So, yesterday I looked at the UGA basketball roster, ASSuming that all our FR would be eligible to play this fall. Today I read in the AJC that our 5 star player is qualified-it had been rumored that he might not make it-I had heard the rumors but never really gave it much thought. Evidently, this kid was very close to not making it in school but per his high school coach, buckled down and made the grades. Good for Kentavious and good for our hoops program. Interesting to read in the article, a couple guys that I mentioned as being 3 stars, evidently in some rankings are only 2 stars, Tim Dixon and John Cannon. One thing I did fail to mention in breaking down the roster yesterday, you can't teach size. Same thing applies in football or baseball, you can't teach speed. You can teach (coach) a kid to rebound better, or shoot better or block out better, pass better, defend better etc but there are some things you can't coach up-in basketball, height is one of them. So, even though our bigs are not ranked very highly, it is very appealing that we have a 7-0, 6-11 and 6-10 coming in. IF nothing else, you have to figure those guys can block shots and grab some rebounds.
Good ole Steve Spurrier is getting some media attention today because yesterday he proposed that every football player should get $300 for every football game played-and said he would be willing to pay the money himself. This argument about players getting paid just never seems to go away. I think the players ARE getting paid, they are getting a free education, free food, and free TV exposure for a possible NFL career. Sure, the school gets money from merchandise sold, tickets sold, TV contracts, yep, they pocket money for every AJ Green #8 jersey sold, but so what. Do you not think there were a TON of #34 jersey's floating around back in the 80's? Sure, TV money is out of control now and the schools do make a ton of money but if you start paying players, you open up a HUGE can of worms. How do you cut that payment off-do all athletes get paid, do the non revenue athletes get paid? Do women get paid the same as men? If you look at how much it costs for a college education these days-including tuition, room and board, books, food, tutoring-I think you would be amazed. (Yes, student athletes have a special study center built just for them, they have tutors available to help them with every class). Also, the kids from families with less money qualify for pell grants and other grants-CASH in their pockets. For those that come from families that have some money-the ones that don't qualify for any grants, most likely Mom and Dad have a little cash to give their kids-they are NOT having to pay for college so I am sure they can afford to give the kid a few dollars when needed. I just get tired of hearing about how these kids need to be paid and how unfair it is that they are not getting paid. If anything, I can see a school setting up a fund for each kid when he enters college, for every year he is a student athlete in good standing, a set amount of money is deposited into an account. When that player finishes his eligibilty-even those that leave early for the pros, he is then able to withdraw his money from the account-but only after he has exhausted is playing eligibility-either because he/she is a senior or because they opt for the pros. As long as the kid was in good standing, he gets the money. I can see that as an incentive to the kids and it would be EASY for everyone to track-meaning the NCAA could and would closely monitor these accounts.
Looks like if the basketball coaches have their way, the divisions are gone. I think they should be gone for baseball as well. As I noted yesterday, there should be no divisions for sports that do NOT play a championship game as they serve no purpose. Now it will be up to the AD's to go along with what the coaches want.
The "dream team" will report to campus on June 6th. Per Mark Richt, they will be kept together for workouts this summer before eventually splitting off to work with the players at their positions. I can't remember a signing "class" before that has greater expectations as a group. Yes, there are certain players that maybe have even great expectations-Crowell, Drew, Mitchell, Swann, Marshall-maybe a few others, but really it is this entire class that comes in with the high praise and expectation of getting UGA football back to where it belongs. I think those expectations are a little high but I will say, these kids do come in with a high level of confidence and they believe they can and will take positions from the upper class kids that maybe have grown complacent. I think it is going to be a VERY spirited summer and fall camp-not only because of our first two games, but because our older guys are going to be ready to fight and compete for their jobs-competition is always a positive thing in my book. One more blog before I head to the beach-tomorrow might be a short one (baseball preview for sure) so I will take this opportunity to say again, thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to share my blog to all UGA faithful that might be bored and need something to read. As long as I don't put you to sleep-well, then again, if I can help someone that is having trouble sleeping, that is fine as well. Just hard to believe that it is already June, football season truly is just around the corner.
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