Due to inclement weather (which is, of course, a euphemism for "rain") in the Classic City, the Diamond Dogs’ scheduled meeting with the Crimson Tide has been postponed. The two teams will play a double-header at Foley Field tomorrow, with the first game slated to start at 3:00 Friday afternoon and the later game getting underway at 6:30 that evening.

Evidently, Damon Evans is serious about Thursday night sporting events in Athens! Nah, I’m just kidding; I think well of Evans, but I don’t think he has the power to make it rain . . . which distinguishes him from Orson Swindle’s readership, who (despite a low total from the Georgia faithful which was bolstered by the admirable efforts of BCDawg97 and NCT) contributed $20,000 towards disaster relief. So much for the notion "that blogs are dedicated to cruelty," huh?

(By the way, I am truly remiss in not having mentioned this sooner, but, as many of you know, Kevin Donahue of Fanblogs fame recently had a heart attack. Naturally, all of us here at Dawg Sports send our best wishes to Kevin, however belatedly, for his speedy and complete recovery. Kevin and his wife, Merrin, have been in our prayers, if not, until now, on our weblog.)

In any event, since you won’t be getting a baseball game against Alabama tonight, I suppose I should offer at least some Crimson Tide-related news, so permit me to point you in the direction of Roll Bama Roll’s long-awaited big announcement. Since Nico is awaiting the publisher’s approval before releasing further details, and since I’m better at keeping secrets than, say, my good friend Doug Gillett, I will add nothing more, except to say that I think you’ll want to stay tuned for those forthcoming additional data.

Go ‘Dawgs!

I know better than to respond to this kind of low-rent mudslinging. Really, I do.

I know better than to add my two cents' worth after Will Leitch, Orson Swindle, and MaconDawg, as well as SG Standard, Joel, and HornsFan (you know . . . some of those dastardly blog commenters we hear so much about!), already have said all that needed to be said.

I know better than to engage in debate with a grown man who answers to the name "Buzz" but who has not either walked on the moon or defended the galaxy from the threat of the evil Emperor Zurg as a member of the elite Space Ranger Corps.

Nevertheless, I will add my voice to the chorus for the purpose of making two points which bear enunciating and reiterating. These are they:

1. The blogger and the beat reporter, like the farmer and the cowman, should be friends. The traditional media are not the enemy. We in the blogosphere must take special care not to lump all professional journalists together; if we do so, we are guilty of the same bigotry as the Buzz Bissingers of the world.

Although some cracks are appearing in the perceived barrier between the two roles, it generally is the case that professional news outlets are getting interviews, breaking stories, and publishing box scores, fulfilling essential functions we in the blogosphere could not (and, typically, do not aspire to) replicate.

Likewise, the search for commentary and analysis increasingly is turning to the blogosphere, but this loss of readership is suffered not by full-time reporters, but by the punditocracy that knows its fifteen minutes of fame are on the verge of expiring. Bissinger is aware of this and he is reacting the way fans of The New Yorker did to Tom Wolfe's incisive and witty takedown of the moribund magazine a generation ago.

Bissinger knows full well, or ought to know if he is anything other than ignorant and wholly lacking in self-awareness (which certainly could be the case), that condescending pundits in the Stewart Mandel mode are every bit as self-appointed and lacking in valid credentials as the bloggers upon whom he heaps his disdain with such vitriol. Which brings me to my second point:

2. Buzz Bissinger has nothing to teach the blogosphere about good manners and insightful observations. If you're trying to convince me that you're the last noble Roman standing astride the bridge, bravely warding off the invading horde in a quixotic effort to save the last vestige of human decency, you may not want to go about it by unleashing a profanity-riddled tirade at a guy you're mad at for being several orders of magnitude more famous and more widely-read than you are, because you'll just come across as a crotchety Luddite fuddy-duddy . . . and I say that as someone who is himself a crotchety Luddite fuddy-duddy. (These kids today! With their iPods and their text messages and their TiVo!)

I'm proud of the community all of you, MaconDawg, and I have built here at Dawg Sports; I'm proud of the quality of the discourse that goes on here. It offends me to no end (see, Buzz? some of us can express ourselves using language that doesn't make others wonder whether we kiss our mother with that mouth; Bissinger used rather a more evocatively colorful phrase when voicing precisely that sentiment on Bob Costas's show) to have bloggers tarred with the brush of what their commenters write, particularly when any number of blogs---including, I am happy to say, this one---have made a concerted effort to keep the conversation at a high level and have found a readership---which, once again, most certainly includes the regular commenters at this site---that is responsive to, and respectful of, such standards.

When a guy is obnoxious enough long enough and is given a sufficient number of chances, he gets banned. When a guy offers an honest constructive criticism of the message this site sends, he gets results. The conversation around here sometimes gets heated, but the discussion typically is thoughtful, witty, and incisive. The same could be said for any number of other weblogs.

One thing Will Leitch said deserves special amplification: yes, anyone can blog, but not just anyone can blog well, and the cream rises to the top in the blogosphere as it does in few other walks of life. One of the reasons weblogging is so perfectly suited to analyzing sports is that both are meritocracies in which neither nepotism nor seniority nor even name recognition, good looks, and personal wealth are any substitute for quality.

The difference between Braylon Edwards and Will Leitch on the one hand, and Buzz Bissinger and Bob Costas on the other, is that, if the job performance of the former two were to decline sharply and consistently for a long enough period of time, they'd both have to go find another line of work. The latter two, evidently, need not bear such burdens, and this unfortunate condition has freed them to act like cheap hacks, to be as nasty as they want to be, and to suffer the fate of aging boxers who have fallen out of fighting shape and, sadly, feel the need to flail as wildly against the inexorable rush of fleeing time as against the younger, swifter challengers who are battering them into submission.

When Will Leitch appeared on ESPN Radio some months ago, I wrote:

While I do not presume that Buzz Bissinger speaks for anyone other than himself, Bob Costas's ostensible (and, if true, deplorable) complicity in this premeditated thuggery suggests that influential figures in the traditional media have opted to chart the "escalating war of words" course rather than take the "peaceful relations between established and novel forms of media" path Scott Van Pelt appeared to prefer.

That, I believe, is unfortunate, although it is not irreversible. I do not know Will Leitch, having never met or corresponded with him, and, to the best of my recollection, Deadspin has linked to Dawg Sports no more than twice (if that) in this site's existence. I have no reason to think ill of him, but neither do I have any vested interest in defending him, except for the not insignificant fact that he appears to have been cast in the role of front-line footsoldier and demonized synecdoche for the sports blogosphere.

If Buzz Bissinger and Bob Costas want to tar good, hardworking people for the sin of loving their sports teams because they didn't like four---count 'em, four---comments left at Deadspin, they lose all credibility with me and I not only will defend Will Leitch out of a sense of blogger solidarity, I will take quite personally their prejudiced broadsides against my readers, my co-author, and me.

I challenge Buzz Bissinger and Bob Costas to read Dawg Sports for a week. Give me a week . . . read every posting, every diary, and every comment for seven straight days, then tell me about the lack of quality in what is written in the blogosphere by bloggers and commenters alike. I stand by what we do here---what all of us do here---and I take the gravest possible exception to any ignorant insinuations to the contrary.

But, Buzz, if you do stop by and you want to leave a comment . . . watch your language. We run a family-friendly site around here, bub, and, in these parts, vulgarity is no substitute for argument.

Go 'Dawgs!

While the Diamond Dogs were taking care of business against the Gators in Gainesville, the Gym Dogs were hosting Florida and four of the other top gymnastics squads in the country in the final round of the N.C.A.A. championships. I'd love to be able to regale you with a thrilling tale of triumph over adversity, of coming back against insurmountable odds, and of pulling out a victory when all seemed lost, but, honestly, when Georgia got to go for its fourth straight national title in Stegeman Coliseum, it really was no contest.

The Red and Black were on the floor for the first rotation and the previous evening's enthusiasm and execution carried over to Friday night. Led by a 9.95 from Katie Heenan and 9.9s from Cassidy McComb and Tiffany Tolnay, the host squad posted a 49.475 in the opening round of the meet. This mark exceeded the scores posted by Alabama (49.1 in the vault), Utah (49.1 on the beam), and Florida (49.05 on the bars).

To the second rotation the Gym Dogs went, where they were to compete in the event that has been the closest thing to an Achilles heel that Suzanne Yoculan's squad has displayed all season, the vault. In what oftentimes has been the team's weakest event, Georgia was guided to a 49.225 by Marcia Newby (9.85), Tolnay (9.85), Heenan (9.875), and McComb (9.9).

Meanwhile, the Gators notched a trio of 9.8s on the way to a 48.85 on the beam, giving the Gym Dogs a 98.7-97.9 edge on Florida. Stanford also chalked up a 49.225 on the bars and L.S.U. received a 49.125 on the floor. In the third rotation, as the Red and Black drew their first bye, Utah earned a 49.275 in the floor exercise to outpace Louisiana State (49.225 in the vault), Stanford (49.175 on the beam), and Alabama (49.075 on the bars).

The Gym Dogs' turn on the parallel bars featured a 9.9 from McComb and a 9.925 from Courtney McCool en route to a 49.375 tally in a fourth rotation which also saw Florida garner a 49.4 on the floor; Utah, a 49.4 in the vault; and Alabama, a 48.425 on the beam.

Because Georgia had drawn its second bye in the sixth leg of the meet, the fifth rotation was the final one in which the Red and Black were to compete. In their last chance to put up points, the home team posted a 49.375 on the beam on the strength of a 9.9 from McCool and a 9.95 from Heenan to give the Gym Dogs a 197.45 final mark.

The Gators, who likewise drew a sixth-round bye, put up a 49.4 in the vault to card a cumulative score of 196.7, which was solid but well in their hosts' wake. The other marks posted in the fifth rotation included Stanford's 49.225 on the floor and Louisiana State's 49.2 on the bars.

Georgia then got to sit back and watch a sixth rotation in which the Crimson Tide chalked up a stellar 49.525 in the floor exercise yet still finished sixth with an overall 196.125 mark, the Bayou Bengals tallied the 48.8 on the balance beam that left L.S.U. languishing in fifth place with a collective 196.35, the Cardinal notched a 49.125 in the vault to edge Florida for third place with a combined 196.75, and the Red Rocks received a 49.35 on the uneven parallel bars to improve their score to a second-place 197.125.

It is exceedingly difficult to comment on the way in which Coach Yoculan's gymnastics squads perform on the grandest of stages without sounding hyperbolic. With the national championship on the line, in a meet in which Florida's 196.7 was good enough only for fourth place, Georgia saw a Utah program that historically has set the standard for collegiate gymnastics programs post an extremely solid 197.125, yet still fall to the Gym Dogs by more than three-tenths of a point.

In the course of claiming the squad's fourth consecutive national title, a Red and Black team overflowing with all-Americans produced two of the top three scorers on the bars, four of the top six scorers on the beam, and three of the top seven scorers in the floor exercise.

Any congratulations I could offer to Coach Yoculan and her team would be meager indeed. How does one thank a senior class that will graduate having never known a season which didn't result in a national championship? The Gym Dogs simply are the embodiment of excellence and I lack the vocabulary adequately to describe a program that has succeeded so consistently that the exceptional has come to be expected and being the best has become merely routine.

Go 'Dawgs!

It has been a busy day in Bulldog Nation. As pointed out by SkiDawg1985 and Cline, Aaron Murray chose Georgia over Florida and U.C.L.A., while Orson Swindle defined us with disturbing accuracy and Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana State all advanced from the afternoon session of the N.C.A.A. gymnastics championships in Athens. (Insert your "S.E.C. speed" reference here.)

The top-seeded Gym Dogs competed in the evening session alongside five teams the Red and Black had faced earlier in the season: Utah, Stanford, Michigan, U.C.L.A., and Denver. Georgia began the meet on the balance beam in the first rotation, where the home team posted a cumulative 49.35 score, to which the Red and Black were guided by marks of 9.9 from Grace Taylor and 9.95 from Katie Heenan.

That solid start did not give the Gym Dogs the highest tally of the initial rotation, however, as the Bruins put up an impressive 49.475 on the bars on the strength of five scores of 9.85 or better. The rest of the rotation was rounded out by Stanford's 49.175 in the floor exercise and Denver's 48.625 in the vault.

Georgia drew a bye in the second rotation, in which Utah received a 49.3 on the bars; Stanford, a 49.2 in the vault; Michigan, a 49.1 on the floor; and U.C.L.A., a 48.8 on the beam. Suzanne Yoculan's squad drew the floor exercise for the third leg of the meet and a pair of 9.9s from Cassidy McComb and Courtney McCool, coupled with a 9.925 from Tiffany Tolnay, earned the Red and Black a 49.4 mark. Also during the rotation, Utah put up a 49.05 on the beam; Michigan, a 48.95 in the vault; and Denver, a 48.85 on the bars.

Georgia moved on to the vault for the fourth rotation. There the Gym Dogs posted a 9.9 from Heenan and a 9.95 from Marcia Newby to combine for a 49.375 total while Stanford (49.325 on the bars), U.C.L.A. (49.2 on the floor), and Denver (47.95 on the beam) all trailed the host team.

The Red and Black drew their second bye during the fifth rotation, when Michigan notched a 49.375 on the bars; Stanford, a 49.2 on the beam; Utah, a 49.2 on the floor; and U.C.L.A., a 49.25 in the vault. This put the two Pac-10 participants in first and second place, as the Cardinal led with a final mark of 196.9 and the Bruins were right behind with a total tally of 196.725. Georgia, with a 148.125 score after three events, would need to top 48.775 even to have a chance at claiming the preliminary session championship.

The Gym Dogs drew the parallel bars for the final rotation. How determined were they to defend their three straight national titles? Let me put it to you this way: the low score Georgia dropped was one of the 9.875s from McComb and McCool. Nikki Childs, Heenan, and Tolnay all carded 9.9s and Taylor led the way with a 9.925 en route to a 49.5 score for the round and a 197.625 overall. Utah propelled itself into second place with a cumulative 196.95 by earning a 49.4 in the vault, Michigan took fifth with a combined 196.075 following a 48.65 performance on the beam, and Denver brought up the rear with a 194.2 tally after receiving a 48.775 in the floor exercise.

The Gym Dogs not only avenged their only two losses of the regular season, they proved themselves once again at the highest level of competition. U.C.L.A. notched an impressive 196.725 collective score, which would have earned the Bruins second-place standing in the day's earlier session, yet this was good enough only for a fourth-place finish in the evening.

The "Super Six," which includes four Southeastern Conference squads led by top-scoring first-place Georgia, will square off in the team finals tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum.

Go 'Dawgs!

It was a busy weekend, and will be a busy week, here in Bulldog Nation, which means there is much to which to get, so, ere we dive too deeply into the days that lie ahead, permit me to take you on a quick tour of what you need to know to tide you over until the weekend; as we say in the legal field, to wit:

• Even though I don't know my hunt seat from my equitation on the flat, I have to give pride of place in this evening's rundown to the fact that the Bulldogs won their third equestrian national championship over the weekend, proving once again that our riders aren't just horsing around.
• After going unbeaten last week, the Diamond Dogs are ranked anywhere from fifth to 16th in the polls, including earning a No. 10 ranking in the Baseball America standings after winning seven of nine weekend series.

(Obligatory Jeri Ryan reference.)

• As Quinton McDawg noted, the Georgia men's tennis team lost in the conference tourney semifinals but the Georgia women's tennis team captured its second consecutive S.E.C. tournament championship on Sunday. In golf, the Bulldog ladies finished third at the S.E.C. championship, as did the Red and Black men.
• Speaking of the Georgia Sports Blog, Paul Westerdawg and company are doing fine work, calling our attention to the Preseason N.I.T. invitation extended to Dennis's Dogs, the latest recruiting news, the football team's trip to Honduras, Clemson's S.E.C. scheduling, and the ever-popular topic of strength of schedule.

Mark Mangino, shown here picking a real estate agent.

• MGoBlog has highlighted the fact that I'm not the only one who hates the bubble screen. Brian also notes that Mark Mangino's realtor has no sense of humor.
• I may have left Jason Pye a little stunned with the force of my reaction to the idiotic and childish gesture by former Georgia State student Lynn Westmoreland which served only to undermine a rising Georgia program's national reputation, but I am not alone. This is what The Shreveport Times's Scott Ferrell characterized it as, albeit with spelling that was not as good as his logic: "bipartisanship on frivilous [sic.] matters." I, like DC Trojan, am fully prepared to have the first branch of the national government be as inactive as possible, so I have no quarrel with Westmoreland's decision to be useless, superficial, vain, and disingenuous---he is a Congressman, after all---but, when he starts making my football team look bad, he has gone too far.

On that note, I'll call it a night and let you get back to your regularly scheduled Monday evening, which is already in progress.

Go 'Dawgs!

Egad! It's Thursday night already and spring is busting out all over, with plenty of news to report for all you sports fans out there and, frankly, I don't even think there's time enough to slow down and offer a proper introduction, so just buckle up, hang on, and dive in, because here's what you need to know for now:

• The Bulldogs' spring football awards have been announced, headlined by Quintin Banks, Rennie Curran, and Knowshon Moreno winning the Coffee County Hustle Award. When two defensive players and a tailback are taking home the Coffee County Hustle Award, the Red and Black are in for a good season, as I have argued and Fanblogs has noted.
• As you know, everyone in Bulldog Nation was flabbergasted by the news of Herschel Walker's multiple personality disorder. I'm going to follow Paul Westerdawg's lead on this one, except to say that (a) this sounds extremely reasonable to me and (b) we wish Herschel always and only the best.
• Which Yellowhammer State school features the most egregious spellers? Auburn fans broke out the big guns on this one, but Alabama fans came back with the nuclear option. It's a pretty entertaining back and forth, although it raises the question why we're the ones who are accused of being "spelling-challenged" just because we write the word "dog" phonetically.

We can spell it correctly; we merely choose not to do so.

• Georgia fans want the Bulldogs to play U.C.L.A. U.C.L.A. fans want the Bruins to play Georgia. This summer, we're going to do what we can to make this happen. Stay tuned.
• Dawgaddict asked about it a while back, but the F-Bomb will keep his promise and shave his moustache tomorrow, prompting questions about the efficacy of facial hair as a means to victory. You know where I stand, but Bulldog Nation begged to differ: when asked what sort of facial hair they would be sporting for the 2008 football season, 39 of 103 respondents (37.9%) insisted upon being wholly rational, unimaginatively concluding that their faces would remain follicle-free because it wouldn't affect Georgia's national championship chances. 32 others (31.1%) went all in, opting for a full beard, and another 14 (13.6%) went with the mirror-universe Spock-style goatee. Seven voters (6.8%) declined to grow facial hair by reason of being female and four more (3.9%) reached the same decision by virtue of being too young, leading me to believe I had overestimated the youth of my readership while underestimating the distaff representation among Dawg Sports regulars. Natty-looking sideburns were the preferred form of facial hair on five ballots (4.9%), whereas the moustache and the soul patch garnered one vote each (1.0%), which probably says something about the relative lack of hipness of frequent visitors to this weblog.
• I don't know about you, but I'm gearing up for a Sugar Bowl win, an N.C.A.A. tournament bid, and a College World Series appearance all in the same school year and DarinSmith is, too. Meanwhile, Georgia currently is seeking a third national equestrian title, is ranked No. 1 in men's golf and No. 7 in women's golf, has placed five swimmers and divers on the S.E.C. all-freshman teams, has produced five all-conference players from a men's tennis team that holds the top seed in the S.E.C. tournament and four all-conference players from a women's tennis team seeded second in the league tourney, and is gearing up for a run at a fourth straight national gymnastics championship. See? I told you this was the premiere athletics program in the S.E.C.! (Also, my thanks go out to reader Andrew for the e-mail alert informing me that we are not alone in thinking Georgia has the best football coach, too.)

Mark Richt is the best coach in the conference? That gets a thumbs-up from me.

• You already knew about the fate that met the Gators' national championship trophy and how a would-be Florida recruit broke the crystal football with his behind, but did you know how the Orange and Blue fixed their damaged bauble? Now you do.
• I'd already spotted this on the Dawg Sports sitemeter, but my thanks go out to dawggone for pointing out the fact that we got a mention at Sports Illustrated's On Campus. You'll have to scroll down past the U.S.C. Song Girls to see it. No, seriously, scroll down past the Song Girls. Yeah, O.K., I get it; they're good-looking college girls in midriff-exposing cheerleading uniforms, now scroll down, already! Ah, to heck with it; just go look at the Song Girls for all I care.
• Randomterrace thinks David Pollack's jersey ought to be retired. Should No. 47 be placed alongside Nos. 21, 34, 40, and 62? No, really, I'm asking.

Everybody who wants to retire Pollack's number, raise your hands.

That's all the news that's fit to print, so I'll let you go for now. I'll be back tomorrow night with the first game of the Diamond Dogs' series with L.S.U. in Baton Rouge. Have a good weekend.

Go 'Dawgs!

Approximately at 11:30 p.m. last evening, I achieved a personal milestone of no small significance.

Uga VI added me as a friend on Facebook.

This whole blogging thing is totally starting to pay off.

Go 'Dawgs!

When I saw the Gym Dogs' draw in this Saturday's N.C.A.A. Northeast Regional, I almost opted not to cover the event. Georgia, the top-ranked gymnastics squad in the country, was the top seed in the region, followed by No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 Denver, No. 22 Penn State, No. 29 Brigham Young, and No. 30 Iowa State.

That's right . . . the Gym Dogs, whose regular season slate included No. 2 Utah, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 Louisiana State, No. 9 U.C.L.A., and No. 11 Arkansas, were the top seed in a region in which the second-seeded team was a squad that has never beaten the Red and Black. The results were predictably one-sided, so much so that dwelling upon them in excessive detail, frankly, would be cruel.

The Gym Dogs posted a 49.25 in the vault; the next-best score of the meet was Auburn's 49.175. The Gym Dogs posted a 49.5 on the uneven parallel bars; the next-best score of the meet was Denver's 49.175. The Gym Dogs posted a 49.575 on the balance beam; the next-best score of the meet was Denver's 49.050. The Gym Dogs posted a 49.45 in the floor exercise; the next-best score of the meet was Auburn's 49.175.

Georgia won the regional competition with an overall score of 197.775, a full two points better than second-place Denver's perfectly respectable showing of 195.775. The Red and Black received eleven scores of 9.9 or better from Katie Heenan (9.95 on bars and 9.95 on beam), Courtney McCool (9.9 on bars, 9.95 on beam, and 9.925 on floor), Grace Taylor (9.9 on bars and 9.95 on beam), and Tiffany Tolnay (9.9 on bars, 9.9 on beam, 9.925 on floor, and 9.95 on vault).

Tolnay's all-around score of 39.675 was the best tally of any gymnast for any participant in the regional. The overall team score of 197.775 matched the highest total the Gym Dogs have earned in a regional victory in the 21st century.

Next up for Georgia are the N.C.A.A. National Championships, which will be held in Athens beginning on April 24.

Go 'Dawgs!

March 31 marks the due date for football season ticket orders and the start of the week that will culminate with the G-Day game and Bloggerpalooza, but our focus, while primarily pigskin-centric, is not confined exclusively to the gridiron. In addition to the Diamond Dogs' three-game series win in Starkville over the weekend, these events of note have occurred recently under the aegis of University of Georgia athletics:

• The third-ranked Georgia men's tennis team ran its S.E.C. record to 8-0 with a 6-1 road win over No. 24 Alabama and a 7-0 home victory over No. 25 Auburn. The Red and Black women's tennis team posted a victory over the Crimson Tide by the same 6-1 score on Friday before beating Auburn 5-2 on Sunday. I hate Auburn.
• You already know that the Northeast Regional-bound Gym Dogs won the S.E.C. championship after a score input error created more excitement than was necessary, but you may not have noticed that six Red and Black gymnasts were named all-S.E.C., Cassidy McComb was named S.E.C. freshman of the year, and Katie Heenan became Georgia's all-time leading scorer. The senior gymnast currently has 2,165.4 career points to her credit.

How might Katie Heenan's college total be put into perspective? Well, if her point tally was a "Star Trek" stardate, she would fall somewhere between "Balance of Terror" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

• As close as the Georgia gymnastics team's meet was, it was not the most hotly-contested victory earned by a Bulldog squad on Saturday. As Paul Westerdawg noted, that distinction goes to the top-seeded Georgia cavalry unit, which edged defending national champion South Carolina by 1.5 points on a tiebreaker to claim the Red and Black's fourth straight Southern Equestrian Championship.
• What's remarkable about the Georgia softball team isn't that it boasts a 35-8 record, an 8-3 conference ledger, and a No. 15 national ranking. What's remarkable about the Georgia softball team is that freshman Sarah McCloud tossed two complete-game victories on Saturday and a third on Sunday. No wonder she was named S.E.C. freshman of the week.

There you go, Sarah. (See? I told you the joke worked equally well with softball!)

• What do you need to know about the Georgia swimmers and divers to convince you that they're good? How about the fact that Chris Colwill and Sebastien Rouault won the Red and Black's eighth and ninth N.C.A.A. individual titles . . . or the fact that Rouault placed second in the 400-yard individual medley and Colwill was the runner-up on the three-meter springboard . . . or the fact that Rouault and Troyden Prinsloo finished first and second in the 1,650-yard freestyle . . . or the fact that Dan Laak won his second national coach of the year award? Well, now you know.
• The news isn't all good, however, as Andy Landers's Lady Bulldogs were denied their sixth straight trip to the regional round of the N.C.A.A. women's basketball tournament in an 80-66 loss to second-ranked North Carolina.

He may not have a national championship, but he writes a heck of an advice column.

I apologize for ending this rundown on a sour note, but, hey, we call the site "Dawg Sports" for a reason. Next up for the Red and Black is a home-and-home baseball series between Georgia and Clemson on Tuesday and Wednesday. The first pitch of the two-game set is scheduled for 7:06 p.m. on April 1. No foolin'.

Go 'Dawgs!

The Gym Dogs declared a blackout for Saturday afternoon's S.E.C. championship meet, in which Suzanne Yoculan's squad was aiming for its 16th conference crown.

The Red and Black drew the floor exercise to start the competition, where Georgia's cumulative tally of 49.325 established the high mark of the first rotation, outpacing the scores posted by Auburn (49.0 on the balance beam), L.S.U. (48.975 on the uneven parallel bars), and Arkansas (48.625 in the vault) on the strength of a 9.9 by Courtney McCool and a 9.925 by S.E.C. gymnast of the week Katie Heenan.

The Bulldog gymnasts were among the three teams to draw a bye in the second rotation, which Florida led with a 49.375 on the floor. Trailing the Gators were Alabama (49.125 on the bars), L.S.U. (48.9 on the beam), and Kentucky (48.525 on the vault). Heenan earned a 9.95 on the vault in the third rotation, which, when coupled with Tiffany Tolnay's 9.9, gave Georgia a 49.225 score. This surpassed Arkansas's 47.95 on the bars and Auburn's 49.025 on the floor, but the high score of the round went to Alabama, as three Crimson Tide competitors received 9.9s to pace a 49.35 effort on the beam.

Auburn's Julie Dwyer earned an all-around score of 39.425. (Insert your "Clerks" joke here.)

The Red and Black received another breather in the fourth rotation, which saw Florida yet again going about its business in methodical fashion, putting up consistently solid scores led by Ashley Reed's 9.95 en route to a 49.375 total on the vault that surpassed Louisiana State's 49.275 on the floor, Arkansas's 49.025 on the beam, and Kentucky's 48.5 on the bars. This gave the Gators a 98.75-98.55 lead over their rivals from Athens.

The Gym Dogs were on the bars during the fifth rotation, in which they began to look a bit more like a championship team. The Red and Black posted 9.85s from Heenan and Cassidy McComb, a 9.9 from McCool, and 9.95s from Tolnay and Grace Taylor to earn a 49.5 score in the event. This tally exceeded those of Alabama (49.4 on the floor), Auburn (49.025 in the vault), and Kentucky (48.85 on the beam) and gave Georgia a meet-leading overall mark of 148.05 . . . although the Gators, with three byes in the first five rounds, continued to own high marks in the two events in which they had competed.

The sixth rotation marked the first of the meet in which both the Red and Black and the Orange and Blue were competing in the same round: Georgia drew the beam and Florida found itself on the bars. Despite a 9.175 from Reed, the Gators garnered a 49.4 overall tally to edge the 49.3 earned by the Gym Dogs on the strength of Taylor's 9.9 mark. To add insult to injury, L.S.U. outpaced Coach Yoculan's squad, as well, posting a 49.35 on the vault. Arkansas brought up the rear with a 49.05 on the floor.

Florida's Corey Hartung earned an all-around score of 39.425. (Insert your "Sunglasses at Night" joke here.)

All the Gym Dogs could do during the final rotation was watch. Georgia's cumulative final score of 197.35 gave the Red and Black an advantage over the other two teams to have finished their competitions, Louisiana State (196.5) and Arkansas (194.65), but Coach Yoculan's charges led by only 49.2 a Saurian squad of such consistency that it had posted scores between 49.375 and 49.4 in all three of the events it had completed.

It was, as they say, not looking good for the home team. In the seventh rotation, however, Florida finally stumbled on the beam. The Gators' scores were respectable, but not stellar: two U.F. gymnasts put up marks of 9.8, another 9.825, still another 9.85, but only Corey Hartung managed a 9.9, so the Orange and Blue fell short with a 49.175 tally. This gave the Gators the edge over Auburn (49.05 on the bars) and Kentucky (48.15 on the floor), but Alabama put up three marks of 9.925 or better to post a 49.45 on the vault.

When all was said and done, the result was a last-place finish for the Wildcats, whose 194.025 put them behind even the Razorbacks (194.65). Auburn managed a 196.1 but could not keep pace with the other set of Tigers, as Louisiana State received a 196.5 mark. Alabama and Florida tied for second place with identical 197.325 scores, which left Georgia out in front with the 197.35 that earned the Gym Dogs the championship.

It is hard to claim that the Gators choked when they earned a mark high enough to earn the victory in most instances; indeed, Florida won last year's S.E.C. crown with an identical 197.325 score. The Red and Black closed the deal when it mattered most, and Georgia did so without the services of the injured Courtney Kupets. The Gym Dogs once again look like the team to beat in the chase for the national title, but, whatever fate awaits them, they once again are the Southeastern Conference champions.

Go 'Dawgs!