Georgia Basketball Update

On the recruiting front:

• As you already know, earlier in the week Tim Dixon committed to UGA. Dixon is listed as a 3 star player by Rivals.com, and he was arguably one of the top two centers in the state before he transferred to a Florida high school to work on his academics and strength.  Dan McDonald of UGAsports.com describes him as a long kid (6'10") with good feet and hands, and a decent mid-range jumper.  His weakness is clearly strength as he's only about 215 lbs.  He's got 13 months to add at least 15 pounds of muscle to that frame before he gets to campus. The commitment

• Dixon's commitment is significant because many quality power forwards don't want to play the center position in college.  Why? As Jim Harrick once said of Jumaine Jones' decision to leave for the NBA (paraphrase): "He didn't want to get elbowed in the neck, and that would've happened if we had to play him at the five spot."  Julian Royal, the elite power forward at Milton High School, should be comforted to know that we'll have a long big man to potentially play beside him. 

• On the strength of Dixon's commitment, Coach Fox's recruiting class for 2011 jumped to #16 in the nation in the latest ESPNU rankings.  If the Bulldogs close some of the elite prospects on the board, they could shoot dramatically higher.

• Nick Jacobs, a relative of former Bulldog defensive tackle David Jacobs, is still out there as an elite combo center / power forward.  Jacobs visited Athens last weekend, and he had a good time.  Jacobs is 6'9" and 250 lbs, and he would be an immediate starter for the Bulldogs at center during the 2011-2012 season.  

• Overall, UGA needs to sign at least two more kids to complement Dixon and Caldwell. I asked Dan McDonald last week, "Is it realistic that UGA could sign Caldwell, Dixon and the two remaining Milton kids (Royal and Dai-Jon Parker?)"  His response, "It's absolutely realistic to think UGA could sign those 4 guys." Although, he cautioned that Royal is still a UGA vs. GT toss-up and Parker is a bit of a wild card. Still encouraging to think we're still in the mix for such elite players.
  

On the TV front:

• The SEC and UGA have released more Television Information for the 2010-2011 season.  The Bulldogs should have 10 games televised by ESPN/2/U during the regular season.  We only had four such games last season.  We're also getting a CBS game this year.  Last year, CBS didn't sniff us.  You have to be on TV to land the big recruits.

Next season, I like our chances at going 12-2 non-conference.  I could see us going 2-1 in Orlando and then going 3-1 vs. Georgia Tech (road), Xavier (home), UAB (home) and Saint Louis (tricky early road game).  Non-conference the SEC West is so weak that I could see doing as well as 11-5 in the league if we develop more mental toughness and stay healthy.  But the SEC East is so strong, that might still only be good enough for third in the East.

Thoughts?

PWD