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May 12, 2010

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

...and it's not an on coming train. The Georgia Basketball team made Andy Katz's preseason Top 25. We debut at #25. This comes on the heels of Marcus Thornton's visit over the weekend.

When you look at the NBA early draft entrants across the SEC as well as the senior departures, it looks like 10 wins for Georgia is very possible. Arkansas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kentucky all took massive personnel hits while Georgia returns almost everyone and adds Williams and Brantley who could both make a meaningful impact on the team.

Marcus Thornton's four finalists for his signature are UGA, GT, Alabama and Texas. It's worth noting that only Georgia is ranked among those four teams heading into next year.

This is the most optimistic about basketball that I've been in 8 years.

PWD

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about Lalanne coming in too. But the most important addition may be Gerald Robinson finally being eligible. I think he could be the difference maker between last year and this coming year. Very exciting times for UGA basketball.

Anonymous said...

I am optimistic too. I expect that UT will be strong again and Kentucky is Kentucky plus Calipari is a really good coach. We should be better than everyone else on our side of the division though.

Marcus Thornton would be able to help us next year and really step in when Trey & Travis leave next year. Our short team (1-3 year goal) should be to get to the UT level where we have enough athletes across the 4 yr spectrum to play our game consistently at a Sweet 16 level.

I know that is easier said than done.

Unknown said...

UF should be really good. Basically, I think the team finishing 4th in the East could have 10 SEC wins.

I'm thinking something along the lines of 12-3 non-conference plus 10-6 in the SEC or better plus 2-1 in SEC Tourney (because we'd get to play 2 West teams).

That would put us around 24-10. And with what I *think* our schedule will look like that would get us a 6-7 seed.

I really think this is a Tourney team. IF two things happen:

1. Gerald Robinson is as good as rumored.

2. We learn to win on the road. Not a trivial thing.

I think this is a very good tourney team IF two more things happen:

1. Brantley is an SEC caliber bomber at the 2 guard who doesn't kill us on defense.

2. Price plays like he's capable of playing with any consistence whatsoever. He's a 12 points and 7 rebounds a game type player IF he screws his head on straight.

Unknown said...

To clarify...Brantley does NOT have to be a complete player. He just has to be a very good bomber and decent on defense.

Said differently ... if he's Levi Stukes, the rest of the league is in deep trouble. If he's Ricky with better quickness, we're still in pretty good shape.

If he's an african-american version of one of the Wehunt kids, that's not helpful.

Joe said...

PWD- just an observation, but i think its clear that you are at an all time high on the basketball program, and very low on the football program right now.. am i right?

There have been interesting stories on the football side of things that you have completely ignored or said as little as possible about.

but you are all over the bball squad right now.. and im not faulting you, im extremely excited about whats going on in stegmen as well!

this isnt a shot at your blog, just wondering if you could admit/blog about your concerns about the football program and its direction? it would lead to interesting discussion on the blog

also, please please please, unlock the comments.. the way its set up now leads to minimal discussion

Unknown said...

Joe,

I have zero interest in unlocking the comments. It's not a message board. There's plenty of sites for that.

I'm not at an all-time low on football, I just find there to be nothing interesting happening.

In fact, I think we'll go 10-3 with this schedule. That's not an all-time low.

but I don't think anything interesting is happening.

I've never covered football recruiting closely. There are sites for that. So I don't really care that LeMay committed. If we sign Isiah Crowell, I'll get excited. A few other guys would excite me. But we're in 2nd place on a LOT of big name guys right now. Including Crowell. So why follow it it closely here when so many other sites have it so much more deeply covered.

As for the other news coming out of Athens, I'll believe there have been systemic wholesale changes to our football program when I see it.

The quotes coming out of Athens aren't dramatically different from prior years. I think it's all talk. We're not going to be better because Grantham is a better interview than Willie.

I've been doing this for 5 years. And I've read all of these quotes before. We can win 10 games on talent and competent defensive coaching.

But we won't start winning SEC titles again until we bring real GATA and ON FIELD LEADERSHIP back to Athens.

And there's no way to know if that's happened. Talk is cheap.

Also...I'm doing a heap more courting than in the past so I don't have time to write alot about a bunch of coach speak.

Most boring off season ever.

Unknown said...

Joe - Back to unlocking message boards.

I have a reason for not doing it. And that reason hasn't changed.

Joe said...

PWD- like i said I am not having a go at you, please dont feel like i am insulting the blog in anyway, and dont get defensive.

I do agree that there hasnt been alot to talk about, that being said, when there has been things to talk about, ive just noticed that you've blogged on them less than you wouldve in previous years. there have been years in the past that you've been more active- and i was just wondering if your mindset as a fan has changed.

about the comments, im not suggesting a message board, but there has to be a better way then what you are doing with them now. Ive posted comments before that werent published for days, and by that time i just dont care about it anymore.

maybe you could do it to where if you are wanting to post a comment then you have to log in to do so, and allow comments to be published immediatly. this would give us a chance to keep a conversation going while bored at work, but would also give you a chance to block abusive users from commenting when you feel the need to..

ive said this before, I enjoy this blog, and my advice is only aimed at possibly making it a better expierence for all, which in turn gets you more clicks

matt b. said...

Get you some Paul! Giggity...

Unknown said...

Joe,

It's funny you should mention the delay in posting comments.

Actually, Mr. Sanchez, AppleDawg and MattB emailed me about that over the weekend. They all wanted to know "Paul, why are you waiting so long to post Joe's comments to your week old articles."

lol.

Unknown said...

Joe,

It's funny you should mention the delay in posting comments.

Actually, Mr. Sanchez, AppleDawg and MattB emailed me about that over the weekend. They all wanted to know "Paul, why are you waiting so long to post Joe's comments to your week old articles."

lol.

joe said...

somehow i think that was meant to be sarcastic, but maybe aimed at the wrong joe, im pretty positive ive never commented on a post that was more than a day old.. unless it was to continue a conversation with someone

Unknown said...

Joe,

I do appreciate your readership.It was a joke. Lighten up.

JaxDawg said...

"But Felton needs more time. Just be patient guys."

 
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