Image: Georgiadogs.com
Some rambling thoughts on Georgia's three point loss to the Vols.
The good:
- Outrageously good effort. Felton has clearly NOT lost the team. Some of them may or may not like him (who knows and who cares), but they are still playing hard. That's impossible to ignore as an attribute in Felton's favor. It would be very easy to lose the kids at this point. Maybe it's more of a credit to Gaines. Who knows. But they haven't rolled over on him the way the kids did in Jirsa's last few games.
- Gaines is playing his nuts off. 23 pts, 9 rebs, 8 assist, 3 steals.
- Zac continues to progress.
- Price. 10 points, 5 rebounds and only ONE turnover. Sadly, he did have 4 fouls, but more progress from him.
- We had a shot to win it.
- We only took 16 three pointers and I'd say at least 12 were high quality looks.
- Lofton is a senior.
- The Vols didn't have more than about 1,500 people in attendance. As expected. Dantlzer said they had 9 full sections on the radio. I got into the gym and it was maybe 4 or 5. Then again, what do you expect from him?
- Ajax is playing stone cold terrible hoops right now. 18 minutes, 2 points, 3 turnovers, 4 rebounds, 3 fouls and umpteen dropped/mishandled rebounds. I sincerely believe that Singleton might have had better hands.
- When Bliss is in the game, he plays pretty solid. But picking up those quick fouls and making us play AJax more is a killer.
- The new fangled concept of executing inbounds plays continues to escape our team.
- The entire last 1:40 was a train wreck. Once again, we drag around and blow an absurd amount of time on consecutive possessions sandwiching a UT possession with 40 seconds left where we neither foul or play pressure defense. That stuff makes me want to pull my hair out. Who knows if we win if we manage the game better at the end or not. Probably not. But at least give yourself the best opportunity for success.
- They don't give trophies for "Most Moral Victories" nationally or in SEC play.
It's not Felton's fault when we miss shots. I can live with losing because quality, open looks that are within the aptitude of our players' abilities aren't falling. I can also live with losing to a dramatically more talented team.
But it sends me up a wall when we consistently blow basics like inbounding the ball or managing the clock. That drives me completely and totally crazy as a fan.
If we weren't completely craptastic on the road under this regime, I'd say that the "other NIT" was still within reason because of the way the schedule breaks and the overall better play lately. But I'll have to see us win two on the road back to back in one season to believe it.
Great effort in a game no one expected us to win. But still frustrating for most of the same reasons.
See Also:
-- Narrow margin of error snags Dogs - AJC
PWD
