NFL...

...Imagine what Belin can do with four- and five-star talent, if those guys are willing to learn and achieve their potential.

A very solid hire as a recruiter with ties to Atlanta and North Georgia, and a good teacher of the game.

PWD

Profiles in Hope: Travis Leslie

At the end of the day, sports teams at every level are in the business of selling hope. Hope for a national title, hope for a conference championship, hope for beating a rival or hope for watching an exciting game.

While the won-loss record for this year's basketball team isn't what we'd like, there are plenty of signs of hope for the future. Not the least of which is the extraordinary progress being shown by Travis Leslie. Last year, he only averaged 6.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game while shooting 57.5% from the free throw line. And he missed the last month of the season because of academic problems.

This year, he's averaging 14.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists per game while shooting 76.8% from the free throw line...and his academic house is in order. More importantly, his stats are NOT built on the backs of the early season cupcakes.

As the schedule has gotten tougher,
Travis Leslie's numbers have accelerated upwards.

Obviously, Leslie's natural abilities are considerable, but it's his ability to play within the system and grow his game that gives me considerable hope for Coach Fox's ability to develop players. Something that was lacking for the past 6 years.

The Dawgs host #18 Vandy tonight at 8:00 pm on Fox Sports South, and I really like our chances. Get to Stegeman if you can.

BTW -- I couldn't find the data to chart ESPN Plays of the Week per month, but that chart would look even more like a hockey stick than anything above.

See Also:
-- Gameday Trick Shot - Conner Nolte (walk-on)
-- Coffee is for closers - ABH
-- Crowds matter more in basketball - Dog in Exile

PWD

After thinking about recruiting for a few days....

My opinion is more mixed and baffled by this class than it originally was. On the one hand, I'm a big fan of this defensive class. I think we addressed needs, and there are kids who are more ideally suited for the 3-4 than the 4-3.

I'm also not all concerned with most of the kids who got away. More on that later. Regardless, I'm happier with the defense than most because I think it's an elite group.

What I don't get is the offensive in state recruits from this class. How do you miss out on the top QB, RB, WR and OT in state all in the same year? Kolton Houston (OG) is the only top player at his position we inked. How is that possible? I've been following UGA recruiting pretty closely since the 1997 season, and I don't even remember a class so shallow when it comes to in state offensive talent.

The crazy thing to me....all the coaching instability was on the defensive side of the ball. We were entrenched and solid on the offensive side...and the puzzling stuff is all isolated to one side of the ball where we had the most margin for error. Granted there is some territorial / geographic overlap from offense to defense, but still. It's mystifying.

The good news. This is the only UGA recruiting class under Richt that has been such a train wreck, and it's also the only 5 loss season. If Murray/Mett and Grantham improve their respective roles vs. last year's struggles, we'll should be back on the right track in recruiting and organizational momentum.

But I still can't fathom what went happened with this class offensively in state.

For a good read on what went wrong, check out Legge's Recruiting Manifesto. I don't agree with all the causality in his post, but I do think he makes some very legit points about the 2011 class.

*Update: I will say this after being challenged on the issue. It's very hard for me to say who was better at QB in this class in state than Mason. It was a very thin year for QBs in state.

PWD

Learning to win ain't easy

The basketball team suffered another heart breaker against Arkansas last night losing 72-68. The Dawgs had a 15 point lead at the half after holding the Razorbacks to 22 first half points. Unfortunately, the wheels fell off defensively in the second half as the Dawgs surrendered 50 points. Without question, it was the worst defensive half of basketball of the season.

Offensively, the team struggled to break the Arkansas press as the game wore on. Some of that was due to the lack of ball handlers on the team, and some of it is due to a lack of depth. I thought Ricky McPhee was going to drop dead from exhaustion in the game. The depth problems were compounded by Ebuka sitting out the game due to a suspension of sorts from Coach Fox for "not doing what he was supposed to do on the first day of class."

Defensively, the problem was effort and intelligence. They played very badly. Not the sort of badly that you can entirely excuse away due to depth. The sort of badly that drives coaches to drinking. Fox was livid post-game regarding the effort.

The good news...they are competing in these games, and independent of the record they are playing dramatically better basketball than I thought they would be capable of playing this season. In 7 SEC games this season, they've been in a position to win it with 1 minute remaining six times. The other good news is that another SEC caliber guard is on the roster ready to join the team next year when Gerald Robinson is cleared to play from his transfer. The bad news...they still have to learn to win. And that's no small thing.

See Also:
-- Fading late - ABH
-- Box Score - Sportsline

PWD

Signing Day Coverage

Today, I'm reading Hale's blog for signing day coverage.

I know I haven't blogged much lately, but I'm not into the pre-signing day recruiting nonsense...and neither is Quinton. The idea of posting about the will he won't he daily saga of Da'Rick Rogers, and then reading a bunch of conspiracy theory comments about his quasi-guardian Mr. Nance is totally unappealing to me. I'm going to the basketball game tonight after work, and I'll try and post some things after.

As for this recruiting class, there's a lot of talent in it. It would be a shame to focus almost exclusively on the kids we didn't get.

PWD

PING! Baseball is Back

Baseball practice started last week in Athens.  While I'm not complaining because I love college baseball, there's something weird about baseball practice in January and games in February.  At least cold baseball is coming to rescue me from heartbreaking basketball losses and the swift, clean gravity of the gymnastics program returning to Earth.

So what's the outlook this year?  It's an even year, so you should book a flight to Omaha, right?  Slow down.  This year's team should be long on arms and short on bats.  Perno has acknowledged that we haven't replaced the big bats lost to graduation and the draft last year.  Signee Miles Head was going to be a big bat to replace Massanari, but he opted for the pros.  So, offensively, we'll need fewer Ks (how can we have more than last year?), a higher average, and must produce runs rather than wait for a bomb.  It will be National League baseball, rather than American League whacking.

The rotation sets up well.  Justin Grimm should be the Friday night starter.  Jeff Walters and Michael Palazzone will likely round out the weekend rotation.  Alex McRee will start in the bullpen, perhaps as a set up man for closer Cecil Tanner.  McRee was a weekend starter for most of last year, but had some control issues that forced him back to the pen.  Both of those bullpen guys had their issues last year and location is key for both.  Both, when on, can be filthy. 

Those pitchers should benefit from a fast, athletic outfield that will gobble up some outs.  Johnathan Taylor, Zach Cone, and Peter Verdin might be the best defensive outfield in UGA history.  Taylor was awesome during last year's nonconference schedule, but disappeared during the SEC slate.  He might be the key man at the top to help produce runs with speed.  

The season starts in Waco, Texas on February 19.  The first game at Foley Field is February 24 against Presbyterian.  

Quinton