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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Jackets show some toughness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
No more excuses. At this point, with February evolving into March, it shouldn’t be about whether Georgia Tech’s athletically gifted basketball team will make the NCAA tournament. It should be about how much the Yellow Jackets will boogey once they reach the Big Dance.
The Jackets should get there, because there are no more excuses. Well, not that they’ve spent their rollercoaster of a season whining about the mighty peaks, significant dips and crazy swerves along the way. It’s just that, if you’re associated with this streaking bunch, and if you wish to make sure the initials for your postseason tournament are “NCAA” instead of “NIT,” you find a way no matter what down the stretch of the regular season to do what you have to do.
You spend Wednesday night, for instance, using the aggressive Thaddeus Young to splatter Wake Forest across the floor of Alexander Memorial Coliseum for much of the game. Then, when the Demon Deacons leap from the dead midway through the second half to turn a 17-point blowout into a four-point squeaker, you respond with everybody to bury your visitors and seal a 75-61 victory.
Nobody carried a bigger shovel for the Jackets during their spurt to 18-9 overall and 6-7 in the conference than Javaris Crittenton, the splendid point guard, just months removed from Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. When Wake Forest sliced things to 56-52 inside with nearly eight minutes left to play, Crittenton joined his teammates in showing that they definitely get it.
They got tougher.
“Day by day, game by game, we’re getting better, even though we lost to Duke,” said Crittenton, referring to Tech’s only loss in its past six games. Against Wake Forest, he helped the Jackets return to prominence by doing just about everything (22 points, nine assists, six rebounds).
Added Crittenton, “Even when we lose right now, we’re a different team. A while back, even myself, I would hold my head for a while. Not too long, but I wasn’t used to losing, and I wasn’t used to not playing great a lot of times. Now you have to have a short memory, and you have to grind. I know that I’m young, but I’m learning. We’re all learning a lot.”
In other words, the Jackets have no more excuses, but the ones that they had in the past were legitimate.
Anthony Morrow was Tech’s leading scorer last season, but he missed three weeks of practice recovering from a stress fracture in his lower back. He’s healthy now. You had a roster full of baby Jackets. Entering Wednesday night’s game, for instance, only visiting Wake Forest and North Carolina had more games started by freshmen than Tech’s total of 66. It’s just that, after 27 games overall, including 13 in the ACC, those baby Jackets should be dribbling as adolescent Jackets or beyond. Said Crittenton, chuckling, “Given what we’ve already gone through [during the ACC schedule], you might as well look at us as being sophomores.”
Speaking of the ACC, it’s nearly as rough as always, but if you’re truly a contender, which the Jackets’ talent says that they should be, you find a way.
You find a way, even with your final three games between now and the conference tournament against Virginia, North Carolina and Boston College, all among the ACC’s elite. You find a way, because only the Virginia game is on the road.
You find a way since you really haven’t a choice. After all, the Jackets destroyed Wake Forest on Ash Wednesday, a time for many among the religious to sacrifice something for 40 days.
Which brings us to a sign that was held in the middle of the Tech student section: “I gave up losing for lent.”
Forty days. That would take the Jackets right through the end of March and the Final Four at the Georgia Dome.
Hmmmm.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Blank doesn’t see character problems
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Arthur Blank doesn’t feel his Falcons are careening down the same slippery slope as the Cincinnati Bengals, who had nine players arrested in nine months. “I wouldn’t compare us to the Bengals,” Blank said Wednesday. “I think all their players have been convicted. [Actually, not all have.] Michael [Vick] was never convicted of anything. Jonathan [Babineaux] hasn’t been convicted of anything.”
That said, two messy headlines — Vick investigated after the water-bottle incident in the Miami airport, and now Babineaux charged with felony cruelty to animals — in five weeks haven’t cast the rosiest of auras on Blank’s pride and joy. It was just last week that he spoke glowingly to the Atlanta Press Club of the charity work — more than any other team in the NFL, he claimed — his players do. Is there a disconnect between that gauzy image and a grimmer reality?
“Whenever there’s any kind of trouble, whether it’s perceived or real, it’s an issue for me,” Blank said. “These young men are role models.”
One thing Blank won’t do is cut Babineaux before the case has reached its disposition. “Most assuredly, no. There’s this thing called the legal process that’s even above the NFL and sports. Are we concerned? Yes, we are, and we’ll deal with the issue.”
But not, he emphasized, by making the defensive lineman a sacrifice to public opinion. “That would be the worst possible thing we could do,” Blank said. “It would be a slap in the face to the judicial system. Making the concession of throwing somebody on the fire would be the worst thing for our organization and the worst thing for Atlanta.”
Of Babineaux’s case, Blank said: “I don’t know what the facts are. He’s one player of a large number on our roster … I’ve known him for the last couple of years; he was a second-round draft pick. He’s very quiet. He has never been any trouble, and from what I understand he has a good relationship with the young woman [girlfriend Blair Anderson, whose pit bull Kilo wound up dead Sunday night].”
Nothing about these last five weeks, Blank said, should be seen as indictment of the Falcons’ screening process. “All of the players we draft or sign as free agents are graded on character on-field and off-the-field. That’s a unilateral feeling on the part of Bobby Petrino and Rich McKay and myself. And as [players] process through their NFL careers, we try to help them deal with issues … so they can go from being put on a pedestal to having a platform… . That’s true whether it’s No. 7 or No. 57 or No. 97.”
Regarding Vick and the Miami investigation: “Michael was cleared. I don’t think having a trick water bottle means we drafted poorly. Michael does not have a history of bad behavior.”
Earlier this month NFL commissioner Roger Goodell used his state-of-the-league address to lament the number of untoward incidents involving players. “We are raised to a higher standard in the NFL,” Goodell told reporters. “We must make sure the players are more accountable and our clubs are more accountable… . One incident is too many in my book. I think we need to re-evaluate all of our programs.”
Blank believes his franchise more than meets Goodell’s behavioral mandate. “I absolutely think we’re ahead of the curve. It’s an important part of the mission of our organization, and that starts with me… . I tell our players all the time that they’re going to be remembered as what kind of citizens they were when they were playing… . We’re dealing with young men who don’t always have positive experiences in their lives.”
And yes, since you asked, Arthur Blank is a lover of canines. “I’ve had dogs all my life,” he said, laughing. “I have a golden retriever named Shayna — it means ‘beautiful’ in Hebrew.”
Please return Thursday morning to add your comments.
Permalink | Comments (169) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Storming the court’s prickly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Those among the sellout crowd Tuesday night at Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich., lost their minds after Michigan State’s basketball team upset No. 1-ranked Wisconsin and stormed the court.
Good thing Michigan State plays in the Big Ten. If the Spartans were in the SEC, they would get spanked any day now by the league with a hefty fine for not keeping their spectators under control.
Just ask Vanderbilt, which was zapped for $25,000 this week for violating the SEC’s “no-storming the court or the field” policy for a second time since its debut in December 2004.
Vanderbilt fans had stormed the court after their Commodores defeated then No.1-ranked Florida.
Who’s right? Is it the Big Ten for letting fans be fans, or is it the SEC for deciding to crack down on these traditional celebrations to protect the safety of both the participants and the spectators?
I’ll side with . . .
I don’t know.
Can’t we just all get along?
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Quick Hit
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