Hold Your Horses: Why Mark Fox's Georgia Bulldogs Aren't As Far Along As You Think
Mark Fox’s Georgia Bulldogs, now with a newly-minted triumph over Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee Volunteers to lay alongside the Fox Hounds’ earlier wins against Illinois and Georgia Tech, have revived interest in Red and Black roundball, but are they ready to make some noise in the SEC?
At least for the moment, survey says . . . not so much. What the Hoop Dogs accomplished over the weekend did more to harm the Vols’ prospects than help their own. Georgia’s middling overall 9-8 record is inflated by a 5-0 mark against teams ranked outside the top 200 in the CBSSports.com RPI. The Bulldogs boast meager resumes against the teams rated first through 25th (1-2), 26th through 50th (1-2), and 51st through 75th (1-3).
While the Athenians are an accomplished club in Stegeman Coliseum at 9-2, Georgia has stumbled to a woeful 0-6 road record, including an 0-4 ledger in non-SEC contests played outside the Classic City. Those are troubling figures for a team with upcoming dates against Florida in Gainesville on Wednesday, South Carolina in Columbia on Saturday, 14th-ranked Tennessee in Knoxville on February 17, and 21st-ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville on February 25.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, folks. Coach Fox has this program pointed in the right direction, but let’s wait for back-to-back wins over decent teams before we start dreaming of the day when Georgia will appear in the field of eight 16 32 40 48 52 53 64 65.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo - i just called Rocky Man and he is coming to get you!
"I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against." - Coach Grantham
Hey, if you're going to start being upbeat . . .
. . . I’ll just have to be pessimistic enough for the both of us! :)
Go 'Dawgs!
"Fox Hounds"
I’m not going to argue against the nickname. In fact, I hope one day I’m able to embrace it. But for now, I’m just a little hung up on the fact that bulldogs are not hounds.
Hoop Hounds
Not that it matters (and I too hope you embrace it) but I’ll remind folks that the student section was called the Hoop Hounds my years in Athens (89-93).
by chrisvilledawg on Jan 26, 2010 6:46 PM EST up reply actions
I think if we can intentionally misspell "dog" as if a bunch of phonetically-challenged hicks from the sticks
…we can probably get away with a technically incorrect term whose usage tends toward the generic.
However, on the Lane Kiffin RPI...
… the Dawgs are considerably higher, because “keeping it close” counts as a win. Of course, the LK RPI has no mechanism for dealing with actual wins over Top Ten programs, as well as a bonus for secondary violations that puts Kentucky so far ahead as to be uncatchable.
classic
"I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against." - Coach Grantham
Look at the big picture...
Though I am loathe make tournament predictions at this point, the ceiling of this program and their pursuit of said ceiling to this point is worth discussing.
In a situation as dire as that in which the Hoop Dawgs found themselves after last season, one must approach the program in terms of the progress and continued improvement of the same group of Dawgs that brought the suck to games against such college basketball luminaries as Texas A&M- Corpus Christi last year (a “Midnight Train to Georgia” if you will.).
While I can’t argue with your home and away and RPI stats, there a few things I know. Yes the Dawgs are 9-8 — against the 6th hardest schedule in the country to this point. Yes we are 1-3 against the SEC so far — against the top 4 teams in the SEC by most accounts. Whether away or at home, the only question worth asking at this point is: At this juncture in the Mark Fox era, did you expect us to have wins over two top 25 teams? I for one can’t remember the last time that happened.
Is Mark Fox the savior we’ve been waiting for? Only time will tell. Does he have the Dawgs in a position to compete against any team in the country from week to.week? I don’t believe that’s really up for debate.
Losses against Wofford and UAB early in the season don’t carry nearly as much weight when put in perspective of the continued growth of the season at large. While I appreciate your pessimism and the place from which it comes, at this point I don’t think any of us would be shocked if the Hoop Dawgs defeat the Gators in Gainesville, the Poultry in Columbia, the Jumpsuits in Knoxville, or the Calipari NCAA Probation Brigade at home… And for now that’s enough and is frankly beyond any of our wildest expectations of the first year of the CMF era.
"I Run This State." - Washaun Ealey and Caleb King
by RedCrake on Jan 25, 2010 11:49 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Wow...
Commenting at midnight isn’t in the best interest of displaying ones spelling and grammar skills.
"I Run This State." - Washaun Ealey and Caleb King
by RedCrake on Jan 25, 2010 11:52 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
i am an expert in that field - usually have lit along with it!
"I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against." - Coach Grantham
point made - have / half
"I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against." - Coach Grantham
It won't take a NCAA toruney appearance this year to make me happy
Like RedCrake said, Fox has this team at where they have a chance to pull off a big win against a top team on any given day. And that is exciting. It’s exciting to know that beating the Gators on Wednesday is not an impossibility. This team has seemingly picked up steam as the season has gone on, and I expect a couple more upsets before its all said and done.
Making Progress
UGA played the current best team in America closer than any other team. UGA has a much more athletic team than we do. For some reason, Billy-D has been a little off in recruiting athletes since the ‘04s departed and we returned to earth on the hardwood. Fox is starting to show what athletic teams can do – even if they aren’t stocked with big names and McDonalds AAs. I think UGA has a great chance to beat UF this week – but then again, any team can as long as we still have Dan Werner in uniform. Like UGA, we play much better at home, so I think it is more likely that UGA beats UF next month in Athens. But, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if UGA pulls the upset this week.
I don't get the point of this post.
Since they have a monumentally huge tournament, why are we talking about the regular season?
;)

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