I got to watch about 90% of the game last night, when you have kids, sometimes it does impact your ability to watch every second of a sporting event. I actually missed the part where LSU came out strong, I think when I started watching it was 13-7 or something like that. It took the guys a while to get rolling but by halftime, I know I really had no fear that LSU would come back on us. The lowest they got the lead in the second half, after our initial surge, was 11 points. Honestly, I don't know how Auburn has a worse SEC record than LSU because I have watched Auburn a couple times and they to me are far more impressive than is LSU. Obviously it was a big night for our two seniors, Jeremy Price and Chris Barnes. I thought both played well and thought it was great how Coach Fox called timeouts to let them get some love from the crowd. Barnes even kissed the G when he exited the floor. Let me tell you something, those two guys are NOT the best basketball players in the world but I think it is obvious both are THRILLED they decided to stay in Athens after the Felton firing. I can't say either drastically improved under Coach Fox-I think both are better players as SR's than they were at sophs, but I do think they matured along the way and both will graduate in the spring. I think if you asked them about their overall UGA experience, they would share some negatives which is expected when the coach that recruits you is fired. But, assuming this team can make the NCAA tournament this year, both guys will be able to say we made the NCAA tourney TWICE during our UGA careers. Considering no UGA team has ever made the NCAA tourney three years in a row, you can see that is quite an accomplishment for these two guys. I think the more Coach Fox is able to recruit, the more players see kids like Travis, Trey, Gerald and Ware improve, we are going to have a monster of a program here. Travis Leslie and Dustin Ware, those two kids I think you can see where they have improved so very much under the leadership of Mark Fox. As I have mentioned before, Dustin just needs to shoot the ball more because he just continues to flourish as a 3 point shooter. Teams are likely going to try to zone us from here on out so Dustin needs to make them pay.
Last night of course we found out that Trey Thompkins is likely out for the Bama game, that is a TOUGH blow for us but, if we can somehow go over there and get a win, just another feather in our cap. I thought the team played well without him last night but obviously Bama is much better than LSU. Travis Leslie was strong last night, Gerald Robinson was back to his early season form-he looked to me like maybe he now has his legs back after maybe hitting a wall-we all have to remember that he didn't play last season so you know fatigue could certainly be an issue for him. He looked like a new player last night and if Trey is out, we will need GR and Leslie to step up for sure because it will be more difficult for Jeremy to do so without Trey. I was also happy to see Connor Nolte get 6 minutes last night, course all he contributed was one steal but I just like when he is on the floor. Also, you had to love Matt Bucklin hitting the shot, getting fouled and hitting his FT. Great job and that was fitting end to what was a very exciting season of basketball at Stegman. Speaking of exciting, I LOVE the guy that does jumping jacks at the basketball games-he has been there for YEARS as every game I attend I enjoy watching him and when watching on TV, you can always seem him jumping. Great job by our fans all season long.
Tomorrow I will preview the Bama game and hopefully find some other interesting links/articles as well. One negative note, the baseball team was shut out by Furman 3-0 yesterday. I am not ready to get on my soapbox about our baseball program but let me just say this, there is no excuse to me for our program to have down years. There are WAY too many very good baseball players in our area for this to happen-and our program has tradition and our program has a very nice facility. If this season goes like last season, I think we will see a change made there. Just my two cents.
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