Tuesday Morning Dawg Bites: Lady Bulldogs Fall in Knoxville, Diamond Dogs' Opening Weekend Woes Explained

This date marks the anniversary of the birth of George Washington in 1732, the founding of the Phi Kappa Literary Society in 1820, and the establishment of the permanent (such as it was) government of the Confederate States of America in 1862, but it’s also a Tuesday on which you need to be aware of the following in order to be up to speed on events in Bulldog Nation:

• The latest AP basketball poll was released yesterday, and among the anointed are the No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the No. 13 Florida Gators, the No. 18 Vanderbilt Commodores, the No. 22 Kentucky Wildcats, the No. 24 Temple Owls, and the No. 25 Xavier Musketeers. In other words, seven of the Georgia Bulldogs’ eight losses this season have come against teams currently ranked in the top 25.
• Elsewhere in Red and Black hoops, Andy Landers’s Lady Bulldogs crossed paths with the Tennessee Volunteers on Monday night. The ranked squads represented the top two women’s basketball teams in the SEC, but the gap between first and second place proved to be huge, as the Lady Vols dealt the Lady Dogs a 77-44 drubbing to remain perfect in conference play . . . and the game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. Paul Westerdawg is right: Andy Landers is who Dean Smith would have been if he’d had to share a conference with John Wooden.
• Another Georgia squad that suffered a demoralizing loss to the Big Orange was the men’s tennis team, but the Bulldog netters rebounded to close out the ITA National Indoors with a win over No. 7 Stanford in Seattle. A second Red and Black club competing in an exotic locale was the men’s golf team, which stood in seventh place following the second round of the Puerto Rico Classic.
• I was thrilled when I heard that Jay Clark was guiding tours of the Suzanne Yoculan Gymnastics Center, because I assumed that meant he had been demoted to a position commensurate with his talents, but it turns out he’s still our head gymnastics coach, after all. Try to enjoy the video, anyway.
• Speaking of Georgia coaches of questionable job security, Team Speed Kills identifies pitching as the problem for the Diamond Dogs against Stetson. Who is Georgia’s pitching coach, again? Oh, right. Look, I defended David Perno after the 2008 College World Series run, but, after last year’s absolute debacle, I’m back to thinking Coach Perno needs to prove it this year or hit the bricks. I’m rooting for him, but it is simply intolerable for our oldest varsity sport to perform this poorly for this long.

That should get you caught up on the news of note as you prepare to begin your work day. Don’t forget that the South Carolina Gamecocks host the Mississippi Rebels in Columbia for a men’s basketball game being televised on ESPNU at 7:00 tonight. Since the Palmetto State Poultry are the Fox Hounds’ Saturday opponent this week, there would be worse ways for you to spend your evening than by watching (and rooting for) the Gamecocks.

Go ‘Dawgs!