Brutal Start to 2012 Continues for Bulldogs as Tennessee Trounces Georgia
by T Kyle King on Jan 5, 2012 9:05 PM EST
in Georgia Bulldogs Sporting Events
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PrintI don’t know if 2012 is the year that will mark the end of the world, but it sure felt like it when the Michigan St. Spartans blocked a Blair Walsh field goal attempt at the end of the Outback Bowl. Fortunately, that was not the last University of Georgia sporting event of the week, which is why I now have occasion to bring you up to date on the latest developments in Red and Black intercollegiate athletics:
The Georgia Diving Invitational and Shootout took place at Gabrielsen Natatorium this week, highlighted by Owen Blank’s fourth-place finish in the men’s one-meter springboard on Wednesday and Ann-Perry Blank’s ninth-place finish on platform. The Bulldog swimming and diving teams will be back in action at Texas on Saturday.
Warning: What follows after the jump is not for the faint at heart.
On Thursday night, Andy Landers’s 16th-ranked Lady Bulldogs took on Pat Summitt’s sixth-ranked Lady Volunteers in Knoxville, where the Red and Black had won just four times in 21 tries. The end result was brutal, as the Big Orange bludgeoned the visitors, 80-51.
Partly due to seven first-half Tennessee turnovers, Georgia was within striking distance at intermission, when the Athenians trailed by a 36-27 score. However, the Lady Vols had outscored the Lady Dogs on the fast break (8-0) and in the paint (20-4) while draining around 50 per cent of their shots from the field (14 of 27) and from beyond the arc (3 of 6) in the opening 20 minutes. The second half was all orange, as Tennessee outscored Georgia, 44-24, in a final 20 minutes that weren’t that close.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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I'm already not a big fan of Andy Landers. He and Jay Clark better find another gear soon.
Seriously – people wanted to talk Coach Richt hotseat, but those two are in much worse shape, especially Coach Clark if we bomb again this year. As good as the Lady Dogs are, UT was a litmus test, and we failed badly. I was actually tracking this game tonight and awaiting your post.
Editor, "Dawgsports"
"The ball ain't heavy." Herschel Walker
by chuckdawg on Jan 5, 2012 9:33 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Not to mention
The Lady Dawgs have been humiliated in the Sweet 16 two years in a row. Sure, Sweet 16s are nice, but the goal is to ultimately win championships and we aren’t close.
You want to fire Andy Landers because he can't beat Tennessee?
That’s like wanting to fire Mark Fox because Georgia never wins when they face the #1-ranked team in the country.
Andy Landers is literally the only full-time coach the Georgia women’s basketball program has ever had. He’s taken the Lady Dogs to 2 national championship games, 5 Final Fours, and 10 Elite 8’s. In fact, he holds the rather dubious distinction of being the winningest active Division I women’s coach never to win a national championship.
On top of that he has coached women who have gone on to be Olympians, professional basketball players, and generally just successful in life. He coaches the game, but he also builds his ladies into women of character who are well-grounded and virtually all stay in touch in some way with him and the University after they graduate.
To put it bluntly, Andy Landers has earned the right to say when he doesn’t have it anymore. The fact that he’s not Pat Summitt or Geno Auriemma is not sufficient reason to fire the man.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
by vineyarddawg on Jan 5, 2012 11:32 PM EST up reply actions
So what you are trying to say
is that Andy Lander’s is the Mark Richt of Women’s NCAA Basketball
I HATE ORANGE, and DGNBs
I wish CMR had us in two NC games. )
Editor, "Dawgsports"
"The ball ain't heavy." Herschel Walker
by chuckdawg on Jan 5, 2012 11:36 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
He has had a good run, but not in the last years. And with all that talent, the lack of a NC is kinda sad.
And yea, losing endlessly to UT is getting old. And unlike the men’s program, the women’s program has had a LOT of top talent and support. I dont like the idea anyone gets to hold onto a job forever, and neither does our AD.
Editor, "Dawgsports"
"The ball ain't heavy." Herschel Walker
He's failed to reach the Sweet 16 for each of the last two years...
… but if you want to see how far and how quickly a program can fall after firing a legendary head coach and alienating all of his former players while doing so, just talk to Louisiana Tech University. or Old Dominion.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
by vineyarddawg on Jan 5, 2012 11:56 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed, let Landers leave on his own terms
it’ll be soon enough, and we’ll keep making the tourney in the mean time.
http://sportsandgrits.com/
And I especially object to the comparison between Landers and Jay Clark.
Andy Landers built a program from literally nothing into a perennial nationally-ranked power. He has been the head coach of his program for 33 years, and in that time has missed the postseason tournament exactly twice. As women’s basketball has attained more parity at higher levels of competition (at least, for teams not named UConn), he’s reverted to the mean a little bit, but he’s still only finished outside the Sweet 16 twice in the last 7 years, and very few programs can say that.
Jay Clark is the equivalent of Ron Jirsa. He’s been in the shadow of a great coach’s success, and now that he’s standing on his own two feet for the first time, he has taken a program that was the best in its sport and made it barely a top-10 finisher in a sport where there are only 5-6 elite programs.
Jay Clark is nothing like Andy Landers.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
by vineyarddawg on Jan 5, 2012 11:52 PM EST up reply actions
I object to your objection!
33 years is a good run, with a good paycheck and retirement. I have no ill will towards the man. I am just ready to take all that talent and finish the drill. And the last years have been lackluster. Should we keep him around another 10 years just because of the glory days?
Btw – I am more on your side than you may think. I am proud of Andy Landers. I am just not convinced we are going in the right direction anymore.
Editor, "Dawgsports"
"The ball ain't heavy." Herschel Walker
I guess the ultimate issue...
… is that I’m not ready to drop the guy after two subpar years. It’s true that we haven’t made a Final Four, or even an Elite 8, in a while, but every coach goes through the lean years.
Take Jody Conradt at Texas, for example. She had a stretch during the ’80’s when her teams went to the Elite 8 or better for 8 straight years, including one national championship. She followed that up with an 11-year run when her teams finished no better than the second round of the NCAA tournament, and missed the tourney completely twice.
She then reeled off 3 straight seasons of Sweet 16, Final Four, and Sweet 16 before retiring after two more subpar years when her teams missed the tourney completely.
Jody Conradt’s trophy case doesn’t compare to the game’s “greatest coaches,” either, but she was still the first women’s coach to reach 700 victories, and was the first women’s basketball coach inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
I would go so far as to say that Coach Landers’ current record is far better than Conradt’s, and he doesn’t look like he’s slowing down to me. We’ve had two poor years by our program’s standards, but we’re still reeling off top-25 rankings and Sweet 16 appearances… and that’s a level of achievement at which it’s easy to become spoiled.
It’s kind of like having a football coach that gets 10 wins almost every year. Before too long, people want to fire him for only getting 9 wins. :-)
So, in answer to Dawg2011 above, I guess I am kind of saying that Andy Landers is kind of like Mark Richt from a career achievement standpoint.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
by vineyarddawg on Jan 6, 2012 12:21 AM EST up reply actions
Just to be clear, I am not ready to drop him either. This year, he's on deck.
Editor, "Dawgsports"
"The ball ain't heavy." Herschel Walker
Fair enough.
His teams have certainly not achieved up to the standards he’s set for himself over the last two years… no one can dispute that.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
Kyle.... Off topic.
No wonder you want to play Clemson in 2013-2014 so badly.
- FOW
by skandrewj62j on Jan 6, 2012 11:08 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
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