This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > November > 24
Monday, November 24, 2008
Bradley’s Buzz: Tech, Georgia trade places
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Same time, next year
Last season Georgia played against Georgia Tech with part of its focus elsewhere. Had Kentucky beaten Tennessee that day, Georgia would have played LSU for the SEC championship. (And Mark Richt believed his team could have beaten the Tigers, who would win the BCS title.) So, in the grand scheme of things, the Vols’ game was huge.
It went to overtime just as Tech and Georgia started their second half at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The next half-hour was a whirlwind, at least in the press box. Guys kept running back and forth to watch Tennessee-Kentucky on TV. (I remember the man from the Athens Banner-Herald running back to his seat and yelling, “Kentucky just missed a field goal!”)
Tennessee won in the fourth OT. In case you’d forgotten, here’s Mike Strange’s game story from the Knoxville News-Sentinel. I mention this because something similar could happen in Athens on Saturday.
Tech and Georgia will kick off at the same time Virginia and Virginia Tech do in Blacksburg. If (Virginia) Tech loses, (Georgia) Tech wins — the Jackets will play for the ACC title in Tampa. And even though (Virginia) Tech is an eight-point favorite, stranger things have … well, you know.
(Georgia) Tech came very close to clinching the Coastal Division last Saturday. As Randy King noted in the Roanoke Times, (Virginia) Tech committed five turnovers on its first six series against a lousy Duke team that was playing without its quarterback. The Hokies’ second (and last) touchdown came off an interception return, and here’s an endorsement from Aaron McFarling of the Roanoke paper for defensive coordinator Bud Foster to be named coach-in-waiting, as is apparently all the rage.
As for (Georgia) Tech, Heather Dinich of ESPN.com wrote that the Jackets can only sit and wait. Although technically Tech won’t be sitting come Saturday. They’ll be playing Georgia. And Dinich, in another posting, surmises that the ACC would be better served by having (Georgia) Tech and Florida State in its title game. And in yet another, she rates (Georgia) Tech the ACC’s best team, with (Virginia) Tech only sixth-best.
Greg Doyel likes something!
The columnist for CBSsports.com is known for being caustic. Here’s his appraisal, written after the South Carolina game, that Georgia was overrated. (Which I guess it was, though I’d note that one of Georgia’s “bad group of receivers” — Doyel’s characterization — has turned out pretty well. He wears No. 8.)
Doyel — whom I like as both a person and a writer — covered the Falcons’ defeat of Carolina and, astonishingly enough, fell in love with the home team. I don’t need to say anything else. Just click and enjoy.
Another writer likes one of our teams!
Writing for SI.com, Ian Thomsen lists five reasons why the Hawks are for real. And here I should stipulate that Thomsen — another good guy and a good writer — was perhaps the only Bostonian (he lives there) who gave the Hawks a chance to win Game 7 at TD Banknorth Garden in May.
It didn’t happen for the Hawks that day, but it’s starting to happen now. And, as you might have discerned, I have a soft spot for writers who agree with me.
More on A-Mo
You’ll recall that Anthony Morrow, now of Golden State but recently of Georgia Tech, set an NBA record for points in a game by an undrafted NBA rookie and did it in his first pro start. Well, Morrow followed that 37-point outburst against the Clippers with a 25-point performance against Portland.
This prompted Greg Beacham of the Associated Press to write a who-is-this-guy feature, and it turns out the guy in question sometimes rides BART — that’s San Francisco’s version of MARTA — to work. And Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury-News called Morrow the best thing to happen to the Warriors in years.
And, proving that even staid publications are suckers for an underdog-makes-good story, Liz Wolgemuth of U.S. News referenced Morrow as an inspiration to us all.
Vince’s vote
According to Sporting News Today, Vince Dooley puts Oklahoma ahead of Texas on his Harris Poll ballot. Me, I’m shocked. This one seems a no-brainer — they played on a neutral field and Texas won by 10 points — and Dooley is a famously smart fellow.
Pat Dye also has Oklahoma ahead of Texas, but that doesn’t surprise me. I’ve never turned to Pat Dye for clear thinking.
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