Image: georgiadogs.com
Judging a program like Georgia's that is pursuing such a tremendous rebuilding job requires a longer view than game to game or even week to week. You have to look year to year.
When you consider that Felton has improved from 12th to 11th to tied for 5th in the SEC overall during the past three years, that's improvement. When you see his SEC win total rise from 2 to 5 to 8 over the past 3 years, that's also improvement.
This season also saw only our third SEC Tournament win since Tubby left 10 years ago. Felton has two of the three wins. We also returned to the post-season, which was the minimum requirement for calling this season "progress."
When you see all of this happening for a program that 4 years ago had no juniors, sophomores or healthy freshmen, that's all progress.
The Numbers:
A look inside the numbers shows other areas of improvement and opportunities to do better.
| Stats | 2007 (SEC rank) | 2006 (SEC rank) | Comments |
| Offensive Points/Game | 75.1 (5th) | 70.3 (6th) | Improved, but they averaged 69.1 points / game in SEC play in '07. |
| Defensive Points Allowed | 69.1 (7th) | 70.9 (11th) | Improvement relative to others, but we're still giving up way too many per game vs. our peers. |
| Total Rebounds | 37.9 (3rd) | 34.8 (7th) | Nice improvement. |
| Offensive Reb. | 14.03 (1st) | 13.13 (3rd) | If it weren't for offensive put backs from the boards, our scoring really would look bad. |
| FG percentage | .462 (4th) | .431 (12th) | Great improvement! Mostly from adding Takais. |
| 3 pt. percentage | .381 (2nd) | .340 (8th) | Solid improvement. |
| 3 pt. percentage Defensive | .359 (11th) | .349 (6th) | Regressed. |
| Assists / game | 14.67 (8th) | 12.57 (10th) | Still way too low. |
| Turnover Margin | 0.24 (5th) | +2.0 (4th) | |
| Assists to Turnover Ratio | 0.93 (12th) | .81 (11th) | Still no progress. |
| Rebounding Margin | +5.7 (2nd) | -2.0 (11th) | Exceptional improvement. |
| Steals | 8.88 (2nd) | 9.07 (2nd) | Gaines and Mercer are beasts, and they aren't alone. |
Felton is making progress, but there are still HUGE flaws in our game. Flaws that haven't changed in his four years. Poor ball and player movement and bad turnover to assist ratios plague us on the offensive end.
On the defensive end, we give up WAY too many points from a coach who considers himself a "defense first" type of guy. When you consider what we have to sacrifice as basketball fans on the offensive end to watch paint dry from a scheme standpoint, it is inexplicable why we don't have a better defense by now.
The only numbers that are misleading are the rebounding stats. You could look at those rebounding numbers and assume that our big men are much better than they are. Sundiata Gaines, Mike Mercer, and Billy Humphrey are as good at rebounding as any guards their size in the country. We need to improve our front court rebounding in 2008.
The Players:
The two biggest improvements in personnel were Sundiata Gaines and Takais Brown. Brown became everything Felton could've ever hoped for and more. We'll cover that topic in more detail soon. Gaines has also evolved his game, and he became one of the better point guards in the SEC this year.
Woodbury also showed inconsistent flashes of greatness. His performance in Rupp Arena reminded me of a very raw Jarvis Hayes type game. However, his performance in many other games reminded more of Derrick Dukes (ie: no defense for long stretches and streaky as hell). Regardless, the kid has huge upside.
Rashad Singleton also made big strides defensively. Unfortunately, he is as useless as tits on a bull on the offensive end. But he's making progress.
Prior to the injury, Mercer was having a standout year. He still struggles with shot selection, but his retooled shot did look better than his FR year. Several of the players took big steps in 2007.
The team also had to overcome incredible adversity this year.
Overall:
All in all, we improved year over year. The pace of improvement is still slower than anyone would like. Given the pace of progress, it's hard at this point to look to the 2007-2008 and expect anything less than an NCAA tourney appearance. Anything short of that goal would be either stagnation or regression, and we don't have the time for either.
It's time for Felton to take the next logical step. If not, there will / should be some hard decisions in Athens next year.
I'll offer some thoughts / suggestions on how the program can improve over the next few days.
Agree or disagree? Feel free to comment.
See Also:
-- Chip Towers Season recap - AJC
PWD
