I mean really....this year kind of encapsulates it all, right? 16-12 pushing 18-12? Another clear uptick in roster talent top to bottom. Last four out Lunardi status at this juncture. Fans here pulling for losses when NCAA tournament doors technically aren't shut. Team peaking at the end of the year...but likely, per tradition, too little, too late. More-than-ever there is glaring and valid evidence Fox has had a handicap related to his peers recruiting kids--just the business (with yesterday's YAHOO report.) Many here have tried to tell others how insidious and pervasive the scandal really is in hoops and really hurts UGA when it comes to discussing Fox's recruiting challenges. That evidence gave him time to get talent but doesn't license him to stay once he can't get it done with adequate talent.
Current squad showing signs as a team but never really breaking through like an easy call tourney team does. Showing we could pull out some, but not enough, close games against good competition. Close losses at Kentucky and K-St that show we just won't or can't that do little extra to knock out the opponent in this sort of game we find ourselves in position to steal. A casualty to discipline...another tradition in the name of Donte Williams and Brandon Morris...this time Jordan Harris. Some questionable minutes garnered by Wilridge and of course the Tyree playing time debate...and the microcosm doesn't end there.
Juwan "veteran favor" Fox bashing continues (God rest Houston Kessler, Kenny Paul Geno, John Florveus, and Sherrard Brantley...and young Kenny Gaines)--I'm telling you, this season is SO Fox's tenure in a nutshell. When Juwan graduates, who inherits "Fox's pet" status? Gonna have to be Wilridge or Edwards because one will have to likely have to play? Turtle because he runs the offense w/o flash? 9 dimes for the patient reptile yesterday, btw.
Of course, at the end of the season, the team has a spurt when think it's dead--like the villain in a bad horror movie....where it last gasps for one last NCAA air breath when it's been written off....but also as has been the story with Fox, it will likely fall short--like last year, we'll know we bested more one tournament team and wouldn't look out of place there...though, we'll play the smaller invitational tournament. If we could just point to damn Arkansas or have that damn Vandy game back--but there's one or two of those every year, Coach.
Meanwhile, you look at games like @UK, @Kansas St, Arkansas, @Auburn, SD St as "you gotta pull out 1-2 of those" and @ Vandy as one of those conference games you just look at and it gnaws at you but every team drops one of them. I'm okay with UMass. Them, Vandy and SD St are our worst losses--we played a beast of a schedule catching Miss St and So. Carolina perhaps at inopportune times. We have won four against top 50 RPI and stand to win 9 to 11 vs. top 100 RPI having beaten Tenn, St. Mary's, Bama, and Temple along with Marquette, Florida x 2, LSU x 2 with A@M and Tennessee left.
It's like Fox's resume is slightly better than his argument was last year, in a way--he has a better roster now with recruits coming and likely has a top 65, if not 50, team. But, another year, another just not good enough season, another all-time great (first JJ, now Yante) set to leave Athens with nary tournament experience.
I will say there is a potential conundrum for the selection committee. Let's say we beat Tex. A&M and lose to Tenn. Most say that's not enough...But, I've heard all year that the SEC gets 8 teams in. Bama and Florida play this week and then catch A@M (road) and UK (home), respectively--not sure how you rationalize either of those two ahead of us unless they both run the table...only one of them can mathematically . Only Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi State, and Missouri (SIX) are easily more deserving than us--Bama and UF have tenuous arguments at best. We'd have bested LSU x 2 and Texas A@M in conference record and head to head, we'd potentially finish one conference game behind Alabama albeit having beaten them on the road and one or two conference games behind UF, having beaten them twice. Hard to make a convincing argument for either, but especially if UF loses @ Bama and then drops the last game at home vs. UK? Assume they both split and we split with a win over A@M and loss at Tenn....WELL...Bama then gets us by a game in conference and 1/2 game overall. UF finishes one game better than us overall and two in conference though we beat them twice head to head. How With RPI's within 5-10 of each other, how does the committee justify leaving the Dawgs out? Sadly, probably because we are just that "Georgia." I do especially think UF could collapse. If they lose out, and we get a split, you gotta think we can play ourselves in potentially. They lose two and we win two, and I have to think we're inside looking out.
We do the miraculous and beat A@M and follow it up with a win in Knoxville? Who knows. I think two wins and one more UF loss would probably supplant them. I think we need to pull for us and then the loser of Bama-UF (or both really but especially the loser if it's UF) to lose again on the final Saturday. Then...things would get interesting.
I'm pulling for us to win, of course, but I think the prize was there for Fox to take this year and he missed it....he didn't push the right guys' buttons well enough to convince me we aren't in a relatively secure place with our roster or that we can't do better than Fox. Still think the guy is a solid coach though....maybe his next stop, he does better. We can def do better, but I appreciate Fox's work as much as anyone.
Surprisingly crazy week with all the FBI stuff. Let's just keep our recruits. Jonas, smile big at them in the stands.
Current squad showing signs as a team but never really breaking through like an easy call tourney team does. Showing we could pull out some, but not enough, close games against good competition. Close losses at Kentucky and K-St that show we just won't or can't that do little extra to knock out the opponent in this sort of game we find ourselves in position to steal. A casualty to discipline...another tradition in the name of Donte Williams and Brandon Morris...this time Jordan Harris. Some questionable minutes garnered by Wilridge and of course the Tyree playing time debate...and the microcosm doesn't end there.
Juwan "veteran favor" Fox bashing continues (God rest Houston Kessler, Kenny Paul Geno, John Florveus, and Sherrard Brantley...and young Kenny Gaines)--I'm telling you, this season is SO Fox's tenure in a nutshell. When Juwan graduates, who inherits "Fox's pet" status? Gonna have to be Wilridge or Edwards because one will have to likely have to play? Turtle because he runs the offense w/o flash? 9 dimes for the patient reptile yesterday, btw.
Of course, at the end of the season, the team has a spurt when think it's dead--like the villain in a bad horror movie....where it last gasps for one last NCAA air breath when it's been written off....but also as has been the story with Fox, it will likely fall short--like last year, we'll know we bested more one tournament team and wouldn't look out of place there...though, we'll play the smaller invitational tournament. If we could just point to damn Arkansas or have that damn Vandy game back--but there's one or two of those every year, Coach.
Meanwhile, you look at games like @UK, @Kansas St, Arkansas, @Auburn, SD St as "you gotta pull out 1-2 of those" and @ Vandy as one of those conference games you just look at and it gnaws at you but every team drops one of them. I'm okay with UMass. Them, Vandy and SD St are our worst losses--we played a beast of a schedule catching Miss St and So. Carolina perhaps at inopportune times. We have won four against top 50 RPI and stand to win 9 to 11 vs. top 100 RPI having beaten Tenn, St. Mary's, Bama, and Temple along with Marquette, Florida x 2, LSU x 2 with A@M and Tennessee left.
It's like Fox's resume is slightly better than his argument was last year, in a way--he has a better roster now with recruits coming and likely has a top 65, if not 50, team. But, another year, another just not good enough season, another all-time great (first JJ, now Yante) set to leave Athens with nary tournament experience.
I will say there is a potential conundrum for the selection committee. Let's say we beat Tex. A&M and lose to Tenn. Most say that's not enough...But, I've heard all year that the SEC gets 8 teams in. Bama and Florida play this week and then catch A@M (road) and UK (home), respectively--not sure how you rationalize either of those two ahead of us unless they both run the table...only one of them can mathematically . Only Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi State, and Missouri (SIX) are easily more deserving than us--Bama and UF have tenuous arguments at best. We'd have bested LSU x 2 and Texas A@M in conference record and head to head, we'd potentially finish one conference game behind Alabama albeit having beaten them on the road and one or two conference games behind UF, having beaten them twice. Hard to make a convincing argument for either, but especially if UF loses @ Bama and then drops the last game at home vs. UK? Assume they both split and we split with a win over A@M and loss at Tenn....WELL...Bama then gets us by a game in conference and 1/2 game overall. UF finishes one game better than us overall and two in conference though we beat them twice head to head. How With RPI's within 5-10 of each other, how does the committee justify leaving the Dawgs out? Sadly, probably because we are just that "Georgia." I do especially think UF could collapse. If they lose out, and we get a split, you gotta think we can play ourselves in potentially. They lose two and we win two, and I have to think we're inside looking out.
We do the miraculous and beat A@M and follow it up with a win in Knoxville? Who knows. I think two wins and one more UF loss would probably supplant them. I think we need to pull for us and then the loser of Bama-UF (or both really but especially the loser if it's UF) to lose again on the final Saturday. Then...things would get interesting.
I'm pulling for us to win, of course, but I think the prize was there for Fox to take this year and he missed it....he didn't push the right guys' buttons well enough to convince me we aren't in a relatively secure place with our roster or that we can't do better than Fox. Still think the guy is a solid coach though....maybe his next stop, he does better. We can def do better, but I appreciate Fox's work as much as anyone.
Surprisingly crazy week with all the FBI stuff. Let's just keep our recruits. Jonas, smile big at them in the stands.
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