Ok, so today the madness really begins. Last night a couple of first 4 four games were played, with Texas-San Antonio taking out Alabama State and VCU knocking off Southern Cal. Let's hope that is a good sign, a Pac10 team sent packing early in the tourney. Today, I think some really interesting matchups to keep an eye on in the east-WVU-Clemson, Cinci-Missouri, Temple-Penn State (state rivals you know), UCLA-Michigan State, Wisconsin-Belmont, Butler-ODU, Richmond-Vandy-possible 12-5 upset. Only one #1 seed will play today, Pitt against UNC-Asheville. Should be a fun filled day, I will have my TV on at work, hey, I always do it each year but this year, I actually probably will be encouraged to do it where I work.
To preview our game tomorrow night, first I want to post this article that some might have already read but I think it is very interesting for sure. Mark Fox began his coaching career 20 years ago at Washington, met his wife there and obviously that is sure to make this game extra special for the Fox family. I knew there would be an article about this story this week, and I think this one is a very good read from the Athens paper.
http://dogbytesonline.com/fox-has-strong-ties-fond-memories-of-time-spent-at-washington-43587/
Also, on the Dawgpost recently, there has been a poster that has constantly been trying to stir the pot about Mark Fox-basically saying the guy was desperate to get out of Nevada, the fans, alumni and players were revolting against him and players were wanting out because they couldn't stand Coach Fox. So, Fox sought out the UGA job-clear across the country because he just had to get out of Reno, he was willing to take whatever Damon Evans would offer him, he was willing to agree to the buyout clause becuase he was facing a revolt in Reno!! YEAH RIGHT. Anyway, this article in the Athens paper today, spells out just what a great job Coach Fox has done in Athens, has some good player quotes, just a good read.
http://dogbytesonline.com/fox-erases-off-court-problems-brings-team-closer-together-43631/
Now, let's take a look at the Washington Huskies. As most know by now, they are led by Isaiah Thomas-no relation to the famous one from the Pistons/Hoosiers. He is small in stature but in big in game. He averages nearly 17pts a game and 6 turnovers a game, 3 turnovers a game. He shoots nearly 36% from the 3pt line, about 70% from the FT. Next up would be forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning, at 6'9" a guy that can score and grab boards, 15.5pts a game, nearly 9 rebounds a game. Not the best FT shooter, at 61%. Third guy in double figures points wise is Justin Holiday who averages nearly 11pts a game, 5 boards at 6'6". Before I go any further, if you look at the Washington roster and stats, what you will find is TEN players that average 17 or more minutes a game. Of their 13 man roster, 9 are 6'5" or taller. Now, that being said, they are NOT big bulky guys, biggest guy weight wise is their 7 footer, Aziz N'Diaye, from all I have read though, this guy is mainly a shot blocker and a fouling machine-does not offer much offensively. We should have the advantage in the paint with Trey and Jeremy. Another thing you notice is they have 5 guys that have shot 100 or more 3pt shots. To compare, we have ONE player with more than 100 3pt attempts, that being Ware (128) and Robinson is close at 98. Scary thing is, they have so many shooters that we basically have to hope they are off shooting or it could be a tough day. Bottom line, they are a very good offensive basketball team that likes to play up tempo games. If you look at their game by game scores, you can see a pattern. Games they lose, the tempo is much slower-they have lost 10 games this season. In those loses, they have averaged 62.3 points a game. In their 23 wins, they average 95.2 pts. They have scored over 100 in 6 games this season-I think you can figure out a real key to us winning the game, CONTROL the tempo. Simply put, we can't run and gun with these guys because they have much more depth, scoring is just what they can do. I feel sure they will come out pressing us, that is what a lot of teams have started doing because let's face it, we really only go 6 deep, maybe 7 because Thornton, Williams, Nolte only get very few minutes. Sometimes we will let Brantley get a few extra minutes but he and Barnes are pretty much our bench. We have to control the ball-turnovers as usual will be key, we have to control the tempo and we need guys to step up-in particular we need Price, Robinson and Barnes to play well. I think we can count on Thompkins, Leslie and Ware being steady and playing well. Those other three, simply put we need big games from them all. Washington got hot in the PAC tourney but before that, were 5-5 in their previous 10. They finished 14-7 in the Pac10, behind only Arizona and UCLA but keep in mind, their 4th place team got beat by VCU last night-a team MOST experts said had no business making the tourney. Their 5th place team Cal beat Ole Miss by 3 last night in the NIT-Ole Miss if you remember was the 3rd place finisher in the SECw with a 8-10 conference mark. All others in that conference had losing conference records, 4 of the 5 had 500 or below 500 overall records. My point being, the PAC10 was NOT a strong conference this year. Now, this is not to say I expect us to win the game but I do think it will be pretty obvious who has the better shot to win if you just look at the scoreboard. The lower the score is throughout, the better our chance will be. If the game gets to a high tempo pace, we are in trouble. One other note, this is also a very experienced team, Thomas is JR but Bryan-Amaning is a SR as is Holiday and backup point guard Overton who was suspended for the PAC10 tourney for wow, now I remember it, being involved with a 16 year old girl!!! NOT good.
The baseball team suffered a tough loss last night to Kennesaw State, 12-8. They had won 5 in row coming in but sounds like they just self destructed as much as anything, with 4 errors. This weekend hopefully they will get their act together or else-they are playing the defending national champs on the road in what figures to be a VERY difficult challenge. Here is the article about the game last night, again from the Athens paper. Can you tell I very rarely link the AJC-yeah, that is one horrible newspaper in my opinion unless they are printing up negative headlines that is. They are good at that.
http://dogbytesonline.com/owls-halt-winning-streak-43629/
Football recruit Sterling Bailey from East Hall high school has shoulder surgery last week but expects to be ready to go come fall camp in Athens. I suspect he will redshirt, and thought that before reading he had recent surgery. He projects to play OLB for Georgia, I think we have enough depth there for him to sit this year. We don't want to risk it with a shoulder injury-we have had enough guys suffer chronic shoulder problems, need to be careful here.
Rivals just released its top 25 hoops recruits for class of 2012, a class that HOPEFULLY UGA can really clean up-between our season this year and the coaching turnover at GTU, I am hopeful we can land perhaps the best class in UGA history. I will not put the list here as it is premium material but let's just say, the following guys we at least have a shot to get and all will be high regarded prospects-Tony Parker-a national recruit for sure 6'9 kid, Shaquille Goodwin at 6'8", Jordan Adams at 6'5", Damien Wilson 6'6", Evan Nolte 6'8" and Jarmal Reid 6'7". Nolte of course is brother of Connor and Reid is brother of Jeremy Price. Another kid that is interested in UGA is Jordan Price, 6'5" shooting/point guard. Bottom line, all the kids I have mentioned will be 4 or 5 star kids. To help you out, on our current roster, Thompkins was a 4 star, Leslie a 3 star, Ware a 3 star, Price was a 4 star, Barnes a 3 star, Thornton a 3 star, Vincent Williams a 3 star, Donte Williams a 3 star, Brantley not ranked, Nolte could not find but probably a 2 star. For the 2011 class, Caldwell-Pope is a 5 star and Tim Dixon a 3 star. The JUCO 7 footer is not ranked, as was the case with Brantley. As you can see, if we can grab 4-5 of those 2012 guys, we will be getting a big increase in talent for sure and that is how you build our program to the national level. Let's hope Fox and company can get it done with the 2012 class.
No comments:
Post a Comment