Championship Weekend: NCAAs in Athens is a beautiful things

It's already been a busy week around here.  We've gotten a new basketball coach, Kyle keeping us up to date on the end of women's lacrosse season, and after round 1 of the NFL draft came and went, we are all waiting to here where Aaron Murray, Arthur Lynch, and other recently or not so recently former Dawgs continue their careers.

On the academics front, 3 Georgia programs made perfect APR scores.  Congratulations to Chris Haack and the men's golf team, Danna Durante and her gymnasts, and Jack Bauerle and others leading women's swimming and diving, as well as all the other UGA student-athletes for their hard work in the classrooms.

On the course right now is Georgia's women's golf team, as they look to advance in the NCAA Tournament from Tallahassee.  Yesterday's action saw them finish 10-over par, currently 9 strokes off the cut for Tulsa.

Softball took care of Florida yesterdayat the SEC Tournament.  That means they get to face the Crimson Tide in today's seminfal game, at 5:30 and televised by ESPN U.  A win this afternoon means an ESPN2 televised affair Saturday at 8 for the SEC title.  Georgia's starting pitcher last night, Chelsea Wilkinson was just named national player of the week, SEC pitcher of the week, and was joined by 3B Alex Hugo and SS Paige Wilson in making the All-SEC squad.

Congratulations to you, the fans, for making Georgia women's tennis the most attended team in college, and the men the second most attended team in the country for this season. You can watch coach Jeff Wallace and senior Kate Fuller discuss this weekend's NCAA matches.  Georgia's ladies are the number 1 overall seed for the first time ever, and get Elon today at 4 on the Dan Magill Courts.  The winner of that match gets either Arizona or Florida St tomorrow at 4 to decide who advances to the Sweet 16, which will also be held in Athens starting Thursday next week.

The men begin their NCAA Tournament tomorrow morning before that women's match, as they'll face Jacksonville St Saturday at 1.  It's a full weekend of NCAA Tournament tennis in Athens, as that match winner will square off Sunday at 1 with the winner of the 10 am match between NC State and Oregon.  The Sweet 16 and other NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament matches, like the ladies, will be in Athens next week.  You can follow NCAA Tournament central here.

Baseball travels to Oxford for a very difficult series with the #11 Ole Miss Rebels. They are chasing a spot in the 12 team SEC Tournament field later this month.  The pitching staff should be game ready, after 11 arms were used to take care of Savannah St Wednesday.

Georgia Track & Field will have their final meet before the SEC Championshipsthis Saturday at the Spec Towns Track. The Georgia Invitational begins at 9 a.m.  Georgiadogs.com also has an excellent piece up written by junior runner Charles Grenhen, who came to Athens from the small European nation of Luxembourg.

Honors were all over this week for swimming and diving.  In addition to the aforementioned perfect APR from the women, diver Laura Ryan was named to the 2014 Olympic Performance Squad.  Ryan, Shannon Vreeland, and Matthew Gemmell earned NCAA Post graduate Scholarships, and Vreeland was named the SEC's Female Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Men's golf, despite being the top seed at their regional, will have to travel all the way to San Antonio for their NCAA Tournament starting Thursday.  That top seed came courtesy of a quartet of All-SEC golfers, including first team seniors Joey Garber and Michael Cromie.

Also of note, Georgia's men's basketball strength and conditioning coach Sean Hayes is a master, and apparently Ohio forgot how long April Fool's lasts.