Up next, Auburn Tigers

Big game for the hoops team tomorrow, 1:30 on SECN, which means Peachtree TV for those in the ATL area. Simply put, this is a must win and if we lose, I really do fear our season is over, that is NCAA chances. This is the worst team in our conference, watched them play some last night and they really just don't have any outstanding players. They trailed by 13 at the half to Tenn, playing without Scotty Hopson. They played them even in the second half. Now, in fairness to AU, they were playing without their center Rob Chubb, who is 6'10" and 222lbs-pretty skinny but averages 8pts and 4 rebounds a game. If you look at their starters, they are led by Earnest Ross, a 6'5" guard who averages 12.5 pts a game and 6.9 rebounds. Next up is Andre Malone, also 6'5" guard averaging 11.7pts and 3.4 rebounds. Kenny Gabriel is a forward, at 6'8 who averages 9.5 pts and 6.4 boards a game, and finally, Frankie Sullivan a 6'1 guard averaging 8pts and 3 assists per game. Auburn has a deep bench, actually, I can't even tell who the starters are because the minutes are so spread out. Anyway, they do play 11 guys 13 minutes or more WOW. Besides Chubb, they have one other player at 6'9", all the rest mostly being in the 6'5" range. They have a kid we actively recruited, Josh Langford who averages 5 pts and 2 boards a game averaging about 15 minutes a game. So, you would typically think we would have an advantage with them playing the late game last night and then having to play us early on Saturday, but clearly depth is not a concern for Auburn. Quality of player might be a bigger concern. This is a game where again I think Trey should have a lot of success as should Price and Barnes. They have some guys about the same height but don't have the bulk at all. We need to come out as we have in most of our victories-strong and take control because when you play an inferior opponent, the longer you let them hang around the more chance they have of stealing the win.

As for players to watch out for, I think you have to go with Malone first off because he is averages nearly 12 a game but he is shooting 44% percent from three point land. Granted, he has not taken as many shots as Gabriel and Ross but his percentage is really good. Ross and Malone and Sullivan are all good FT shooters, each at 77% or higher so fouling the guards will not be a good move late in the game if it comes to that. If you look at this team and their record, again, this is a game simply can't lose-it would KILL us in so many ways. AU is 8-14, 1-7 in the SEC, course that one win did come last weekend @SCarolina. They had one very quality win this year, at home against FSU-yep, the team that beat Duke a few weeks back. But if you look at their losses, especially non conference, you just simply have to shake you head. They lost the following games at HOME non conference-UNC Asheville, Samford, Campbell, Jacksonville, Presbyterian, also road games at Rutgers and South Florida. In confernce, course I mentioned the win @SCarolina but they have lost at home to LSU, UF and Tenn-course we also lost to two of those three at home as well, on the road losses to Kentucky, Miss State and Arkansas. This will be a game that we should handle, as I mentioned before, it should be along the lines of the home win against Miss State, although AU is not nearly as talented as Miss State in my opinion. But, if we play lousy basketball, as we did at times against both UK and Ark our last two games out, this game could be a struggle. Hopefully we take care of business and a lot of our reserves get some quality playing time.

Another day, another coach leaves our staff, this time it is LB coach Warren Belin who spent just one year in Athens. In this case, he is still going to be a LB coach but in the "league" and also going back to North Carolina which is where he is from. I imagine he will get a pay raise as well-so congrats to Coach Belin and best wishes for the future, just hope his team losses twice to the Falcons next year. So now we have two coaches to hire, I would assume the OL coach will be hired within the next day or several days. LB coach in maybe a week or two. Coach Richt should have more time now that recruiting is over to interview candidates. Interesting to read that the leading candidate might be this guy-

http://uabsports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/friend_will00.html

Not so sure I like this one but then again, we didn't know who the heck Brian Van Gorder was when he was hired 11 years ago so have to trust CMR. I was not a fan of Neil Callaway when he was at UGA, but after Searels, maybe I was a bit too hard on Neil?? Time will tell but per Seth Emerson, Richt is in NY at a clinic so a hire doesn't seem likely until Monday of next week most likely.

One last recruiting note, of course tomorrow John Jenkins will sign his letter of intent. Most believe he is a UGA lock, this again from Emerson's blog, courtesy of the the once Bulldog beat writer Mark Schlabach, who projects UGA as 18th in his very early preseason top 25.

The Bulldogs remain in the hunt for juco defensive tackle Jonathan Jenkins, who will sign with either UGA or Florida on Saturday and could be the key to coordinator Todd Grantham's 3-4 scheme. Georgia plays only three true road games (at Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt) and plays Boise State in Atlanta and Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.

Per Schlabach, the first two teams on UGA's schedule next year, he has Boise at #8 and SCarolina #15. So, very interesting start to the season, but we already knew that didn't we.