Tonight is a big night for the hoops team!

Ok so why would I say tonight is a big night for the hoops team, because it is. They play host to Arkansas tonight and this will be a very interesting game to watch for various reasons. First of all, right now our team is just flat out BAD. We currently have a 4 game losing streak going, our only win was at home against UT in OT. We are in last place in the SEC, well tied with SCarolina. Our remaining schedule is pretty tough, there are very few games down the stretch I could see us having a chance to win. SCarolina has an easier schedule down the stretch than we do, hosting us, Tenn, and LSU. Meanwhile, we host after tonight, UF, Vandy, and SCarolina. We have road games at Kentucky, Miss State, South Carolina and LSU. Arkansas is team that is 4-4 in the SEC thus far, but they have NOT won a road game of any kind all season long. Looking at their scores on the road in conference thus far, they lost at Ole Miss 71-63, at Kentucky 86-63, at Bama 72-66, and finally at LSU 71-65. Now, Arkansas on the season is averaging about 75pts a game but it is very obvious that on the road, they are not the same high scoring team they are at home. That being said though, UGA is the WORST scoring team in the SEC and one of the worst in the nation. So, this will make for an interesting game to watch for sure, both teams needing a win in the worst way-Arkansas to help validate its chances for making a post season tourney, UGA to just get another win.

I have been on the Mark Fox bandwagon during his career in Athens-I thought he was a good hire by Damon Evans but I was concerned about how he would recruit since he was a virtual unknown coming from Nevada. He has had some recruiting success, getting Marcus Thornton and Caldwell-Pope, but let's not kid ourselves, he has NOT done a good job recruiting overall. If you look at our team right now, what do you see. I see two legit SEC players/starters in Robinson and Caldwell-Pope. The remainder of our players are at best role players on most upper level SEC programs. Ware would make a good backup point guard, possibly could start for some but would not be looked at as a guy that HAS to score, Donte' Williams, definitely a reserve. Thornton, about the 9th or 10th man for most teams based on what you get from him. Nemi, again a bench player that can give you some scoring off the bench. Everyone else, I would argue they should not even be on scholarship. That would be Dixon, Cannon, Florveus, Brantley, even Vincent Williams-he is ok but not great. Heck, I like Connor Nolte better than any of those guys just mentioned and he was a former walkon-and we even having him on our roster, we missed out on getting his younger and more talented brother-who instead heads to Virginia next year. Fox has recruited 3 solid players for the class of 2012-all three are 3 star prospects, KCP was 5 star, but to think those guys are going to come in and give you the scoring that Robinson/Ware combined give you, that is wishful thinking at best. And that is what scares me about next season. Assuming KCP comes back as he should, he will be our offense. There will be no other proven scorers on our roster-here are our returning players for next year-KCP 14pts a game, Donte' Williams 7.5pts a game, Nemi 6.6 pts a game, Vince Williams 3.8pts a game, and Marcus Thornton 2.3 pts a game. In case you are wondering, rounding EVERY number up that is 36 pts per game!!!

If you don't think recruiting is a problem, all you have to do is look at our in state rivals to see just what a mess we are in. Tech hired Brian Gregory as their coach less than a year ago, he was more known than Fox just by virtue of coaching on the eastern part of the US, but when it comes to recruiting, not a well known guy in the ATL. But, he hired a couple of assistant coaches who have HUGE roots in this area, Chad Dollar and Amir Abdur Rahim. While UGA has three 3 star players coming in, Tech has 2 four star and one 3 star player coming in. They also are getting a transfer from Kentucky in Stacey Poole who was a 4 or 5 star player coming out of HS. So, just look at the talent level Gregory is bringing in already, all signed and sealed before he had really even coached a game at GT. Meanwhile Fox is coming off an NCAA tourney, is going on his third year in Athens and gets out recruited-and then Gregory brings over a pathetic team and beats us on our home floor for the first since 1976. I know a lot of folks will say, he needs more time to prove his worth but to me hoops is MUCH different than football. Because of the smaller number of kids involved, I think the window closes a lot quicker on a coach in hoops than in football. But, if you want to compare football, let's say in year one Fox has a year basically equal to our 2010 season, losing record. Granted, the year before Fox took over was even worse but Fox did have Thompkins, Leslie, Ware, Price and Barnes, all of which were sophomores and had played a lot of hoops the year before-well, not so much Leslie. Last year would be equal to making say the Liberty or Independence bowl because yes we made the dance but we made it as a #10 seed which is BARELY making it in. We had a just above 500 record in SEC play at 9-7. Now this year, this year would be basically like the Ray Goff football year of 1990, where we went that season 4-7. I did not expect UGA to make the big dance this year, BUT I did expect them to win about 5-6 or so conference games, finish with a record of about 17-11 or 16-12, perhaps a game better or worse. They were predicted to finish 8th in the 12 team conference. We sit at LAST. Tonight is a key game folks, because lose this one, next up is at Miss State and we NEVER play well over there, this season could get really out of hand. Like I say, I honestly don't see next year being any better and thus in my mind, I think you clean house this year and go after a guy that can RECRUIT high level talent. Yes, the guy needs to be able to coach but our talent level HAS to be improved. Game tonight is 8p on Peachtree TV in ATL.


One note about football, of course still disappointed that a couple days AFTER signing day we lose 3 players in a year we only signed 19 to start with. It appears our coaches are looking at a kid from GMC that has blazing speed and is eligible to play starting this upcoming year, would have 3 years left to play, like Mark Beard. His name is Mario Alford and you can catch some footage of him via this AJC link.

http://blogs.ajc.com/recruiting/2012/02/07/uga-may-add-mystery-recruit-in-football-after-all/?cxntfid=blogs_recruiting

I would sign him up without hesitation. But, the Athens paper has an article about our numbers when it comes to scholarships. Here is that article.

http://dogbytesonline.com/crunching-the-roster-numbers-again-54914/

Bottom line, we are short on numbers so I would look for UGA to sign Alford and maybe a few other kids that might be late qualifers or under the radar type kids. BUT, just because you have some numbers, doesn't mean you waste spots. We can have some kids enroll early for 2013 and offer a lot of kids for the very talented/loaded 2013 class. So, I am concerned a bit but not in panic mode. I personally like to have a few spots available for a few walkons every year, let's face it, those kids are probably every bit as good as kids you would have on ship in those last 3-4 spots, they appreciate the opportunity more and play with more heart many times than the kids that are "given" them coming out of HS. Now, that being said, we should never be at 75 players at this time of the year because you never know what might happen between now and August. But, it is what is and so we just have to hope the kids we have stay healthy and then we hit a great and full class next year.

All for now, Go Dogs!!