GSB on Location: Where Basketball Goes to Die

The tentacles of the Georgia Sports Blog stretch far and wide. Not only do we cover the big events, but we also travel to the lowly ones. Take for instance today’s basketball game at LSU, the battle for the SEC basement.

The afternoon started with a spark of promise. Led by the hot shooting of Billy Humphrey, the Dawgs took a big early lead. With our defensive tenacity, a big night from a player not named Yata Gaines would normally have us in a position to win. After all, the problem all year has been the lack of two legit scoring threats playing well at the same time. We got closer today, if only for about three quarters of a game.

Gaines, who has consistently played his guts out in losing efforts, was tossed for a “flagrant technical” mid way through the second half. Gaines looked peeved all day and I’m sure he’s suffering from the frustration of a great player who, despite his best efforts, can’t put a team on his back for a win. Without him, the Dawgs scoring threats were limited to Humphrey and the limited inside acrobatics of Jeremy Price.

That is to say, the game was effectively over when Gaines was ejected. If Gaines keeps playing we win that game. Price looks promising. He had some great moves down low. He just needs to get bigger and stronger because he’s aggressive going to the rack. Albert Jackson, on the other hand, looks big and strong, but just seems to lack any sort of an offensive plan when he gets the ball. The rest of the lineup is a crap shoot.

I’m usually not a referee basher, but the game was marred by the officiating of Ted Valentine. Valentine seems like an actor on stage, overselling his signals and generally hamming it up. His calls seemed wholly arbitrary at times. I think the ejection was debatable. There were a lot of things they could have called there without tossing Yata. The best would have been to call a tie up before the two players started throwing elbows at one another. Valentine seemed bullied by the small crowd who chanted “Throw him out!” With three bad fouls this year, are the Dawgs getting a reputation as a dirty team?

A few notes:
-LSU came up with a crafty way to sell tickets to today’s game. The crowd was sparse, maybe 4,500 folks including a paltry estimate of 80 students. I’d say 400 of those folks were there to film their four year old child perform “Kindercare” ballhandling drills on the court. Many of the proud parents videotaped the 100 or so tots during the halftime performance and left. Nothing sells tickets to parents and grandparents like getting their kids on the court.

-Is it me or does Jeremy Price look like Total Recall cabdriver Mel Johnson, Jr., without the five (or was it four?) kids to feed?

-A half-empty arena makes a band seem a lot louder.

-I think Jeremy Jacob's family was in attendance. They like to sit in a line, not in a bunch. They were the only other UGA fans there who weren't behind the bench.

The thin red line.

-There was no discernible scent of corndogs.

It amazes me how LSU and Georgia, two titans of the SEC can field two basketball teams of that caliber. Georgia plays its guts out, but lacks enough athletically gifted players to be competitive. An LSU player air balled a free throw today. That was when I reminded my seatmates that we paid money to watch the game.

At least for LSU there is hope. Right now, we look like a tired, frustrated team, willing to fight but incapable of winning.

Quinton

Tweet