Georgia Sports Blog FanShop

March 4, 2007

Hoop Thoughts: If you're looking for Hope

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things,
and no good thing ever dies."
Andy Dufresne (Shawshank Redemption)

The Georgia Bulldogs fell to the Vols at home in basketball bursting our NCAA bubble almost completely. With a relevant record of 16-12 and an RPI of around 63, things are very bleak.

(Preface: I screwed up reading the seedings. We're playing Auburn in the first round. Not Alabama)

Next week at the SEC Tourney, we're the East 5 seed. The official bracket shows Georgia tipping off vs. Alabama Auburn at 7:30 pm in the Georgia Dome. The last time the two teams played Georgia ran out to a 20+ point lead in the first half before collapsing and losing on a controversial last second shot by Ronald Steele. Ughhh...we beat Auburn when we played them.

(Image: georgiadogs.com)

PollyAnnaDawg Says:
Let's find the silver lining. We drew the toughest path possible to the SEC Tourney Championship. Our path likely would look like this on the best case scenario:
    Thursday vs. Alabama Auburn
    Friday vs. UF (Top 10 RPI)
    Saturday vs. UT (Top 10 RPI) most likely given the bracket)
    Sunday vs. UK or Vandy (Most likely)
How is that a good thing? Well, if Georgia beat the first three teams, they could still lose the finals and make the tourney. Our tourney resume in that case would be:
    19 RPI wins
    11-9 SEC record
    5 wins vs. the RPI Top 50
    3 wins vs the RPI 15
    Road/Neutral Record of 7-9
So...if you're looking for Hope. There it is. Will it happen? Right now, I feel more like Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding than Mr. Dufresne.

See Also:
-- SEC Tourney Official Site - SECSports.com
-- Pop goes the Bubble - ABH
-- Lofton breaks lose late - AJC
-- Photo Gallery from Sat. - Georgiadogs.com

PWD

(sorry about the confusion. It's definitely Auburn in Round 1. Not Alabama)

2 comments:

LD said...

PWD: I know what you think about CDF, so just to find common cause, gotta say that Felton really hurt us by not burning a TO when Lofton went on a run in the second half. He was waiting for the TV call. Stukes covered Lofton great all game except for that one minute stretch (when he was gassed and Lofton had had several more trips to the bench thanks to better depth on the Vols). That one little run was where it was lost.

Missing Mercer, Bliss and Jackson hurt us bad. Gaines is so valuable it's ridiculous. Stukes played well on D (except for that one minute) but just didn't have his shot. TK could've had close to thirty if his post-foul shots had fallen and he made his front ends.

Here's what stinks: about half the upper deck were Vol fans. Walking out to a chorus of "N.I.T." chants from the orange throngs was something I could've done without.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it sucks that we're probably going to the N.I.T. But at least we were in the conversation for most of the year. You've got to crawl before you can walk, and this time next year we'll be dancing for sure (unless THE CURSE) rears it's ugly head again.

I'm a Dennis Felton fan. He's certainly the Anti-Harrick, which is what this program needs right now. We are moving in the right direction and I believe he is doing a good job. Now that he's he's beginning to effectively recruit the type of players that he is comfortable with, the results should follow quickly. If we're still a bubble team two years from now, then we can discuss the next hoops coach.

 
Copyright 2009 Georgia Sports Blog. Powered by Blogger Blogger Templates create by Deluxe Templates. WP by Masterplan