Instantaneous Ill-Informed Roundball Wrapup: Georgia Bulldogs 78, Tennessee Volunteers 63
by T Kyle King on Jan 23, 2010 7:44 PM EST
in Basketball
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Print(Please note that MaconDawg is the basketball expert around here. My descriptions of basketball action are so rudimentary, they sound like they were thought up by Benjy Compson. Accordingly, this is my utterly ignorant immediate reaction to today's game, upon which you are invited to improve in the comments.)
Uh . . . dang. Bruce Pearl's Tennessee Volunteers were, like, good, and had, um, won some games against, you know, some other teams that also were good, and, well, Mark Fox's Georgia Bulldogs, I mean, beat them, and all.
The Fox Hounds started strong, took a fifteen-point halftime lead into the locker room, faltered a little in the second half, yet still matched the Big Orange point-for-point (36-36 after the break, if you must know) to claim a fifteen-point victory over a quality team. Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins seem to be good, and stuff. The victory was historic, because Andy Landers's Lady Dogs beat Pat Summitt's Lady Vols a few days ago, so this was the first time Georgia had beaten Tennessee in both men's and women's basketball in the same week in approximately eleventy gazillion years. That's just a guesstimate.
As I wrote in the comment thread, "there’s the slightest sliver of a chance that, at some indeterminate point in the future, there may come a day when the possibility arises that, at least for sporadic periods, it might not totally suck to be a Georgia Bulldog!" Clearly, Mark Fox has this program headed in the right direction, which brings us to the two relevant questions:
- How long will the process take?
- How high is the ceiling on this program?
The last five games have offered some indication of the answer to the first question. In the next couple or three years, we're going to go a long way toward learning the answer to the second.
Go 'Dawgs!
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Is the question
how long will it take for someone to be a Hoop Dawg fan and not be a fan of a team that stinks? Well, honestly, I think that one’s been answered. It’s not terrible right now. We are competitive with good teams. We’ve beaten one good team, albeit without their original players. A win is a win.
The ceiling? Well, I’m going to follow ADDE line of thinking and say that we have some of the best fans, facilities, and we have the money to get even better facilities when warranted, so the ceiling for this program is unlimited. Now it’s time to give the best players, at least in the state of GA, a reason to come to the program. If Fox can recruit and instill a sense of pride in this program with those players, then others from around the country will follow. As one of my coach friends reminds me at camp every year, it’s not about the X’s and the O’s, it’s about the Jimmys and the Joes!
That's absolutely the question
Georgia basketball shouldn’t need to go out of state even as often as Georgia football where recruiting is concerned; Mark Fox has in Atlanta what Jett Rink had at Little Reata: a waterhole situated on top of an oil well. If he can tap into that, the sky is the limit . . . but that is a big “if.”
He’s off to a good start, but turning those close losses into consistent victories will require depth, and that will require selling Atlanta-based basketball prodigies on a program they have managed to ignore for decades.
Go 'Dawgs!
If we could sign
2 of the top 7 or 8 kids out of the ATL each year, we’d be set. A day like today has already impressed some, I’m sure. Leslie’s dunkfest is the best kind of publicity…all over the evening highlights on the wrap-up shows.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
by DavetheDawg on Jan 23, 2010 10:48 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
True but
I think he has access to some other areas as well. S. Carolina has some pretty good players too, and several of them come from the Greenville/Spartanburg area and that isn’t a very long drive to Athens either. Selling several areas builds depth faster and acts as a bit of an insurance policy for the “one that got away”.
So to clear up my statement above. How long will it take to be a Hoop Dawg fan and be a fan of a team that doesn’t stink? Apparently it can be done quickly. Mark Fox has done it in 4 league games. That’s a pretty quick turnaround.
Beating Tech, beating UT, hopefully making a run in the SEC tourney which at least gets a bid to the Not Invited Tourney, which is a step up for the Dawgs, but with the possibility of getting an invitation to play with the big boys, would make tremendous progress into bringing good players to Stegeman. The fans turning out in droves and being a fun bunch like they were today, also helps. Kids want to play in a place where they will be appreciated and where there’s “electricity”. Playing at Duke, for example, is about playing for a great coach, in a great program, in front of arguably the greatest fans, in one of the greatest venues for college basketball. The building is great because of the fans. The fans are great because they are intense. The program is great because kids want to go there. The coach is great because he has a great handle on the game and he gets great players.
Can we get there? Yes. Will it happen in 2 years? No. Is Stegeman a detriment to bringing in great players? I don’t think so. I know that some folks believe it is because it’s not as fancy or large as some of the other schools in the SEC (See the O’Connell Center). At the same time, Cameron Indoor Stadium is tiny, it’s old, there’s no parking, and it looks like most every other building on campus. At the same time, attending a game in that old, small, innocuous building is AWESOME. Stegeman was a lot of fun when it was known as “The Tub” too. I hope the kids continue to build on the energy that was there today.
Well...
In regards to your statements about the Stegasaurus, Evans has got a pretty awesome plan for updating and improving it. The pictures of the planned upgrades makes me happy to say our basketball/gymnastics homecourt would be pretty nice after they finish all the upgrades (especially the external ones). Take a look sometime, I know there was a link to the plans here at some point in the past.
You are correct.
I’ve seen the plans. It will be better. My point was simply that we have great facilities anyway. Our practice gym is incredible, the players lounge there is also incredible, the weight room is incredible, and yes the Stegasaurus is going to get a little makeup which will help a little too.
Answers
1. It will take 1 year. We will be in the NCAA tourney next year. It takes 3 above average recruits per year to field a highly competitive team. If UT can do it; if MSU can do it; we have no excuse. None. And Fox will do it. Despite the ACC and all the others trolling metro ATL, there’s enough to go around for us to field a NCAA tourney caliber team. And for the first time in UGA history we have an AD who truly cares about basketball. It will happen.
2. We will never by UK and hoops will never rival football. But we can, with only a little will power and committment, consistently be the second best SEC program. This means regular trips to the second round of the NCAA tourney and periodic runs to the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four. A national championship for the primary state school of a state with our population and financial resources is not out of the question, but does require extraordinary leadership. Do we have it? We’ll see.
by Pope Herschel IV on Jan 24, 2010 12:23 AM EST reply actions
Mid-game
Around the end of the first half, I texted a friend of mine who couldn’t go either that if this is what Fox can do with what little talent was left under Felton (no shot at the guys, who are playing way over their heads right now), imagine what he could do with a team full of five Leslie’s or Thompkins’?
Considering the complete lack of bench depth, Georgia’s pulling off huge, huge games under Fox that we would not have seen under Felton.
People burn Evans alot, but this has got to show the man’s doing somewhat of a good job. Nobody (here) knew who Fox was when he was hired, but Evans got a hell of a man for the job.
I just have one question:
Does this mean we get to go to the Vol boards and talk about how our program is on an upswing and we are going to steal their recruits?
I kid!
"I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against." - Coach Grantham
My answers
1. If Thompkins is willing to stick around next year, the first major step will be taken care of in his second year. If not, it’ll probably take an extra couple of years to get there but what we’re doing currently is going to go a long way towards making it happen faster.
2. The ceiling for this program is exactly the same as what it is at Florida or Tennessee. We’re not going to be a North Carolina where we’re a potential Final Four team nearly every year, but we also should be able to compete with anyone in the country when the right classes line up.
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