OK, everyone would expect us to lose to Kentucky and sure enough it happened yet again last night. The score was actually pretty close, 57-44. Kentucky is the #1 ranked team in the nation and we only lost by 13, heck we lost to Bama at home by more points than that. I think the game that I am bothered with more was the Saturday loss to Ole Miss. The score indicates a close loss, 66-63 but the Dogs were down by 12 with about a minute to go and managed to cut it down to 3 and had 2 shots to try to tie it at the end. But, that was more a result of Ole Miss missing some FT's coupled with just clutch shooting-the bottom line is Ole Miss should NOT be able to come to Athens and win that game. This is what has me concerned. This team has some pieces to it, Gerald Robinson is explosive and can make some plays for you-either scoring himself or penetrating and dishing for open jump shots-he doesn't do this often enough as our offense still remains one of the most boring looking system I have seen since Dennis Felton left town-we rotate the ball around the perimeter, back and forth, a low post will come charging to the top of the key, only to dish back to a guard-back and forth is goes, shot clock counts down 5,4,3,2 and then someone lauches a long three as the buzzer sounds. So what did we have last year, first of all we had a big in Thompkins that could shoot from the outside with consistency-we don't have that this year unless you consider Nemi a big-he is a tweener. Second of all, we had Travis Leslie who could shoot but could also drive strong to the basket, he was also great at offensive rebounding. We had Robinson who was more a threat because he had the other two guys as offensive threats around him, and finally you had Dustin Ware who has struggled this year but that is because the opposition knows this year is a big offensive threat. Last year, as teams looked to double Trey, we could kick to Dustin for a wide open 3. This year the shot is not so wide open any longer.
Mark Fox is a good guy, I do believe he can coach basketball BUT I also think he is in over his head here. WHY??? Because the guy is NOT the recruiter we need. Last night they were talking about UK having SIX McDonald All American's on their team. Granted, we are talking about Kentucky but geez, we have our first since '92 on our roster this year. Credit to Fox for recruiting Caldwell-Pope, but we have to recruit more kids on that level. Take a look at our recruiting class from last year-
Caldwell-Pope was an elite level talent that had offers from everywhere-great job landing him. 5 stars
John Cannon-offers from App State, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Asheville, Old Dominion, Richmond, Princeton, Western Carolina. NEVER should have offered/signed this kid. 3 stars
Tim Dixon-had offers from Bama, AU, FSU and Okie State, 3 stars but have done nothing thus far.
Nemanja Djurisic-offers from East Carolina, Arizona State, Okie State and NCState. 3 stars, good find.
John Florveus-JUCO, offers from Marshall, UTEP, Washington State, 3 stars, NEVER should have signed him.
Dixon was the most sought after prospect besides KCP, but he has contributed really nothing this year-he COULD turn out to be a decent player in time-like Donte' Williams is night and day from last year to this year. But Florveus and Cannon, HORRIBLE decisions as we were by far the best programs to offer either of those kids and from watching them, I can see why.
Fox has recruited pretty well for this upcoming class but none of the below kids are KCP level and we will be losing both our starting guards next year. Fox has got to be counting on continued improvement from Williams, Thornton and Vincent Williams, and hope KCP sticks around-which he should do without question as he is far from NBA ready right now. But take a look at these kids and then let me point out the top level kids in Ga that we MISSED out on.
Kenny Gaines-Guard, had offers from MANY big times schools (I do have throw in though, not offers from the basketball powers like UNC, Duke, Kentucky etc), 3 star and talented player.
Charles Mann-Guard-again lot of big name offers,(biggest hoop school to offer is UCONN), 3 star and future PG most likely.
Brandon Morris-Forward, again many big offers, (best being UF and Memphis probably) 3 stars and also talented but very thin prospect.
So, on the surface a solid looking class. All three of these guys figure to get significant minutes next year, especially Gaines and Mann. Now let's take a look at the Rivals 150 list and point out all the kids from Georgia on this list, Gaines made the list at 125 btw. Morris and Mann did not make it,
Shaq Goodwin #26 4 stars, signed with Memphis
Robert Morris #28 4 stars, signed with GT
Tony Parker #33, unsigned but most likely head to Duke or Ohio State
Jordan Price #71 4 stars signed with AU
Charles Mitchell #76, 4 stars unsigned we actually have a shot with this one-would be a BIG pickup
Tevin Glass #81, unsigned and not sure about this kid, appears only has two offers from smaller schools-maybe grade issues??
Marcus Hunt #100, signed with GT
Chris Bolden #107, signed with GT
Jaron Blossomgame, #119 signed with Clemson
Evan Nolte #120,signed with UVA
FINALLY, Kenny Gaines #125
So, 10 players from our state rated ahead of our top recruit of the moment Gaines. Granted, recruiting rankings can be overrated for sure, but still you can see who is kicking our tails in recruiting this year, GT. Why is that-considering the mess they have been in with Hewitt, bringing in a coach from Dayton which is certainly is closer to Georgia than Nevada but still not the well known program. Sure, GT plays in the ACC which still, surprising to me, offers a better hoops tradition than does the SEC. But, Gregory hired assistant coaches with ATL/GA ties, ties to AAU ball etc and has landed a much better class than Fox despite being on the job for less than a year. That is pathetic folks.
As for the rest of this season, I suspect we might win one or two more games. I am not saying Fox should be fired but if he manages to go 2-14 in conference play, I would strongly consider making a move now although I think next year will be the year of change. Check out this stat from Dean Legge of Dawgpost-
The Bulldogs have won only 37 conference games since the 2005 season – that’s the worst in the SEC… by far. Is this all Fox's fault - no, not exclusively. But he got the praise last year so he will draw some criticism this year.
Ok so in case you were wondering, throw out this year, 1-5, lets look at 2006-2011 seasons. That is 6 seasons at 16 games for a total of 96 SEC games. But we will throw out this year, so 91-36=65. Yep, our record the past 6 years in SEC play, 31-65 which translates to 5-11 conference record. That is BAD! Granted I think UGA fans don't suppor the hoops program enough but those numbers don't lie-why SHOULD fans support such a bad product. The good news is we have an AD in place now that has come from a program that has built a strong hoops program, at a school that you would have to say is still a football school but UF has built up a total sports program that we all should take note of. Also, that program is one that is NOT afraid to make changes quickly-they fired Zook after 3 seasons, they fired their baseball coach after one losing season-they do not put up with coaches/programs that do not put a top quality product on the floor. Fox inherited two NBA players-along with some pretty decent players in Price, Barnes, and Ware. He got a break when Robinson transferred in. But his recruiting has not been up to par and a big part of that is because of his hiring of assistant coaches, he lack of ties to the AAU and ATL recruiting circles. I personally like Mark Fox but I am just not sure how much longer we can give him. He needs to sign Charles Mitchell this spring-that 4some would be a great start but how much better will we be next year with relying on these freshmen to come in and score. KCP with a strong supporting cast could be a really solid player-as of now he is a streaky shooter, good defender, makes hustle plays on the floor, he is a solid player. This team can be better next year but just how bad is this year going to be and then in turn, how much is that going to bring extreme heat to Fox's seat which could impact his recruiting efforts for 2013.
Ok so this time next week, it is national signing day. The only news so far this week is that one of our commitments can't enroll because of immigration rules. Now, I am all for the immigration rules Ga has on the books and UGA also has rules. I guess I just don't really get them. Especially with GT just getting a commitment from a kid from Austrailia. Here is the rule as the AJC has it-
“A person who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible for admission to any University System institution which, for the two most recent academic years, did not admit all academically qualified applicants [except for cases in which applicants were rejected for non-academic reasons].”
So I guess Chester Brown was not legally a resident of the USA?? I just don't get this much at all but the bottom line, he is gone and now we only have 16 spots filled. 3 of those have already enrolled and so it is becoming more and more obvious to me that we are NOT going to sign a full class this year-which is very disappointing. Right now we are still waiting on the following top recruits to make a decision-
Josh Harvey-Clemons, was thought a UGA lean, was down to UGA/UF but now good ole FSU is back in the mix after a great visit last weekend. Lowndes kids seem to ALWAYS end up at FSU so the fact they are back in it, that scares me to be honest. Richt visited JHC at church last night, I have to believe our coaches have built up the best relationship with him and we will get him but this one is scary. My recruiting guru Lowndes25 has told me he believes we get him but has also said if kids stick to their word!!
Avery Young-big OL from down on South Florida, most think between us and AU. I would HOPE this kid looks at our depth chart and slobbers all over himself. His Mom wants him in Athens, let's hope he follows Mommas wishes.
Sheldon Dawson-committed to Memphis but his HS coach recently said he thought UGA was the leader-said he likes how UGA used Boykin and this kid could fill that role.
Josh Dawson-committed to Vandy but now is 50-50 Vandy/UGA. This kid is from Tucker HS, which for the most part typically sends kids to Athens.
Cordarrelle Patterson-thought to be a UGA lean a JUCO WR that supposed will make immediate impact but might have grade issues.
There could be a few more surprises, I am checking on that this week and report back anything I hear. I think we have at LEAST a 50-50 shot of getting all the guys above, which would put us at 21 total. I could live with that but would like to get up to 23 or so which could very well happen.
Final note, the first baseball poll is out for this year and the Diamond Dogs come in ranked #11. That is a good start, let's hope it is a good season for the team. They had a nice bounce back season last year, just need to improve on that this year and continue to build the program up. In baseball, we have been WAY too up and down for the type talent this state produces.
All for now, next hoops game is not until next Wednesday, at Auburn. Let's hope the guys rest up some and get better as AU is a game we have a shot to steal on the road-they are not much better than us if at all. But neither was Ole Miss and they came to our house and got the W. There simply are no wins you can take to the bank for this team unfortunately.
