I have not been blogging lately because well, just not much to blog about. The football season is over, our hoops team is well, BAD, and now it is about time for baseball to get up and going again-and our baseball team does have some promise for this season. As for the hoops program, well, that is another story.
Thanks to my parents, and thanks to someone they know at church, I got two free tickets to go see our games last Sunday with Vandy. It was the first hoops game I have attended since the Illinois game back in Mark Fox's first season in Athens-that one at Gwinnett Arena. SO, this was my first trip to the "new" Steg. It was my son's first ever UGA hoops game-of note he still has not been to a UGA football game but I am hoping maybe that will change this year, then again, he is now playing football and my daughter cheers so our Saturday's are pretty much a no go nowadays. Still, I am eyeing that game November 17th game against Georgia Southern as his football season will be over by that point. Anyway, we had a good time even with the bad weather and the bad result on the hardwood. My son is only 7 but he LOVES basketball and really enjoys watching the game. He was getting as frustrated as I was during the second half when we continued to throw up three's at an alarming rate and missed them at an even more alarming rate-1 of 17 in the second half!!! KCP got into early foul trouble and basically sat out the first half, so when he got in there in the second half he seemed determined to shoot regardless. Some of his shots were good looks but many others were forced. He was 0-7 from 3 point land, matter of fact, as a team we were 3-23 for 13% from 3 point land. That is beyond horrible, and then you look across to the other team, John Jenkins who by the way has one of the quickest releases and prettiest shots you will ever see, 6-8 from three point range. Besides the huge difference in 3pt percentage 45.5 to 13.0, you can also look at another big stat from that game which can really cause you to scratch your head, FT shooting. UGA 9-14 for 64% while Vandy, 17-21 for 81%. If you want to say the refs didn't call the game equal, take a closer look at fouls per team-Vandy had 19 team fouls while UGA had only 14 team fouls. SO, what does that tell you, Vandy was the aggressor on offense, getting fouled while shooting-and sure enough, Jenkins got fouled on TWO three point shots, hit all SIX freebies. This team is truly a train wreck folks, that being said, you do see some flashes of promise and not just from Gerald Robinson-a player is playing great for us now and without him, well things could and would be really ugly. First of all, of course Caldwell-Pope is a special player-he is a bit too streaky this year but he will improve with more experience-he already does the little things that stand out to you which is play solid defense, handle the ball, pass the ball and can also rebound. Nemi is also a pleasant surprise. Quite frankly you never know what you are going to get from EURO players-sometimes they are solid players but often times they play a different style than American players-more finesse style but Nemi is solid and I really like his game-he still makes mistakes and Coach Fox called at timeout against Vandy and I thought he was going to rip Nemi's head off. Donte' Williams, he continues to get better and better-he still doesn't have the offensive game that we need for inside game but the diffference between him last year to this year is HUGE. Simply put, he is showing a lot of improvement and development. Vince Williams, another kid that has really contributed little until this year, he actually plays a pretty solid PG and is a decent shooter-he will help bridge the gap from Robinson/Ware to our new guards Mann and Gaines. Finally Marcus Thornton, who continues to be the biggest mystery on the team. Now, I like to say maybe the fact he was injured earlier in the season holds him back offensively, the fact he mono early last season held him back but honestly, I just think with Marcus more than anything offensively it is about confidence. That being said, he plays good defense and is a force on the boards. Another guy that I have not seen hardly at all this year, did get some valuable minutes just a few days ago in our loss to LSU on the road, that being John Cannon. I have been critical of us even singning this kid because he had no other options but us when it comes to big schools. But, what I saw against LSU gave me at least a glimmer of hope-he showed off some post moves-a jump hook, he was aggressive going after rebounds, he is a big kid that can alter shots. If Coach Fox has any sense to him for the rest of this season, he will try to work Cannon in for more minutes to see what he can do. At this point, I would be letting your kids get more minutes here or there. I would consider going big with Williams and Cannon playing together. Go Robinson at point, KCP at 2, Thornton at 3, Williams at 4 and Cannon at 5. Ware, well, he is just struggling so badly, bring he and Nemi off the bench to spot KCP/Gerald and Thornton. Bring Florveous in to spot Cannon, give Dixon a few more minutes. We have 4 games left on the season more than likely, next two against teams that are going to likely beat us regardless of who we put out there, might as well continue to get these younger guys some PT. I think it is pretty safe to assume Coach Fox is back next year, so let's get these young guys a chance to play, and not only play but play against two really good teams in UF and UK. The LSU game was further evidence that this team is not aggressive enough down low as look at the difference in number of free throws shot in that game-and thankfully LSU shot so poorly or what was an 8 point loss would have been much worse, 18-30 60% while we shot 5-7. Yes, that is correct, LSU was +23 free throws in the game. Sounds about like our NCAA game last year with Washington!! Course in this case, we were whistled for 23 fouls compared to 10 for LSU?? That is hard to believe with what I watched-LSU could have easily been called for many more than 10 but hey, what can you do. So next up is a game with UF in Athens tomorrow at 4p. UF is 22-6 on the season and 10-3 in SEC play. Interestingly, two of their 3 losses were to Tenn, a team we beat in Athens and actually played a tough game with in Knox. The other UF loss was a 20pt loss at UK-no harm in that loss. After this game, we play at, yep, Kentucky next Thursday before closing at home against SCarolina-two days after the trip to Lexington. Meanwhile, SCarolina has home games with Tenn this Sat and then Miss State on Wed before heading to Athens on March 3rd. There is a shot that we lose out and if that happens, we WILL finish last in the SEC standings. As it stands now, we are one game ahead of SCarolina. I don't know about you all that read here, but to finish this season in my mind best case 4-12, that is just not a good thing with the SEC not exactly being the best conference this year by any stretch of the imagination. I do believe Fox gets one more year to try to right this ship with his players-all of which he has recruited and he will have more veterans next year than this year. Vincent Williams, John Florveus and Sherrod Brantley, SR, Marcus Thornton and Donte' Williams JR, KCP, Nemi, Cannon, Dixon as soph's. The three new kids are all good players, but none are as good as Gerald Robinson so I am a bit scared to see what next year brings. Meanwhile, recruiting for the next class, who knows how successful that will be after this year and then the thought that maybe Fox is not around after next year. I am pulling for Mark Fox, he seems like a good man, I know he is a pretty darn good coach but is he over his head in the SEC?? Can he recruit better, get more involved with the AAU circuit in Atlanta-instead of ignore that incredible talented group of kids for the most part.
As for the baseball team, they are now 4-0 after a 4-1 win over Georgia State on Wednesday. Up next is a 3 game set with Winthrop this weekend. The fact that we return so many experienced players, including a couple of our top starting pitchers, you have to feel good that this team is going to make some noise this year. Course as with every sport it seems, the SEC is loaded with top level teams, including SECe schools UF and SCarolina. SCarolina, matter of fact, has won the national title TWO years in a row, they beat UF for the title last year. Both those schools figure to be right there yet again this year so UGA will have a battle to even be the best in the SEC, let alone nationally.
As for the football team, another commitment for the 2013, CB Steven Nelson originally from Warner Robins but currently attending College of the Sequoias (Visalia, Calif.), has said he was offered and comitted on the spot to UGA yesterday. This kid only had offers from Mid Tenn State and Houston but certainly he his size and speed look to be nice for his position-6'0" 185 with 4.4 speed. This weekend UGA hosts what they call VID day, Very Important Dawg. A lot of top prospects are said to be coming, per a source on Lether Helmet Blog (a VERY good source for information I might add, these guys are coming for sure-
DE-Naim Mustaffaa (Alpharetta HS) CB-Shaq Wiggins (Sandy Creek) S-Tray Matthews (Newnan) OL-Josh Cardiello (Buford) DB-Brendan Langley (Kell) DT-Keith Bryant (Atlantic, Delray Beach, Fla.) LB-Ben Boulware (T.L. Hanna, Anderson, S.C.) DT-Montravius Adams (Dooly Co.) OT-Laremy Tunsil (Columbia, Lake City, Fla.) Ath-Derrick Henry (Yulee, Yulee, Fla.) QB-Brice Ramsey(Camden County) DE-Antonio Riles (Archer) DT-DeAndre Johnson (Northgate)
I have also heard Reuben Foster will be attending as well, of course the #2 in the nation prospect from LaGrange (Troup Co) that is already verbally committed to Bama but has said he still is at least thinking about UGA. Not sure if Robert Nkemdiche will come back over or not but he did recently visit with some of his Grayson teammates, including Wayne Gallman who now has a UGA offer. While many think Robert is locked and loaded for Bama, I do not feel this way. I still feel like we have a shot with him-why?? Well first of all because Athens is close to Grayson-and make no mistake, Grayson is a UGA school/area more than any other school for sure and playing close to home would allow Robert's friends and community to continue to support him in college. Second, immediate playing time, UGA will lose almost the entire starting defense after this year. Sure, we have some good young talent waiting in the wings but not like what Bama has. Third, Mark Richt is MUCH more like his current HS coach Mickey Conn-granted, Mickey is a big reason why most have thought he is a Bama lock but, Mark and Mickey are cut from the same cloth. Fourth, the Kirby Smart equation-he recruits Ga for Bama but he has publicly stated that he WANTS and believes he is ready for for a head coaching job-chances are he gets that chance after this year. Saban will still be there-but how much longer will he stay-he has never stayed anywhere longer than 6 years and he is nearing that time at Bama. Fifth, a STRONG UGA football season this upcoming year coupled with Grantham's coaching-a winning combination only 40 miles from your house-why go anywhere else because we are going to have a LOT of draft picks off our D in the next NFL draft. So, you can get a good shot to play pro football coming to Athens. Course Robert could still go to Bama but for all that say it is a done deal, I am not buying it.
All for now, have a great weekend and Go Dogs!!
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