Slow day today

You know it is slow for me when I lead off by saying I might actually watch a little bit of Dancing with the Stars this season-the reason, former UGA standout Hines Ward will be one of the contestants. I have always liked Hines, followed his recruitment out of HS, then watched his UGA career-even attended the one game in his career that he didn't take a single snap-at Clemson in the early 90's, I think that must have been '95 season. Hines seriously thought about leaving after that game. He stuck around and ended having a great career in Athens and of course has helped the Steelers win two Super Bowls, almost a third if not for the Green Bay win this year. Here is an article about the show, I HATE dancing with a passion (as my wife will tell you) but with Hines on the show, I might just check it out a few times. Ok, so the women pro dancers are nice to look at as well which is an added bonus.

http://realitytvmagazine.sheknows.com/2011/03/01/dancing-with-the-stars-cast-revealed/


Tomorrow is another must win for our hoops team, hosting LSU which other than Auburn, is the worst team in the conference. I will preview the Tigers tomorrow but while I am on the subject of our basketball team, I want to again mention Connor Nolte. Someone posted on the Dawgpost about Connor getting more minutes, I of course had to respond because I totally agree. I am NOT going to say CN should be starting, or getting major minutes but there is no doubt in my mind that he should be getting 5-10 minutes EVERY night. This kid can do a lot of the little things our other players don't want to do-play aggressive D, box out, make outstanding passes to open teammates, grab offensive rebounds, take a charge, dive on the floor for loose balls-he flat out HUSTLES every minute he is on the court. He is also not a bad shooter when he gets the chance. I have nothing against any of our players but I believe Coach Fox needs to turn to Connor at times to give our other players a rest and to maybe add a little energy to our lineup on the floor. I am just not sure how much we lose, if anything, with him on the floor. I was a disappointed that on Saturday, Connor checked in for what amounted to 30 seconds to a minute, grabbed a nice offensive rebound, made a very nice pass, and then disappeared until the final minute of the game when we emptied the bench. Ok, enough on that.

The Lady Dogs finished the regular season with 20 wins, 10-6 in SEC play good enough for 4th place in the league. They seem to be a lot like the mens team, inconsistent. They started SEC play on fire, I think they started 7-0, something like that, then end the season 3-6. Andy Landers does a great job year in and year out but honestly, in womens hoops, there are only about 3-4 teams each year that have any chance to win the national title, and we currently are not one of them. Back in the 80's and early 90's, we were one of them but no longer. The best players in our state now seem to leave to play for UCONN or the Lady Vols, two of those 3-4 national teams. Thing is, not sure how that changes unless Geno at UCONN or Pat leaves UT. I kind of equate it to Yoculan leaving our gymnastics program, we didn't come close to a title in year one of our new coaches regime and although still good, don't look to compete for the title again this year. This points out to me that talent can only take you so far, you have to have coaching and talent to get the job done. I think this is case in all sports. Our gym coach might prove me wrong and win it all this year but it just seems to me the program has taken a step back since Yocolan left-she annoyed the heck out of me I will admit but she was a great coach.

Last for today, a name to remember, Robert Nkemdiche. Since I live in the Grayson cluster, I feel the need to start the promotion of the best looking football player to EVER come out of the high school. This kid is only a sophomore but led Gwinnett county in sacks last year with 16. The kid is nearly 6'6" and 260lbs right now, I figure he will be maybe 6'7" and 290 by the time he enters college. The kid can run as well, I think he is currently running the 40 in about the 4.5 to 4.6 range. I recently watched him play basketball at the high school, just an amazing physical being, had a nice dunk where he grabbed a rebound, came down and then sprang up and easily slammed it with force. The kid is just a freak, and has NFL written all over him-yes, high praise for a soph in HS but this kid is one everyone is going to know about this year and by the time he is a SR, I might see Jim Tressel, Lane Kiffin, Mack Brown, JoePa, or who knows in the local Publix/Kroger as they make their way through Grayson. This kid is coached by a former Alabama player-walked on actually to the Bama program, Mickey Conn. The last big time recruit at Grayson was down to UGA/Bama and picked Bama, Lorenzo Washington. I have nothing against Mickey, seems like a really good guy actually and is a very good HS coach, but there is no doubt his players have a great love/respect for him. So, if they know the coach is a very proud Bama man, it makes sense they are going to give Bama very strong consideration. Let's just hope UGA wins out in the long run-he has said he will attend school with his brother who just signed to go to JUCO in Mississippi-I think the same JUCO that John Jenkins attended. I have heard UGA coaches helped place him there-let's hope so and let's also hope he goes there and plays well, our coaches then offer him to come to Athens. I am telling you now, we need any and all advantages we can get. There are certain positions on the football field where you rarely find true superstars that can come from HS and play in college-OL and DL being two that immediately come to mind. Robert is a kid that I can see being ready to go from day 1 and of course the fact I live in his area, of course I want to see him at UGA.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/uga/football/recruiting/player-Robert-Nkemdiche-113275