So, the Lady Dogs basketball team tonight looks to make the sweet 16 with a game against #3 seed FSU at 9:30. If they should win, they would meet the winner between Rutgers or Texas A&M-who is the #2 seed in the regional, that game would be played in Dallas. Tonight should be a real challenge for the Lady Dogs trying to stop 6'4" Cierra Bravard from FSU. UGA is trying to reach the sweet 16 for the second straight year and has an all time 7-0 record against FSU. That of course doesn't matter for the game tonight, FSU obviously is a very good team and is 4-0 against SEC opponents this year, including wins over Auburn, Alabama, Vandy and Florida. The Lady Dogs were beat by Auburn and Vandy I know for a fact.
Today is the second day of spring football in Athens-also pro day for 14 potential pro prospects. The list of course includes AJ Green and Justin Houston but also Clint Boling, Josh and Chris Davis, Kiante Tripp, Shaun Chappas, Darryle Gamble, Akeem Dent, Vance Cuff, Demarcus Dobbs, Kris Durham, Chad Gloer and Derek Rich. Good luck to these guys, hope they impress the scouts but you have to wonder, what does the future hold for these guys trying for the NFL-even the 1st round guys like Green and Houston. They left school early to begin their careers in the NFL and now the lockout happens. I think everyone is confident that some sort of agreement will be settled by the summer, or certainly by the early fall, but these guys are really in limbo because even though they will be drafted next month, they will not be able to sign their contracts, the team that drafts them are really just drafting rights to them. They also will not participate in the spring/summer camps that all NFL teams have to get the rookies in and start learning the playbook etc. Now, I assume the top guys like AJ will get $$ from his agent to take care of him until all gets resolved but for the other guys, it has to be tough. You get the feeling that one of the issues that will certainly be resolved in this process is the rookie pay scale. This means guys like AJ, top 10 picks, are likely to make far less than guys that came out just last year. Of course I think the rookie cap is LONG overdue because you just can't justify a guy that has never taken a snap in the NFL making more money than veteran players that have been around for years.
Of course as I mentioned, spring football gets going again today now that spring break is over. For me, spring break is the first week of April, but college schedule is different than that of Gwinnett County Pubic schools. Anyhow, the guys will practice today, Thursday and again Saturday this week. Weather should be outstanding. Let' hope we don't hear about any problems that happened during spring break 2011. Spring break 2010 was NOT a good time, first Zach Mettenberger which we did find out about pretty quickly, then the AJ Green jersey which I think really kill our season last year-win a couple of those games early, you never know what kind of season you have.
Also going on today in Athens, the baseball team will host bitter rivals Georgia Tech. Hopefully the Diamond Dogs can rebound from the series loss in Columbia and smack around the bumble bees, it can't be worse than last years embarrassing loss in Athens, 25-6. Like I have said before, one thing that does have me encouraged about our baseball team this year, the pitching appears MUCH better than last year-not that it would be hard to be better but still, it gives me hope that this team has a shot. We have already likely faced one of the toughest teams we will face, on the road last weekend. We do have LSU this weekend, another talented team but there is no doubt, due to Coach Perno's early season schedule, we will not be intimidated by playing quality opponents, we have been there and done that. Tonight will be the 11th game UGA will play against ranked opponents in 21 games this season. By comparison, GT has not played a single ranked team yet. Still, GT is ranked, is 17-4 and always has a very good team-a win tonight would be very nice.
The UGA gymnastics team will host a regional in Athens April 2nd. The Gymdogs are ranked #8 in the country and will try to qualify for the national championship which this year will be in Cleveland, Ohio. Obviously the gymnastics program has been one of the most successful in the nation for years, but now that Coach Yoculan has retired, it seems the program has taken a dip. Last year was a disappointment and this year the jury is out but it does appear our program is not quite on the same level as our main SEC rival, Alabama. Now UF is up there as well, of course you also have Utah as well. Let's hope the ladies can have a great regional and the surprise us and win another national title.
Bruce Pearl, the basketball coach at Tennessee was fired yesterday-about time. The guy is just plain slimy and when you lie to the NCAA, you are just asking to be fired. Funny thing is, years ago he was involved in taping an Illinois coach illegially recruiting and now he gets canned for illegal recruiting. Funny how that worked out. You have to wonder what impact this has on current and future UT players. I have read that Tobias Harris, the very talented FR would ask for his release if Pearl is fired, also recruit from the ATL Kevin Ware supposedly has already asked for his release. At this point, who knows what direction UT will go for a replacement but you have to wonder what coach will take that job considering the NCAA cloud that hangs over Knoxville, with the Pearl and Kiffin double whammy. Speaking of those two, sure would make sense for UT to fire Mike Hamilton, the AD that made both hires, the guy that also decided to basically say Pearl would be fired two days before the NCAA tourney-what an IDIOT that guy is. From what I have heard, the firing of Pearl was a decision made by the president, and passed down to Hamilton-which means to me the president of UT is maybe sick of his AD-have to see how that plays out.
Finally, of course there has been a lot of talk about AJ Green's wonderlic score. While I guess it does have some merit for NFL to use it, I refuse to buy into the scores being anything more than just a number. I can't see how that test can tell you how hard a kid will work, how much football skill he has, what kind of teammate he will be, basically anything to do with playing ability. I compare it to SAT tests to be honest, because I feel those tests don't tell the truth on whether a kid is college material or college ready. I use myself as an example, never going to win any high intelligence awards BUT smart enough to get a college degree-why, because of my work ethic primarily. If just based on my SAT scores, I would have had to take remedial classes for an entire year of college-essentially taken a redshirt. Because I started my college career at a very small college-Truett McConnell in Cleveland, Ga, I was able to talk to my advisor in a very relaxed setting and explain, yes, my scores don't look good but please give me a shot to take regular courses. Now, if I had started in Athens, NO WAY would I have been able to get that shot. Well, I made a 3.0 my first quarter of college taking regular courses-back then we were on the quarter system (geez how old am I). I went back home for my sophomore year, going to Dekalb College-now I think called Perimeter College or something like that. I worked about 30 hours a week and went to school. I struggled some because I was taking core classes that I had no interest in-Biology, Spanish, Economics, English Lit-YUCK. But, I applied to UGA and got in. Once there, I was able to appply to the Grady Jschool and got in. When I got in my major and minor classes at UGA, I never made below a B-the reason, first of all the classes were in subjects I actually was interested in and wanted to learn-always a big plus. But also, I busted my rear end doing a lot of writing, reading, studying every night instead of going out to party. I knew I had to buckle down and knew the reason I was in Athens was to get my education. Sure, I had some fun, I wrote for the Red and Black one football season, I had a radio talk show that maybe 10 people listened to, I had friends and did go to a few parties here and there, but my main objective was school. So, I guess I have always been a little sensitive when it comes to people judging others by scores on tests. Some people don't take tests well-they panic under pressure. Some people might not read the greatest which impacts your ability to take a timed test especially. In some cases, you might not have the highest IQ as well, but again, a test does not and should not allow people to make generalizations/assumptions about you. So, you made a bad wonderlic, you must be STUPID-you will not be able to handle the NFL playbook. You made a low SAT score so you will flunk out of college. A score is just a number, it does not measure your heart, work ethic, passion or desire. Let us all quit using scores to make assumptions. Ok, off the soapbox now.
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