I sure didn't see a 10 seed coming. I didn't even know we would make the dance, it was a GREAT treat to watch the selection show and not only make it but to be in the first bracket announced-took what could have been a very stressful hour and made it very relaxing. I think Bama has a very legit argument against us to be honest, but I also think what it boiled down to is that we had those two quality wins over UAB and Colorado in December AND had a very good road record-I think that ultimately got us in over Bama. I do think the selection committee probably intended on putting 5 SEC teams in the tourney, so it most certainly came down to us and Bama. They decided, or this is my guess, that our overall resume was better than Bama's by a big enough margin to cover the two head to head losses-and it really must not have been close because getting a 10 seed to me means we locked up the bid BEFORE the SEC tourney, or the AU win punched our ticket worst case. This selection just validates the incredible work done by Coach Fox-a twenty win season, a good road record-remember, last year we didn't win a single road game, a schedule that was just good enough to impress the folks selecting teams while also allowing us to get some good wins as well. Now the missing piece of the puzzle is recruiting-again, making the tournament only should help us in that regard. Fox is building up good will in the recruiting circles I feel sure and now that Hewitt is gone at GT, we can only hope that will also help us. Tech might actually hire a guy that can both recruit and coach but likely the guy will not be able to recruit as well as Hewitt, I feel sure the new hire WILL be able to coach better however. We shall see who they are able to land over there because having to pay off Hewitt and then be able to afford a top line coach seems very unlikely to me. If Fox can start landing 3-4 elite kids in the state of Ga every class, we will be regulars in the dance and he can also build up our bench. I think our lack of production off the bench has really contributed heavily to our blown big leads-I think our starters are good enough to hang and beat a lot of teams but they seem to lose steam and focus down the stretch and I believe part of that is due to fatigue.
So now we know we are in and who we play, the Pac10 tourney champ, the other Dawgs if you will. Again, I have always HATED Dawgs so I might be the only UGA fan that is fine letting the Huskies call themselves Dawgs-I will stick to what I prefer, Dogs. Washington is a good team and I will preview them later in the week-this game is going to be a REAL test for our guards because UW has some very good guards led by 5'9" Isiah Thomas-as far as I know, no relation to the famous former Detroit Piston and Indiana Hoosier by the same name. The guy hit the game winning shot at the buzzer to win the Pac10 tourney. I compare this team guard wise to Florida when it comes to shooting ability and experience-like I say, we will have our hands full although I am not sure they will truly have an answer for Thompkins and then hopefully Price can rebound and play a better game after two very bad SEC tourney games. This will be the first meeting between the schools although our coach Mark Fox worked a couple years as an assistant at Washington and actually met his wife there-she was working for the school-I am not sure if she is from that area or not, I am sure there will be a story or two about that since the two met there and are now married, and Fox leads his team against Washington. That will be a natural story to cover at some point this week you can bet.
As for the other SEC teams, UF got a 2 seed in the SE Regional and gets to play the opening weekend in Tampa-great draw for the Gators. UK, who is on a serious roll now after winning the SEC tourney in BLOWOUT fashion, is in our bracket, the East. They will also be playing in Tampa-that figures to be a TOUGH ticket as everyone knows how well UK fans travel. They will have a pretty decent/tough second game with WVU or Clem/UAB but they should be able to also reach the sweet 16 where #1 seed Ohio State will be waiting for them. Vandy got a 5 seed and opens with Richmond. I think Vandy can win that game but they have not been playing well so would not be surprised either way-I think they lose the second game to Louisville however. Finally, Tennessee is 9 seed and will play 8 seed Michigan. The winner gets Duke in their second game. If the UT team of late shows up, Michigan advances but if UT of early season shows up, they will advance. I can't see them playing with Duke even if they beat UM but they certainly have the talent to win a game. That leads us to UGA as a 10 seed against 7 seed Washington. Again, I will get into much more detail later in the week but a few things to point out. First of all, UW has to travel a LONG way for the game which means very little fan support-not that we will have that much either since we are not a basketball school-YET. But the time difference could be a factor for those guys, that will be a long flight and then they have to get their bodies used to ET instead of PT. You look at the schools also playing in Charlotte-UNC, Duke, Tenn, Michigan-there is no doubt that most of the fan bases would be more likely to pull for us, especially since we are the higher seed (underdog) and closer to them-or at least I would think so. UW is a guard oriented offense and can really shoot the basketball, this is going to really test us because we only play 3 guards most games, Ware, Robinson and Brantley. I can see UW pressing us to wear us out during the game and then us running out of gas as we have done many times already this year. I think we need to let Vincent Williams get some early PT, we need to be really smart with our substitions when it comes to our guards, keeping them fresh because they not only will possibly face the press but having to guard quick and deadly shooters will be tough-I wouldn't expect Fox to zone this team at all so MTM for 40 minutes will take a toll on our guards.
So, the baseball team continues to win for JT-as tragic as that accident was for the kid and his family, it might just be the spark that this team needed to get together as a team and start playing good baseball. They swept the road trip to California, beating UCLA Friday, USC on Saturday and Saint Mary's on Sunday-at Dodger Stadium. For more details check out this article.
http://dogbytesonline.com/bulldogs-extend-winning-streak-43547/
Next up for the Diamond Dogs is game Wednesday at Kennesaw State-a pretty darn good baseball program. After that, the first SEC series of the season at South Carolina, the defending national champ. But, this team has evened its record at 8-8 and seems to have used what is a very negative into something positive, winning and playing hard to win for fallen teammate Jonathan Taylor.
Tonight Andy Landers and the Lady Dogs find out where/when they will play, they are in for sure, so just a matter of where/when they play. Let's hope they get a pretty good draw and can win a couple games.
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