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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > November > 20
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
On tough love and hot seats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Another week, another player gone from Dennis Felton’s basketball Bulldogs.
It’s reached the point where you have to wonder: Is Felton the cure or part of the problem?
OK, the decision on the guys who’ve been suspended for not going to class enough was out of Felton’s hands. That’s UGA athletic association policy per Damon Evans. And it’s as it should be.
And the Billy Humphrey knife thing, well, that’s a combination of bad luck, UGA’s Barney Fife police force, university policy and, again, athletic association rules. I have a feeling the legal side of that case will never make it to court.
But the dismissals of Takais Brown and now Mike Mercer were Felton’s call. Nobody’s made public what they did, and maybe if we all knew we’d say, “Good move, coach. They were bad eggs.”
But the frequency with which this stuff happens has to give the Bulldog Nation pause. Were the dismissals really called for or just a result of Felton’s my-way-or-the-highway philosophy? Is hard-line discipline a positive if it’s decimating your program? And if it’s all the players’ fault, what does that say about Felton’s judgment in signing such a group in the first place?
Felton maintains these losses won’t impact Georgia’s season. Maybe he also believes world peace is at hand.
My basketball fanatic friend Herb, a Kentucky fan but a big Felton booster, assures me that Georgia fans should stick with our coach because he knows what he’s doing, he has a pretty impressive recruiting class coming in, and it’s going to pay off big down the road.
I hope Herb’s right. And that the Georgia basketball program can survive Felton’s brand of tough love.
ON THE HOT SEAT? If the rumors are correct, Chan Gailey’s future on the Flats could ride on how his Jackets do against the Dawgs on Saturday. I hope that’s not right, because like most UGA fans I’d love to see Gailey stay right where he is. Let’s just hope the Dawgs play up to their capabilities, like they did in the Florida and Auburn games. If they do, everything should be OK. Georgia is the more talented team by far. If not, well, the last time we faced a team that was said to be playing for their coach’s job, it didn’t turn out so good.
