On to the Super Six

Finish the Drill, ladies.

The Gym Dawgs have their work cut out for themselves, but have been improving on the beam, which has been a tough spot for them all season. Put up a season's best on the beam and we've got a shot at this thing.
TD

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Gym Dawgs to Super Six; Diamond Dawgs don't lose

Gym Dawgs are currently third behind Florida and LSU, headed into the Saturday night rotation for the national championship.

The Diamond Dawgs were rained out.

TD

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Gymnastics....

Dawgs lose their season opening meet to Oklahoma. As I haven't spent much time analyzing the new hire after letting Jay Clark go last season, I'll only say this: the last coach to lead after three rotations, only to have his team lose on the last rotation and lose the home opener was Jay Clark. And his team didn't fumble away the lead as much as have Utah have a very strong rotation.

That was last year.

TD

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PERFECT 10: Suzanne Yoculan Goes out on Top

Tonight in Lincoln, Neb., Suzanne Yoculan's Gym Dogs won their 10th National Title. It was Suzanne's fifth consecutive national championship as a head coach. At this point, it's safe to say that Bear Bryant is the Suzanne Yoculan of football.

The Dawgs were in good, but not great shape entering their final event. With three gymnasts left on the vault, Georgia posted consecutive scores of 9.95, 10.0, and 9.95 to end it in overwhelming fashion. Georgia had a bye for the final rotation, and Utah (who was 2nd at the time) would've needed to average 9.935 on their final event just to tie. The girls simply nailed this.

Courtney Kupets rocked a perfect 10 on the Vault and the Bar.

Congrats to Suzanne. She earned this, and now she retires from the sport as its unquestioned best ever. The Gym Dogs are one helluva team and program.

See Also:
-- 2009 National Champ Georgia Bulldogs T-Shirt

PWD

(image: Georgiadogs.com)

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Didn't Hawaii try that?

I remember walking around the streets of New Orleans on New Year's Eve 2007 seeing green "UNDEFEATED" shirts all over the place. I thought, "you Hawaiians are jumping the gun a bit aren't you?"

I thought of that shirt while reading about the Utah Utes gymnastics team. The Utes have printed t-shrits for their players declaring themselves "2009 National Champs." They are also wearing gold leotards to symbolize first place.

That takes huge balls ovaries considering that Suzanne Yoculan's girls have won the past four national titles...and the Utes have been their runner-up for the past three years.

In reading the article, you can tell Yoculan probably gets a kick out of their shirt. After all, she's no stranger to brash and bold statements. My favorite being this classic about Alabama's Sarah Patterson:

I don't believe in failure. I'd rather go out on a limb now and have it break once and a while than to never go out there. That's just my approach. It's offensive to some people, but it wins for Georgia. So I recruit athletes who can embrace going for it.

[snip]

I don't use nouns when I can use verbs. I don't call my team "underachievers." I say that they are "underachieving." I don't call Sarah Patterson a "loser," I said "don't gripe about losing." I don't hate anything but cauliflower and turnips.

The Gym Dogs go for the National Title in Lincoln, Nebraska from April 16-18.

PWD

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Early Signing Period Roundup

Yesterday was the start of the early signing period, which runs through next Wednesday.  Here's a brief rundown of the newest Dawgs and a few prospects that are still deciding:

Men's Basketball - Coach Felton signed two players, a big man and a guard.  Daniel Miller is a 6-11 center from Loganville.  Miller's not only tall, but he's a healthy 240 pounds.  He won't start immediately, but he's likely to develop into a nice, consistent presence down low.  DeMario Mayfield is an athletic combo guard out of Carnesville.  He's not a pure point guard, but can handle the ball well and averaged over 28 points in his junior year.  Neither of these guys are real high profile signees, but they are nice players.  The big fish remains silent in Atlanta contemplating us and Tech.

Women's Basketball - Andy Landers has taken some heat lately about recruiting.  That will happen when UConn steals the best player in women's basketball out of your backyard.  There shouldn't be many complaints this year because Andy brought in a nice class.  These Dawgs-to-be were ranked in the top 10 in several recruiting services. The crown jewel is Jasmine Hassell from Tennessee, a big post player capable of dominating the paint.  All four signees were ranked in the top 100 collegiate prospects overall.

Gymnastics - I'll be honest.  I don't know how good this class is or even what most of the credentials of the recruits even mean.  But, given Jay Clark's track record as a recruiter, I'll trust him. (UPDATE: Judging by the ABH story, it's a loaded class.)

Men's Tennis - Manuel Diaz hasn't signed anyone yet, but got a big commitment last week when Chattanooga's James Seal committed to the Dawgs over the Big Orange.  Seal is a top 15 recruit and has spent most of his high school career at the top of the national rankings.  Will Reynolds, another Chattanoogan, is also a UGA verbal.  Like Felton, Diaz is waiting on another big recruit, Jarmere Jenkins, who appears to be signing in the spring.

Women's Tennis - The girls signed a fantastic duo last year and they are in the hunt for another superb player this year.  Mallory Cecil, a South Carolina native, is the top ranked senior in the country and has an offer from the Dawgs.  I don't think UGA has many more offers outstanding, if any. 

I don't have reports for any other UGA program.

Quinton

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4 in a Row! Gym Dogs Win National Championship

Suzanne Yoculan and the Georgia Bulldog Gymnastics Team won their fourth consecutive National Championship tonight in Athens.

(Image: official red championship t-shirt)

It was the first time I had ever seen Georgia win a national title in person despite the multiple opportunities to do so over the years.

Georgia dominated the meet from start to finish. Utah made a late surge in the sixth rotation to close the gap, but it was too little too late.

I'm not Gymnastics Guru by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to tell you how impressed I was with Katie Heenan. I'm pretty sure that she was the girl who suffered a massive face plant during a mid-spin move on the uneven bars only to shake it off and follow it with a 9.95 on the balance beam. Damn impressive.

Funny lines at the Gymnastics Meet:
-- Upon the Gators finishing their night with the fifth rotation, and realizing they were out of it. "Tebow can't save you now."

-- Upon watching the Alabama team walk around in circles waiting the outcome of the meet. "I'm not sure they have the math skills to realize they're going to finish in last place."

-- "I love gymnastics. It's an opportunity to bark at women without being sued for sexual harassment."

See Also::
-- Gym Dog Photos - AJC
-- One more makes 4 - DawgPost
-- Gym Dogs win it all - UGASports.com
-- Kyle King's Recap - DawgSports
-- Official Red Championship T-Shirt- GSB Store
-- Official White Championship T-Shirt - GSB Store

I'm sure the Athens Banner Herald will have tons of coverage tomorrow morning. But I'm heading to bed now and I'll be out of town all morning.

Go Dawgs.

PWD

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Gym Dogs Win SEC Championship

Official Gym Dog SEC Championship T-Shirts
Suzanne Yoculan's Gym Dogs won yet another SEC Championship on Saturday at the Gwinnett arena. The most intense drama of the night wasn't associated with the beam, floor exercises or vault. No, it was the scoring that left everyone leaning forward in their seats.

In a scene similar to the 2000 Presidential Elections, the hanging chads were sorted out and the Gym Dogs prevailed over Alabama. This was Yoculan's 16th SEC Title at UGA. She has more SEC Championships than all other conference members combined.

I've always found Yoculan entertaining and a great quote. I particularly enjoy her rivalry with Sarah Patterson at Alabama. I'm sure she got an extra kick out of beating the Tide in such a controversial manner. I quote this all the time, but SY's best work came on the Finebaum show in 2006 when asked about the Bama coach:

"I don't believe in failure. I'd rather go out on a limb now and have it break once and a while than to never go out there. That's just my approach. It's offensive to some people, but it wins for Georgia. So I recruit athletes who can embrace going for it.

I don't use nouns when I can use verbs. I don't call my team "underachievers." I say that they are "underachieving." I don't call Sarah Patterson a "loser," I said "don't gripe about losing." I don't hate anything but cauliflower and turnips."

For more articles on the Gym Dogs and Suzanne's rivalry with Patterson:

-- Georgia wins SEC Title in Gymnastics - DawgSports.com
-- Bama lands second place - Tuscaloosa News
-- Suzanne on Finebaum - Georgia Sports Blog
-- Cat Fights - Georgia Sports Blog

PWD

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Suzanne Yoculan to Retire Following '08-'09 Season

Gym Dogs celebrate third consecutive national title (image: Georgiadogs.com)

Legendary Gym Dogs Coach Suzanne Yoculan announced her plans to retire at the fall Athletic Association Board of Directors meeting (Source: ABH). Long time assistant Jay Clark will replace her. The only way that she would be more entertaining to me ... if she coached football.

The self proclaimed Darth Vader of Gymnastics is quotable and a stone cold winner. In March 2006, she was interviewed by Paul Finebaum for his radio show. I did my best to transcribe that conversation. The notes are below.

During the interview, she talked about her personal rivalry with Sarah Patterson at Alabama. Paraphrase:

Paul Finebaum: It always seems like Sarah Patterson comes off as the goodie two shoes and you're the evil one. In wrestling terms you're the masked woman, and she's Shirley Temple.

Suzanne: The media started some of it. I'm definitely more spontaneous than Sarah. Even in press conferences, she's more calculated, protective and careful, and I'm more spontaneous.

Sometimes I'll stick my foot in my mouth, but I say what I feel. If I think my team is unbeatable or whatever, I'll usually say so. There have been some times where we've beaten them and she has said things about equipment, the bars, or judging or whatever.

Whatever, winners make adjustments. So we go back and forth alot, and I probably fuel the fire more with my comments. She's able to keep her Shirley Temple persona, but if you listen to who says what a lot of it starts in Alabama.

I don't mind being the Darth Vader team of the SEC. In fact, 10 years ago we made the decision to just embrace that Darth Vader image, and we wear black everywhere we go on the road. We're an aggressive, confident team. That's our style. That's my style. I like enthusiasm. I like excitement. We've won a lot of championships because of that.

I don't believe in failure. I'd rather go out on a limb now and have it break once and a while than to never go out there. That's just my approach. It's offensive to some people, but it wins for Georgia. So I recruit athletes who can embrace going for it.

We're like Steve Spurrier vs. Georgia. No one in Georgia likes Spurrier because he beats us a lot. (PWD: Inferring that no one in Bama likes them b/c they never beat Georgia anymore).

Sarah is more of a southern lady than I am. She does and says the right thing, and has better manners than I do. But that's not my style. I say what I think.

I respect her. She's had the same challenges at Bama that I have had at UGA.

I don't use nouns when I can use verbs. I don't call my team "underachievers." I say that they are "underachieving." I don't call Sarah Patterson a "loser," I said "don't gripe about losing." I don't hate anything but cauliflower and turnips.

I have never had a girl transfer away from Georgia in my entire career. What other coach in any sport at any school can say that?

The entire interview was a blast. I also did a tongue in cheek article about her feud with Patterson in Feb. 2006. You can find it here. I could do without the off the field non-sense, but her success on the mats and in the classroom are undeniable.

PWD

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Championship Apparel for Gymnastics, Tennis and Golf

Logo for Official Championship T-Shirts

If you're looking for the Official T-Shirts from the Georgia Bulldog Gymnastic Team's Back-to-Back-to-Back National Titles, you can pick them up at the Football Fanatics store via our affiliate site.

The store also has the official SEC Championship t-shirts for the 2007 Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis and Women's Golf teams. The logos for those shirts is below.


SEC Championship Logos

Support your favorite blogger (or me) and buy shirts from the store. Additionally, the store has a pretty big Spring Sale going on right now. Check out the site's front page for more details.

PWD

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Gym Dawgs Win Third Straight National Title

Image: georgiadogs.com

The Gym Dawgs won their 8th National Title at the Super Six in Salt Lake City. The team had faced a series of late season injuries and started the title meet with a big stumble.

Then the domination began. Congrats to the Gym Dawgs winners of five of the past 10 championships.

See Also:
-- Local Coverage of Championship Meet - Salt Lake Tribune
-- ThreePeat for Dawgs - OnlineAthens
-- UGA Wins Gymnastics Title - SI.com
-- Gym Dawgs Win Again -- AJC
-- No One Even Close - DawgSports.com
-- Photo Gallery From the Meet - Onlineathens
-- Finebaum Interviews Yoculan - GSB (March '06)

PWD

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Hey, Ladies. Howyoudoin?

Tonight a couple of quick hitters on Bulldog Women. First, the AJC continues to offer good news on the recovery of Kathryn Richt (although they spell it Katharyn, which is different than the way the Savannah paper spelled it).


First Lady Richt

Kyle King offers up an article about Bulldog Women in which he talks about Mrs. Richt, Barbara Dooley and Suzanne Yoculan. In it he labels Suzanne Yoculan as the Bear Bryant of Women's Gymnastics. (BTW - don't miss the caption on Hope Spivey-Sheely.

ESPN has a tribute article up dealing with Katrina McClain Johnson's induction into the women's basketball hall of fame. Katrina McClain Johnson and Teresa Edwards are two of the greatest women's hoops players to ever walk the face of the earth, and both are Georgia Bulldogs.


McClain keeping it real St. Andrews High School Style. Although me and Hootie like to think of her as having the Middleton HS genes

pwd

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Finebaum Interviews Yoculan / Gym Dogs Win SEC

First off, the Gym Dogs won the SEC...again....the 6th time and 7 years. Congrats to the Gym Dogs.

That's all well and good, but if you want a real comedy check Suzanne's interview with Finebaum before the tourney last week (if that link doesn't work go here). She talks about her personal rivalry with Sarah Patterson at Alabama. Paraphrase:

Paul Finebaum: It always seems like Sarah Patterson comes off as the goodie two shoes and you're the evil one. In wrestling terms you're the masked woman, and she's Shirley Temple.

Suzanne: The media started some of it. I'm definitely more spontaneous than Sarah. Even in press conferences, she's more calculated, protective and careful, and I'm more spontaneous.

Sometimes I'll stick my foot in my mouth, but I say what I feel. If I think my team is unbeatable or whatever, I'll usually say so. There have been some times where we've beaten them and she has said things about equipment, the bars, or judging or whatever.

Whatever, winners make adjustments. So we go back and forth alot, and I probably fuel the fire more with my comments. She's able to keep her Shirley Temple persona, but if you listen to who says what a lot of it starts in Alabama.

I don't mind being the Darth Vader team of the SEC. In fact, 10 years ago we made the decision to just embrace that Darth Vader image, and we wear black everywhere we go on the road. We're an aggressive, confident team. That's our style. That's my style. I like enthusiasm. I like excitement. We've won a lot of championships because of that.

I don't believe in failure. I'd rather go out on a limb now and have it break once and a while than to never go out there. That's just my approach. It's offensive to some people, but it wins for Georgia. So I recruit athletes who can embrace going for it.

We're like Steve Spurrier vs. Georgia. No one in Georgia likes Spurrier because he beats us a lot. (PWD: Inferring that no one in Bama likes them b/c they never beat Georgia anymore).

Sarah is more of a southern lady than I am. She does and says the right thing, and has better manners than I do. But that's not my style. I say what I think.

I respect her. She's had the same challenges at Bama that I have had at UGA.

I don't use nouns when I can use verbs. I don't call my team "underachievers." I say that they are "underachieving." I don't call Sarah Patterson a "loser," I said "don't gripe about losing." I don't hate anything but cauliflower and turnips.

I have never had a girl transfer away from Georgia in my entire career. What other coach in any sport at any school can say that?

The entire interview is a blast. Honestly, I could do without Suzanne's off the field antics related to Don Leebern, but I really do get a kick out of the Steve Spurrier personality. I enjoy the smack talk, and I think it has added tremendous interest to women's gymnastics in college. She has made the rivalry with Bama what it is. It's fun, and she's having a blast with it. Plus, she's one helluva a coach.

pwd

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Geriatric Fisticuffs

Another day, another way Regent and UGA non-graduate Don Leebern makes both the State and University of Georgia proud.

In an altercation involving barking dogs, Leebern, 68, and Mason Bentley, 48, the son of former Athens may Upshaw Bentley, settled a dispute like mature adults with an oldster donnybrook in the middle of the street.

[Tastes Great or Less Filling? Let's settle this once and for all.]

The fight was witnessed by Leebern's wife lady friend, UGA gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan. Bentley suffered a broken nose and a punctured lung.

According to the article, Bentley--bleeding from his nose and knuckles after getting whipped by an old dude of nearly 70--also threatened to get his AK-47 from his house.

Stay Classy, Oconee County.

[Don't mess with old dudes, especially ones who co-habitate with gymnastics coaches]

Update: Photo of post-fracas Bentley.



Maybe this is how Leebern has stayed on the Board of Regents for so long: "If you can whip me, you can take my seat!" Either that, or buying Governors.

Dawgnoxious
Bureau Chief
Don Leebern Antics Division

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Gym Dogs Topple Bama in Cat Fight

The ongoing feud between Georgia's Suzanne Yoculan and Alabama's Sarah Patterson experienced another heated reunion on Friday as Georgia beat the Crimson Tide by a score of 196.625 to 196.575 in front of 14,263 fans at Coleman Coliseum.

Their 23 year feud has revolved around everything from accusations of cheating to comments about each other's love life. Hmmm....both are well dressed. Both are charming. Both are attractive. One is a bad girl who's engaged to another woman's husband. Holy crap, I just realized. Suzanne is Alexis Carrington Colby and Sarah is Krystle Jennings Carrington.


Alexis and Krystle do their best Suzanne and Sarah impressions.

The only reason that 14,000+ people continue to show up to watch college gymnastics is the faint hope that the two coaches end up brawling backstage or ideally in a lily pond pulling each other's hair and frolicking wildly yet violently in front of a nation of onlookers. The ratings would go through the roof. It would be April 13, 1983 all over all again.


Aaron Spelling's inspiration for Dynasty actually came from SEC gymnastics.

By the way, I assume everyone knows who plays Blake Carrington in this allegory right? You guessed it.

Anyway, back to Gymnastics. The .05 margin of victory was one of the closest in the series history.


Neither Here Nor There:
Did you know...Sarah Patterson was the last coach in any sport hired by Bear Bryant who is still working for the Crimson Tide. Patterson's first senior class in 1983 won the NCAA Championship using players that Patterson credits Bryant for recruiting. She says that she would bring these young girls to campus for recruiting visits. Patterson would work on the girls with modest success. Then she would introduce the girl's father to Coach Bryant and he would close the deal. The awe of simply being in his presence was enough to get them to sign. (at least that's the version I heard on the Finebaum show...so it must be true)

pwd

Note: All Dynasty pics from this site.

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