UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 23
Friday, February 23, 2007
Must-win an understatement
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Huge game at Stegeman Coliseum. Big, big, big, big, big. Monumental. Colossal.
OK, that may be overstating it a bit. But as far as Georgia’s NCAA tournament aspirations are concerned, those will pretty much be buried in concrete if the Bulldogs (16-10, 7-6 SEC) lose to Mississippi State tomorrow here in Athens.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of atmosphere awaits the Maroon Dogs (16-10, 7-6) from Starkville. A 1 p.m. tip on a Saturday can sometimes produce lackadaisical — and worse, lack of — crowd(s).
Don’t know if anybody has noticed but State is one of the hottest teams in the SEC, including its Magnolia state counterpart, Ole Miss. “Slick Rick” Stansbury’s team has won five of its last six, including four in a row. The last two were at home against Vanderbilt and on the road at LSU.
State is led by 6-4, 225-pound guard Jamont Gordon, who got his prepping for college at Lutheran Christian Academy, one of those store-front diploma mills that was a target of a recent NCAA investigation. State lists him as being from Oak Hill Academy but he was actually kicked out of there and got his diploma from LCA. But I digress. He’s a really good basketball player, as evidenced by 16-point scoring average and the fact he’s coming off a triple-double in the win over Vanderbilt.
This is bad news for Georgia because, as you may or may not have noticed, the Dogs have been getting burned by big games from guards a lot lately. There was the 21 by Mississippi’s Clarence Sanders, 17 by Auburn’s Frank Tolbert, 25 by Kennesaw State’s Wooten and 21 by South Carolina’s Tré Kelley.
I call this the Mercer Factor. This is where Georgia is really missing Mike Mercer. He was great at locking down on a team’s best guard and causing them fits. The Bulldogs don’t really have anybody else that can do that. Levi Stukes is a good defender but not much over 6-feet (in real life). Humphrey’s the same way.
Terrance Woodbury still guards the perimeter like a power forward. Sundiata Gaines is a great defender but has to stay on the ball most of the time since he’s the point guard. That could actually work in Georgia’s favor in this game since Gordon is the point guard.
State’s got a pretty good front-court presence, too, especially in 6-8, 240-pound junior Charles Rhodes. He killed the Bulldogs in Starkville last year with 27 points. Georgia needs a much better effort and performance out of Takais Brown in regard to defense and rebounding. This would be a good game to start.
This is about as evenly-matched a game as you could find. In addition to having identical records, Georgia’s RPI is now 61 and State’s is 62. So the only advantage the Bulldogs could claim would be playing at home.
That is, if it IS an actual advantage.
The Dogs are working on four consecutive SEC sellouts. Who plans to go? Who’s not and why? You think Georgia needs to win just its last two home games to get into the NCAA tournament or will it take more than that?
