Dawgs over Rebels: Rebounding for the Ages

When some folks think of the great rebounding performances of all-time, they might think of Wilt Chamberlain's 55 rebound performance vs. Bill Russell's Celtics in 1960.

Other folks might take a step back from the raw numbers and look at symbolism or story line. Personally, I think Vince Vaughn's work in hooking up with Jennifer Anniston while she was still reeling from the Brad Pitt divorce is the greatest rebound grab of all-time.



Now, I'm not going to layer the hyperbole too thick and suggest that Georgia's rebounding in their win over Ole Miss was a bigger accomplishment than chubby boy Vaughn making the O face with Anniston. But it was impressive.

On Saturday the Georgia Bulldogs, a notoriously poor rebounding team out waxed the glass against the Ole Miss Rebels by a margin of 40-31. Even more impressive, the Dawgs bested the Rebs 20-9 on the offensive glass. The result of this rebounding thunder...a 72-65 win for the Bulldogs.

[Photo: Dave Bliss and Steve Newman are still a very long way from the All-Windex Team. But this was improvement.]

For all the progress in the rebounding area, the basketball game wasn't without its problems.

After Levi Stukes opened the 2nd Half with a three pointer the Dawgs went five solid minutes without scoring a point. Felton's boys went into their near patented "Standing Around Drill" on offense. All of the things that had worked in the first half -- driving the basketball, working the ball through the paint and moving the ball with a purpose -- went by the wayside. In fact, Georgia went almost 8 minutes to start the second half scoring only 5 points.

[Photo: Singleton is improving on defense, but there is no such shot as "The No Look Hook." He isn't up to speed on that yet.]

Furthermore, the team drives me bananas with their near complete post-timeout offensive ineptitude. However, unlike previous games against Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky, the boys from Athens pulled it together and shut Ole Miss down.

If the Georgia Bulldogs can get this sort of rebounding effort on a consistent basis, we can show steady improvement throughout the year. If not, more yo-yo work to come. We're 2-3 in SEC Play.

Other Quick Thoughts:
- Kudos to Dave Bliss and the coaches. As I pointed out previously, he took the ball to his toes in past games in the paint before bringing it back up. The result was turnovers and spastic play. In this game, he rarely took the pointless bounce, and he looked competent in the paint scoring 10 points. Great job on improvement.

- Jeff Dantzler needs to be called into the principal's office again. He said during the pre-game that "there is no way Georgia beats LSU next week. That's a definite loss." Even if he thinks that. Heck, even if MOST of us think that, he can't say that on a Bulldog telecast. He's not doing sports talk. He's doing play by play on the Georgia Bulldog radio network. He must show some optimism on the air, or avoid predictions entirely.

- FT shooting was above 70% again. Nice improvement since the UT game.

Good game and effort. The season remains interesting.


[Photo: Gaines remains our most consistent player with Mercer emerging as a more consistent threat.]

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