Georgia Bulldogs at Vanderbilt Commodores: The Haphazard Ill-Informed Roundball Preview
by T Kyle King on Jan 12, 2011 6:00 AM EST
in Georgia Bulldogs Basketball
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PrintWe’re a basketball school now. The 2010 college football season made me want to puke, the Georgia Bulldogs just recorded their biggest win of the Mark Fox era, and we’re all getting better educated about roundball, so it’s time for the haphazard ill-informed roundball preview of tonight’s opponent, the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Against the Music City Mariners, depth is a concern for the Classic City Canines, who have been forced to rely more heavily upon their starters than other SEC squads. Georgia is one of just two teams in the conference to have four first-teamers who average more than 30 minutes per game.
The Commodores historically have presented an especially daunting challenge for the Red and Black in Nashville. The newly-ranked Bulldogs will be the seventh Georgia squad to have faced Vanderbilt on the road as a member of the AP top 25, and five of the first six such squads went down to defeat.
Memorial Gym has been one of the league’s more unfriendly venues for the Athenians, who have carded just 13 of their 48 series victories over the Commodores in Nashville while sustaining 50 of their 82 setbacks to Vanderbilt on the Black and Gold’s home court. Fortunately, Coach Fox actually has a respectable record in road games, having gone 49-32 on opponents’ home floors in spite of last season’s woeful 0-11 ledger in true away games. The Bulldogs bring a three-game road winning streak into Memorial Gym, where they have not won in five years, and they hope to continue to build momentum by carding their first SEC road win since March 2009.
In the last meeting between these two teams, Vandy eliminated the Hoop Hounds from the SEC Tourney to end the Athenians’ slim hopes of landing a postseason berth. A win in the Music City tonight would go a long way toward cementing Georgia’s prospects for an NCAA Tournament invitation in March.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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I don't think the minutes per game
is really that large of an issue. At least not at this point in the season. As we get closer to tourney time, it will become more of an issue, but as long as the conditioning has been adequate, we’ll be OK. Most coaches use a 7 or 8 man rotation anyway. The key is to have 2 or 3 guys who can produce from multiple positions on the floor. It’s always nice if those players can produce points, rebounds, and great defense but very few have that type of luxury night in and night out. As long as they can come in and defend pretty well, rebound, and work the offense, we’ll be just fine.
Agreed
As long as we can get one of our guards (likely Gerald Robinson, since Dustin Ware used his one good game of the year already @ Tech) to put up some points and draw some pressure away from Thompkins and Price, we can beat anybody in the SEC. This would be a great win for the program and for the postseason resume. Go Dawgs!
by ForsythCoDawg on Jan 12, 2011 10:46 AM EST up reply actions
Why the hate on Ware?
Just because he doesn’t put up as many points as Thompkins, Leslie, or Robinson, doesn’t mean that he’s not as valuable. If I’m not mistaken, he has one of the best assist/turnover ratios in the country, something that’s very valuable in a point guard.
by hailtogeorgia on Jan 12, 2011 11:03 AM EST up reply actions
He's fine, but he's not consistent enough from beyond the arc...
They desperately need a zonebuster or they’re going to be stymied by a lot of 2-3 zones as the season progresses.
by Biggus Rickus on Jan 12, 2011 3:58 PM EST up reply actions
Foul trouble...that could be a concern.
Knock on (hard)wood.
Ware...
has always been the source of animosity from me, some unfair and some (I feel) deserved. He is maddeningly un-clutch (again, outside of Tech) and seems to make mistakes at the worst possible times. I think a lot of my disdain comes from watching this team last year and seeing him turn the ball over on horrendous passes 7 or 8 times a game and hearing the announcers praise him through it all. But like I said, some of my hate is unfairly misplaced. That said, I would like to see him become a more reliable shooter. We don’t need 20 points from him, but it would be a huge boost to the team to see him offer up 3 or 4 threes/game from him.
Well, honestly
Ware does a pretty good job. Some of his turnover troubles last year were the result of depending on him too heavily. I would encourage you to give him another look and forget about last year. He’s pretty talented and does a lot of things to help this team win. Clutch is good especially in scoring, but clutch in ballhandling can be even more important. He’s become a lot more clutch in his control of the game in my opinion. He’s not so heavily depended upon now with Gerald Robinson out there too which helps.
He was the only ball-handler
which means he had to be out there all the time, under constant pressure because the other teams knew it too.
You exaggerate...
Ware has never turned it over 7 or 8 times in a game. He’s been one of the most protective players, and probably has the fewest turnovers in the country relative to how often he has the ball. A lot of those “horrendous passes” imo were due to big men with Roberto Duran hands.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
I think this is a much tougher game than UK last Saturday
for a few reasons, the deck is really stacked against us:
—It’s at Vandy and they have a substantial HC advantage, historically;
—Vandy lost to SC over the weekend, so they will be focused;
—I think we matched up well with UK because they have shooters but do not depend on them. Robinson, Ware, and Leslie MUST be all over the 3 point line for us to win;
—Vanderbilt will not be as reluctant as a Calipari-coached team to play a zone for a long time. Well, even UK went zone on Saturday. Guess when? It was only when Calipari gave up on the zone (I have yet to figure out why) that we started scoring again and re-took the lead.
Vandy will zone us to death from near the start, I’d bet, because they know right off they haven’t the quicks to keep up with us. We better be ready to score on it while shutting down their shooters.
nice take
and there is that whole win an SEC road game thing………….
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I agree with you wholeheartedly .
I think this is a much tougher game for us for the reasons you mentioned and because as far as I can tell we we spent yesterday on the road and I don’t know what kind of practice time we were able to get in today.
Let’s hope Mark Fox can be the Zack Morris to Kevin Stallings’ Mr. Belding.
"I want anything wearing red and black to tear the head off anything that isn't." - Lewis Grizzard
As skigator noted below
NEVER EVER underestimate the mental issues that come with playing on the elevated floor with your bench in a strange location. You look for your coach in the normal location to find he isn’t there; very unsettling.
I've got no TV for the game tonight...
unless I go PPV…which is a bit too pricey for my blood.
It’s not on ESPN3 I don’t think. Can anybody suggest a good streaming site?
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
I was about to ask the same thing. I would PPV it, but I dont think I can on Cox. Where is this game?
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Gotta think
had Vandy beaten Carolina, this game would at least be on ESPN…pitting two top 25 teams.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
I found the game on SP04 on Cox - which I think is a gameday package channel. crap.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
It is on ESPN3
Though their streams often suck.
That means watching on the computer though, right?
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I am heading to best buy to buy a new 23" monitor if that is true
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
The Georgia athletics website says . . .
. . . it’s a live regional telecast on the SEC Network. Doesn’t that mean the game will be on Peachtree TV?
Go 'Dawgs!
Not that it helps tt or Dave much
"If there's one thing worse than chlamydia, it's Florida." ~ Emma Stone, Easy A
thanks for caring though
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
That is computer only right?
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Conference basketball coverage
in my neck of the woods is a crap shoot. Just another reason for our guys to win…for regular ESPN rotation.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
It'll be on whichever channel carries the SEC Network up there...
I have it down here in Jacksonville on a podunk station.
by Biggus Rickus on Jan 12, 2011 7:27 PM EST up reply actions
I imagine ESPN3 is your best bet
if you don’t have an SEC network station. If you have access to one of those fancy scmancy projectors that connect to your computer, it can be really fun that way. Just sayin’
I can hook my laptop up to my reciever - but I really ready to set that up yet.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
really aint ready
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
ESPN3's streams often blow anyway
It’s like trying to watch the Shockers on Channel 22,, tankertoad, You can’t see jack no matter how big it is because the production/streaming quality is so bad.
yea - thanks for keeping me from going crazy trying to rig up stuff
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Another option would be to move to Georgia . . .
. . . and watch it on television like a regular person! :)
Go 'Dawgs!
Let me ask the air force -
ok, they said no.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Get me job at the local university
no, not a custodial job, thanks. Hey wait a minute…there’s that application to Clemson out there yet…
Yeah, and me on the sucking no-local-tv/computer vision
But I get to watch stuff at work that way.
I will say this - I am not happy with Cox Cable. I am about to get Direct TV and a cell phone only.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
Would you like to give the folks at DirecTV
my account number so we both get $100?
lol - will see about it when I pull the trigger. I got to get the House Alarm on a cell box first. Then I can axe the tv and phone line.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
You beat me to it, Eric.
You’ll be happier with a dish, tankertoad.
Abandoning a land line is a questionable call, though. The beauty of a land line is that you can have trees near your house and still talk on the phone.
Go 'Dawgs!
yea, no kidding!
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I would get a majik jack if needed.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I had dish in NC - not happy
I am not happy with $190 to Cox Cable for the full deal either. that plus an Iphone = $270 a month in multi media.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
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