New Georgia Bulldog Video

Radi from UGASports.com says this will be the video played in game after the third quarter. Given that it's roughly four minutes long, I doubt that it'll be played in its full length. But it's good regardless.

Georgia Basketball Non-Conference Schedule (Updated)

Most of the Georgia Basketball Schedule is now clear. Here is the schedule as we believe it will pan out (Updated with more info at 6:19 pm. Added Nov. 4th preseason game and the Dec. 28th Charleston Southern game):

Nov. 4 (Thurs.) -- vs. Augusta State (EXHIBITION)
Nov. 12 (Fri.) -- vs. Mississippi Valley State (RPI: 325) (confirmed)

Nov. 16 (Tues.) -- vs. Colorado (RPI: 120) (confirmed)

Nov. 20 (Sat.) -- at Saint Louis (RPI: 87) (confirmed)

Nov. 25 (Thurs.) -- vs. Notre Dame (RPI: 49) in Orlando (confirmed)

Nov. 26 (Fri.) -- vs. Cal (RPI: 20) or Temple (RPI: 8) in Orlando (confirmed)

Nov. 28 (Sun) -- vs. TBD in Orlando (opponent based on bracket)

Dec. 3 (Fri.) -- vs. UAB (RPI: 45)

Dec. 7 (Tues.) -- at Georgia Tech (RPI: 33) (confirmed)

Dec. 18 (Sat.) -- vs. Arkansas State (RPI: 202)

Dec. 21 (Tues.) -- vs. High Point University (RPI: 254) (confirmed)

Dec. 23 (Thurs.) -- at Mercer (RPI: 221) (confirmed)

Dec. 28 (Tues.) -- vs. Charleston Southern (RPI: 285)
Dec. 31 (Fri.) -- vs. Eastern Kentucky (RPI: 155)

Feb. TBD -- vs. Xavier (RPI: 19) (opponent confirmed. Date TBD)

The information above is based on published reports or research by MemphisDog or myself. If the unconfirmed dates and opponents hold up, it's an exceptional slate for a couple of reasons.

1. Overall Strength -- Due to the bracket structure in Orlando, we will play 3 BCS teams there plus GT, Colorado and a Top 25 or so Xavier team. Six teams of that caliber in one season is exceptionally strong scheduling. When you add UAB at home, Saint Louis on the road and Mercer on the road (which softens the RPI blow of playing their squad), it's a very well structured group.

2. Weekend Non-Conference Games -- Last year was tough in terms of weekend scheduling. This year we get 4 games on Friday or Saturday at home plus 4 more games on the road/neutral on weekends or holidays. That makes it much easier to beef up attendance which is huge for the renovated Stegeman's seating.

3. It's an attention getter slate. -- There's more than enough juice to get pollster and pundit attention IF Georgia takes care of business. Last year, UGA got two games on ESPN or ESPN2 plus two more on ESPNU. This year I'm projecting 10-12 games on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU including SEC Play which is enormous for recruiting.

We're also hearing that the first SEC game will be Kentucky at home on a Saturday (hopefully at night). It's not unreasonable that we could be 11-2 going into that game, and the Cats lost seven players from last year's squad. Even if they replaced them all with rock stars, it will still be their first game on the road in SEC play.

This schedule presents an enormous opportunity for Georgia. The keys to next season will be can the team stay healthy? Can the team mentally mature enough to start winning on the road? Is Gerald Robinson as good as rumored?

The SEC slate should be released in a week or two.

What's your thought on this slate?

PWD

More Hoops Scheduling Rumors

Via the comments from earlier in the week, we're hearing rumblings of a possible game in Athens against Marshall. Last season the Thundering Herd's RPI was 67th and they went 11-6 in CUSA (including their league tournament). It's a decent RPI filler game.

On the other hand, Georgia will play Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 12th to open the season. This is the Friday Night before the Auburn road game. MVSU had an RPI of roughly eleventy billion (ok...325th out of 347th). They play an up tempo style, but they stink.

As a point of reference our buddy ScenicCityDawg pointed out that former Dawg Drazen Zlovaric rained down 16 points of awesomeness on these guys two years ago in Athens as part of a 41 point victory. Uhh....that was 35% of his total points over his two year UGA career.

It's not an ideal RPI match-up, but it's Game 1, and everyone plays a few of these bottom feeders.

Tentative Basketball Schedule:

Home:
Xavier
UAB
Marshall (rumored)
Arkansas State
Mississippi Valley State
Plus 3-5 more teams

Road:
Georgia Tech
Saint Louis

Neutral:
Notre Dame (confirmed)
Plus 2 more in Orlando

Any other rumors you're hearing? Let us know. MemphisDog will start working them. From what I've heard, we can eliminate Miami, Penn State, UNC and NC State from the rumor mill. Those are were all either non-starters despite the early rumors, or they fell apart during the process.

PWD

About Kentavious Caldwell's Recruitment

I regret being on the road so much lately and not sharing my full jumping up and down joy over Caldwell's commitment with you. I posted several things on Twitter at the time, and just wanted to share them with you here...finally. (Video - Caldwell goes for 43 points)

What We Are Getting
He falls into a category of player that Jim Harrick once labeled "guys that start shooting the moment they get off the bus." Coach Durham called guys like Caldwell "makers" instead of "shooters."

Basically, he's a guy with the confidence of J.J. Reddick, Chris Lofton or Dennis Scott. But he's got more natural athletic ability than those guys. He's not as athletic as Jarvis Hayes, Travis Leslie or Mike Mercer, but he's a capable athlete who can play some defense, create his own shot and bomb from outside and mid-range.

He needs to put on quite a bit of weight to handle more diverse body types of opponents because he's rail thin, but the potential is there. It's not an accident that ESPN, Scout and Rivals all listed him as a Top 10-15 player. This kid is truly special.

How We Got Here:
Thank you Lonnie Outlaw. When Outlaw signed on Signing Day, most Dawg fans scratched their head with a collective Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. The signing day value of Outlaw...and Kenarious Gates for that matter are...are more clear now. Mark Fox and Mark Richt were manufacturing momentum and leveraging some lucky breaks:

Lonnie Outlaw (WR) is related to Nick Marshall
Kenarious Gates (OT) high school bball teammate with Caldwell
Caldwell and Marshall are extremely close friends.
Clemson's basketball coach leaves.
Marcus Thornton (Mr. Basketball) leaves Clemson.
Georgia wins Thornton at last minute.
Georgia lands Marshall as two sport player.
Marshall and Thornton help us land Caldwell.

That's how you manufacture momentum by capitalizing on your lucky breaks and knowledge of relationships.

Good stuff.

About the NCAA Investigation

Image by Jim Hipple
Let's start with the basics here. I have it on decent authority beyond simply AJ Green's statement at SEC Media Days that he was in fact in South Carolina when the problematic party was happening in Miami. So that's good. That comes from someone in our network who personally saw him.

But let's get to the bigger issues at play here. This year the NCAA expanded its enforcement staff for men's basketball and football. Of particular interest are agents, runners and third parties that are funneling kids to different universities or funneling benefits to specific players prior to going pro. For a look at the special group of investigators going after basketball handlers pre-enrollment, you can view this NCAA presentation talking about what they are looking for.

Anyway, the NCAA is trying to reign in the spending pre and post enrollment on kids. If you actually read the Reggie Bush / OJ Mayo NCAA findings, it reads as a cautionary tale to other athletic departments. It's basically a warning shot to the rest of big-time basketball and football that the NCAA cops are coming.

The Marvin Austin / Miami Agent Party is simply the first high-profile opportunity to put that enforcement staff into action.

But why now? Why go after the cheating more now? One could argue that it's because there's more cheating going on. But I also wonder if the timing is also reflective of the upcoming NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NCAA wants to put pressure on the NFLPA and the NFL Owners (via bad PR related to agents/runners) to ban agents who tamper with players. Could the NCAA be trying to put that kind of language and conversation on the table as part of the negotiations?

Also, I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that not every state has Agent Tampering (wrong verbiage) laws like Florida does. After the Tank Black saga at UF in the 90s, the State of Florida legislature attached criminal penalties to agents who provide certain incentives to college athletes.

The current Miami Party investigation is sort of a perfect storm for the NCAA. A chance to flex it's expanded enforcement muscle pre-NFL negotiations in a state where there are harsher penalties for the alleged activities during a time where the college football writers are ramping their attention to the sport back up (pre-Media Days).

I think we walk away clean on this particular issue. But the NCAA is definitely looking for more opportunities to make examples of schools.

PWD

UGA vs. Notre Dame Scheduling News

Sorry for the tease. It's hoops...not football. As previously, announced Georgia basketball will play in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando during Thanksgiving break (Thurs, Friday and Sunday). The question had been...which of the 8 teams will the Dawgs face in those three games?

Thomas Noie of the South Bend Tribute says that UGA will open play on Thursday against Notre Dame (2010 RPI of 49th). If the brackets hold up, he says the winner gets Cal (20th ranked RPI) and then potentially Temple (8th ranked RPI). Wisconsin (21st ranked RPI), Boston College (125th ranked RPI, Texas A&M (13th ranked RPI) and Manhattan (226th ranked RPI) are also slated to appear in the tourney. Last year's RPI info from RealTimeRPI.com. (ht - WeAreND)

As long as UGA wins the first game against ND, it should get three pretty strong RPI games in Orlando. The only bad scenario is a first round loss followed by a weak RPI game against Manhattan.

Rumors:
In other hoops scheduling news and rumors, we're hearing that Georgia's road trip to Saint Louis to play Rick Majerus' squad may take place on Saturday, Nov. 20th. This is a bye week for Georgia football, and the Atlanta Falcons will play the Rams on Sunday, Nov. 21st. This isn't confirmed yet, but MemphisDog has it on good authority.

We're also hearing that UGA has one more home game to fill before the schedule is announced. The Dawgs are looking for a quality opponent to fill that last spot. Currently the slate of known games are:

Home:
Xavier (Feb. 2011)
UAB
Arkansas State (ht - MemphisDog)

Away:
Georgia Tech
Saint Louis

Neutral Games:
3 games Old Spice Tourney (See above)

Get a quality non-conference game in there at home, and it's a killer schedule. Thoughts on that slate?

PWD

Da'Rested

I have been all over this on twitter all day. Wasn't in a position for most of the day to access this site. Have been having a blast with the idiocy of this story.

On Twitter the guy you need to be following is Wes Rucker. He's the Vol beat writer for the Chattanooga Free Press. He broke the story last night, and he's been all over it all day.

PWD