SEC Hoops Attendance

Jon Solomon at Al.com has our yearly basketball hand wringing article. His conclusion? We need better start times and marketing.

While I'll agree that we have to have better marketing (he quotes Bruce Pearl, y'all!), he only dances around a bigger issue: top to bottom, the conference is terrible at basketball.  Now, I'm not one to think you have to win all your games to expect a full crowd. Actually, I believe there is some chicken and egg here, as far as winning at home goes.  I've been in Stegeman where it is a ghost town and with it full (both times). Georgia plays better when the Steg is rocking.

But I'm talking about the quality of basketball being played across the conference. After Florida and Kentucky, there is nobody that is looking like a sure fire NCAA team.

Wonder what the record for most teams a major conference has placed in the NIT?

And that is part of the problem. The SEC is all in on football now. Ten years ago we were a sports conference. At best there are four schools that really care about hoops: Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri. Tennessee only cared when Bruce Pearl was there telling everyone how awesome he was (and putting a brand of hoops on display that made it hard to argue with him). The ADs (and conference leaders) are laser focused on football TV revenue and failing to see the upside having strong men's basketball programs can do for you from a financial, football recruiting, and visibility/marketing standpoint.

The SEC is mediocre, at best. We have two very good teams, two more decent teams, three ok teams (UGA included), and seven terrible teams. While looking at attendance alone is not very illustrative, you can see some trends:

• Mizzou is tiring of the Frank Haith regime
• Same could be said for Anthony Grant at Alabama
• Marshall Henderson has been great for Ole Miss' attendance
• LSU fans believe in Johnny Jones
• Georgia's fans are starting to get excited about the improved record

SEC 2013-14 Attendance (entering Feb. 8 games)

Team	2013-14 Average	+/- Last Year At This Time
Kentucky	22,662	< 1% decrease
Tennessee	14,856	-11%
Arkansas	13,945	+7%
Florida	11,145	+11%
Alabama	10,597	-10%
Vanderbilt	9,311	-11%
South Carolina	9,228	+7%
LSU	8,949	+24%
Missouri	8,637	-23%
Ole Miss	7,052	+22%
Mississippi State	6,851	+2%
Georgia	6,343	+13%
Auburn	5,647	-8%
Texas A&M	5,098	-16%

Based on the numbers, you could say things are looking up for Mark Fox, but before we start congratulating each other, remember: Georgia is still with the bottom feeders in % of the arena full at 63%. 

TD

See also:

• Rupp Arena makeover
• Vandy manager's ranking of SEC basketball arenas

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UGA's Financial Commitment to Basketball

By Paul Westerdawg

I've seen a lot of chatter on message boards about UGA's lack of commitment to hoops.  There is a myth that's out there now that UGA doesn't pay for coaching talent and invest in basketball.  The theory goes that because we haven't torn down Stegeman and completely rebuilt it that we're not "all in."

Most of that noise is from an old song book about UGA basketball.  Much of which is no longer relevant. Here are some facts:

In 2009, when we hired Mark Fox, we was offered $1.3 million. At that exact moment, Jim Calhoun of Uconn had 2 National Titles and like 7 Final Four appearances.  Calhoun was making $1.6 million.

At that time, we offered Mark a deal which was roughly Top 20-30 money.  More importantly, we offered Mike Anderson, between $2.3 million and $2.0 million. That package was comparable to what Roy Williams was making at UNC at the time.

Roy Williams made $2.11 million in 2011...2 years AFTER we offered Mike Anderson $2 million.

Mike Anderson turned us down to stay at Missouri for $1.3 million.  We hired Mark Fox at $1.3 million and bumped him to $1.7 million after his contract was renewed in 2011.  If we had paid Mark more in 2011, it wouldn't have made him a better recruiter.

The point: Salary for our head coach isn't the problem, 

and it's not the problem for the assistants either.

Mark Fox is losing because he's not the right coach for UGA.  It's not because he isn't paid competitively.

Facilities Ramp Up
UGA started beefing up the investment in facilities used by the basketball team in 2005.  The practice Annex was a $30 million investment (opened in 2006) and the Stegeman renovations in 2010 were an additional $12 million investment.  There's another million or two in incremental modest enhancements overlaying that which I'll ignore for now.

Over that same time period, Auburn is the only SEC school who has outspent us on bball facilities.  Even if you dial it back a full decade, its the same story.

• UK spent $30 million in that time. (although a massive redo of Rupp is on the horizon)
• UT spent around $15 million
• GT just spend $45 million which is basically the same as what we spent.

We have many issues, but financial commitment isn't the problem anymore.  The problem isn't the marketing department.  The problem isn't the PR team.  The problem isn't fan support.

Fan support is a symptom. It isn't the root disease.

The problem is that Mark is a poor recruiter who plays a boring brand of basketball and lacks any ability whatsoever to evangelize and sell his product to the UGA fan base, AAU/HS coaching community or media.

We've let him run this thing into the ground because he wouldn't staff for success. Finding his replacement is not going to be easy.  But it is what it is.  McGarity makes the big bucks to thread this needle. In March, he'll have to do that barring us winning at Colorado or GW and going about 13-5 in the SEC.  That's about what it would take for this team with this strength of schedule just to make the NIT.

And he may have to make the NIT to save his job.

PWD

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Tadric Jackson picks Tech

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How long does season evaluation take?

In the case of the baseball team, don't think it is a forgone conclusion that Perno is gone. I think he should be, but there are three things that I keep thinking about:

1. He's still recruiting talent. For better or worse, his classes are still highly rated by Baseball America. I'll get to talent development in a minute, but there are arguments that the past two seasons are aberrations based on untimely injuries, club house lawyers, and very some unlucky bounces against teams. Remember, McGarity is a long term view guy. One that isn't likely to make a judgement solely on record. 
2. He is under developing talent. If Perno gets credit for the recruiting classes, then you have to lay the blame of those classes not becoming elite pitchers and hitters on the college level on him. Again, there is an argument that part of the blame could be traced to injuries, ect. 
3. His connections to the department are a wildcard. The guy was on the national championship team. His family is as connected as they get in Athens, at least as much as the Dooleys. He's been in the department for a very long time.

Perno has been to the CWS multiple times. That means something, especially when you start thinking about how McGarity views a coaching search. Is there someone out there that can at least replicate the successes of Perno, circa mid-00's? 

There is one other thing in play here, that being the increasing fan apathy towards baseball. I know, put a good product and people will show up, blah, blah. If I had to bet, I'd say Georgia Athletics is on the verge of a big capital campaign. The timing of that kick off also plays in here. If UGA Athletics is about to push a campaign this summer, a change is more likely. If UGA Athletics is going to wait, a year isn't necessarily going to hurt that. If Perno bounces back, great. If he doesn't, well we need the money to improve facilities to give the new coach a leg up.

The biggest issue is that we have fallen precariously behind the other teams in the conference. Ten SEC teams are projected as locks into the 2013 NCAA tourney, with four teams projected to host (meaning they'll be national seeds, in all likelihood). Still, don't think McGarity is dead locked on firing Perno. It took him a season to move on gymnastics, nearly all based on the goodwill Jay Clark had built up as a long time coach in Athens. 

Actually, the Jay Clark situation is a pretty good indicator of how this will go. It is clear we aren't close to competing for conference championships, much less qualifying for the NCAA championships. The real question lies in how much McGarity thinks Perno is the reason why we aren't, how much credit he gets for when the baseball team was competing at that level, and how much he believe Perno is capable of getting us back to that level.

TD

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Diamond Dawgs Update

The Dawgs won one of three on the road this weekend in Auburn. If you are keeping score at home, that is 3-12 in the conference and 13-24 overall.

SEC Standings:

Team	SEC	Pct.	Overall	Pct.	Home	Away	Neutral	Streak
Eastern
Vanderbilt	13 - 1	.929	32 - 4	.889	23-2	9-2	0-0	W13
South Carolina	8 - 7	.533	27 - 10	.730	19-5	8-3	0-2	L3
Florida	8 - 7	.533	19 - 18	.514	14-13	5-4	0-1	W5
Kentucky	7 - 7	.500	24 - 10	.706	16-5	5-4	3-1	L1
Tennessee	4 - 10	.286	15 - 18	.455	10-7	4-9	1-2	W1
Missouri	4 - 10	.286	12 - 19	.387	8-7	4-11	0-1	L2
Georgia	3 - 12	.200	13 - 24	.351	8-14	5-10	0-0	W1
Western
LSU	12 - 2	.857	33 - 3	.917	24-1	8-2	1-0	L1
Arkansas	9 - 5	.643	25 - 11	.694	19-6	5-1	0-4	W1
Alabama	8 - 6	.571	22 - 15	.595	14-6	8-7	0-2	W1
Mississippi St.	7 - 7	.500	29 - 9	.763	22-5	5-4	2-0	W3
Ole Miss	6 - 8	.429	25 - 10	.714	17-6	8-3	0-1	W2
Texas A&M	6 - 8	.429	21 - 15	.583	16-7	3-6	1-2	L2
Auburn	5 - 10	.333	22 - 14	.611	17-9	3-5	2-0	L1

With Vandy (at Foley), Arkansas (at Foley), at Tennessee, at South Carolina, and Flordia (at Foley) still coming, the Dawgs will need a miracle to sneak into the top 12 teams and play in the SEC tournament. The damning part is that we only one one of three last weekend against Missouri and one this weekend against Auburn, which will be the two teams we'll need to move past. We have played the easy half of the SEC schedule. Absent a miracle, we will be mathematically eliminated from going to Hoover before May.

TD

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Georgia's second scorer...

Makes me crazy that all of this talk about who is Georgia's 'second scorer' and Fox dismissing the younger guys as

"I’ve got a freshman, sophomore and freshman on the perimeter."

Looking at the stats, those guys are picking up in time played, sure. But to date, Mann is the only one getting more playing time per game than the older guys (specifically Vincent Williams and Sherrard Brantley). The sophomore is KCP and is playing 32+ minutes per game. One of his freshmen, Mann is now creeping towards 20 minutes per game. The other, Morris, is getting less than 14. In conference play, Mann is getting a ton more time, as he should.

A good example: Georgia had Morris, Mann and KCP on the floor at the tip. KCP got his 35 minutes. Mann had 29, and showed up by hitting 10 of his 13 free throws. And yes, he needs to be better than 2-7 shooting, but the 77% FT shooting is huge for a guy that should be a dribble drive player. Morris...only played 12 minutes. He scored 5 points (3-4 from the FT line) and only had one TO.

Brantley played 25. Scored zero. 0-5, with 4 of those being 3pt shoots. He also had a TO. He did not go to the line, either. Is Brantley substantively better than Morris, such that he should get double the playing time? It was clear from the first minute of the game that Mississippi State started playing tight man and rolling help on KCP. At that point, any shot that doesn't involve at least a drive to the basket, either with a kick out/dish/floater/pull up play is a wasted possession. That is purely numbers basketball.

However, Coach Fox wants to put some of the blame for poor post production on Mann,

The lack of interior scoring isn’t all on the post players, Fox said. Freshman point guard Charles Mann has to do a better job of getting the ball inside. 

“We’re missing some opportunities there that I think we could get,” Fox said.

What opportunities? Someone taking a dribble from 4 feet when they get the ball above their head? Weak fade shot from layup range? Mann is leading the team in assists. He is feeding the ball to post players that have 64 TOs on the season, while shooting below 40% from the field, yet only going to the line 64 times all season? Not that getting to the line is money, as they are shooting 63.6% combined from the FT line.

John Cannon
(georgiadogs.com)

Paul mentioned that Brantley and Morris' numbers are close. I'd say that if you are trying to get experience for your talented freshmen to improve their game to your level of expectation they should be playing. But, I'm not a coach.

Of course, there was no mention of John Cannon in the article, either. I love Neme, but he is right about his own play. It has to be more sound. Just to mention it, Cannon has a lot of turnovers, too. He is 7-7 from the foul line and is over 50% from the field, though.

Should we start looking at this season as lost in order to get playing time for our younger guys? I guess that is my point today; however, I'd say that the time for getting those guys playing time was two months ago, not on the road in Gainesville or Columbia.

TD

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'Locals don't care much'

I'm engaged in an email conversation with some pretty ardent Georgia basketball fans about the future of the program. Basically, we are discussing finger on the pulse type stuff with big time donors and other athletic supporters. In light of Kevin O'Neill's dismissal at Southern Cal (for my very own snark on that go here), Mark Ennis, who covers Louisville athletics hit the nail on the head:

@danwolken USC a lot like UGA basketball. Plenty of talent around, average league, but locals don't care much.
— Mark Ennis (@Mengus22) January 14, 2013

Absolutely nothing to argue with there. Sadly, what Mark Ennis and Dan Wolken sees is exactly what is being borne out. Locals don't care. Student's don't care. I haven't seen much evidence that the University administration proper cares, other than Dr. Adams' attendance at games.

Georgia basketball should be a jewel in the crown of UGA's athletic department instead of a punch line for USA Today bloggers. Sadly, it isn't.

TD

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Those that cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it

In 2008, Paul posted an article about Dennis Felton's road record through 4.5 seasons. It was a pitiful 5-30. After reading his postings and those of others from circa 2008, I know why I feel the way I feel about Georgia under Mark Fox: we are reliving a nearly exact scenario.

For example:
Georgia road wins under Fox
2009-10 - Auburn
2010-11 - St. Louis, Georgia Tech, Mercer, Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee
2011-12 - Southern Cal, Mississippi State
2012-13 -

Now, road wins are not the end all and be all of basketball excellence. You do have to win some to get places, as was illustrated in '10-11 when we won seven and still was a bubble team into the NCAA tourney. We are going to have to get very lucky to notch a road win this year. In fact, I don't see us winning more than three more games total, if we are lucky. And next year isn't looking any better.

I'll grant Fox had a good season in 2010-11 and lost his two best players. It is notable that both of those players were recruited by Felton. We can quibble about what Felton's issues were, and they were many, but do you think recruiting has gotten better? Air Force Dawg has put together some telling stats on Dawg Run that put our recruiting in fairly clear focus.  Yes, we have an extremely good player in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. We have other very good players on the team. However, there isn't any potential signee that is going to make the math of this equation any better.

I had all the faith in the world that we had a chance to become the program that was consistently in the NCAA tourney after 2010-11, despite the loss of those two players. We had a 5 star recruiting coup and won some games in '11-12 that gave us some reasons to think we had something working. All of that momentum, and then some, is gone. We are regressing offensively, haven't improved defensively, and continue to look less and less able to play any phase of the game with competence.

We are going the wrong direction. Even if we were holding steady, which we aren't, it wouldn't be the right direction. I'll not list all the programs that have been where we were (the best example is Baylor) ten years ago. The only thing in 2006 holding us back was a bad hire. That was 2006 when we were struggling back from the non-sense of the end of Harrick's tenure.

What is holding us back now? The inertia of low expectations?

Georgia has a terrific athletic program. The basketball facilities are comparable with most of those in the conference nation. We have a student body that is passionate about sports generally. We sit 60 miles East of three of most prolific amateur basketball programs in the nation. We have plenty of money to devote to putting our programs in successful positions.

Greg McGarity has publicly stated that he expects his programs to compete for championships in all sports. He let go encouraged the resignation of the hand picked successor of the most successful head coach in Georgia athletic history when that coach merely got the program to the national championships, instead of competing for them. If we set those types of expectations for men's basketball, I am confident we can consistently be an NCAA tournament team, and one that can expect to make runs in the NCAA tournament sometimes.

If Mr. McGarity truly wants Georgia men's basketball to compete for championships or even be merely competent, the time has come to show that.

TD

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It's official...

Georgia is the worst basketball team in the SEC. Mississippi State wins over the Dawgs 72-61, and it wasn't as close as the score indicates. As I mentioned, our schedule is among the toughest early season SEC scheds you will see with four of the first six games against Florida (2), Missouri and Texas A&M, which are the SEC's most likely teams to make the NCAA tourney. However, a loss to Mississippi State, at home, was our best chance for a home win this season.

Basically, Mississippi State committed to guarding KCP in the second half and we didn't have answers anywhere else to use the motion offense to work open shots. I'm not sure why, but at some point, we needed to find someone else, anyone else, to get looks. Mann scored 9 in the second half, but only one other person scored more than two in the second half when MSU locked down on Caldwell-Pope.

More disturbingly, we look like we aren't in a position play longer than about five strong minutes of basketball a game. We take crazily bad shots, randomly pass the ball around without purpose, we get beat underneath for rebounds, and we go long stretches of the game where we seem content, by design, to let the clock tick down to give KCP a three point shot. Whatever it is, it is not good basketball.

We only have three players in the top 66 players in the conference in Roland Rating* (a measure of a player's effectiveness and contribution to the team while he is on the court) in the conference. KCP (no surprise), Charles Mann, and Marcus Thornton (who is out indefinitely with an injury). When you consider that, it is sad to say, but our perhaps our best offensive play is to let the clock tick down to give KCP a three point shot.

I'll have more on this later today, but I'm done. Not as a fan, not as a supporter, but as a believer. I like Coach Fox. I think he has his heart in the right place in working with the players and trying to put them in position to succeed as men. We are in year 4 and we are looking at a worse season than any we had under Felton, especially when you consider how bad the SEC is. I don't see evidence he is the man to move Georgia to the next level in basketball.

When you consider that mere competence is the next level for Georgia basketball, I'm embarrassed to say we Georgia fans have been surprisingly ok with letting it get here. Well, I'm not ok with it.

TD

*Stats from Statsheet.com

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Looking forward at Georgia's basketball schedule

One of the recurrent questions I heard at the Mercer game from the folks I was sitting with is what is our over under on wins this year? Honestly, what is our upside, our expected win total, and our downside.  That takes some tea leaf reading, but hey, I have a blog and tea leaves, so why not.

First let's look at Georgia's remaining schedule, the records of those teams, and associated RPIs for each team (from realtimerpi.com):

12-22		USC	4-6 (0-0)	123
12-29		Florida A&M	2-7 (1-0)	334
01-04		Geo. Washington	4-6 (0-0)	197
01-09	at	Florida	7-1 (0-0)	6
01-12		Mississippi St.	3-6 (0-0)	247
01-16	at	Missouri	9-1 (0-0)	74
01-19		LSU	6-1 (0-0)	36
01-23		Florida	7-1 (0-0)	6
01-26	at	Texas A&M	7-2 (0-0)	14
01-30		Auburn	4-5 (0-0)	239
02-02	at	South Carolina	6-3 (0-0)	196
02-06	at	Tennessee	5-3 (0-0)	58
02-09		Texas A&M	7-2 (0-0)	14
02-12		Alabama	5-3 (0-0)	45
02-16	at	Mississippi	7-1 (0-0)	57
02-21	at	Arkansas	5-4 (0-0)	120
02-23		South Carolina	6-3 (0-0)	196
02-27	at	Vanderbilt	5-4 (0-0)	176
03-02		Tennessee	5-3 (0-0)	58
03-07		Kentucky	7-3 (0-0)	62
03-09	at	Alabama	5-3 (0-0)	45

Keep in mind, Georgia's current RPI is in the 250 range. Based on that, we should be favored in one game (Florida A&M) based solely on schedule. We get a break in that our two most winnable games in conference, Auburn and Mississippi State, are at home. We should be favored in those two due to home court advantage. Also, we've always seemed to come up with one performance against a very good team (think Florida last season) and win a game we have no business winning.

If you are doing the math at home, that is 7 wins and 24 losses. Since this is the simplest way to look at a median number of wins, I'm ok with calling this our expected number and go with 7-24.

What about the upside?
Realistically, we cannot be expected to beat Florida either time this year. Same goes for Texas A&M or Alabama. For that matter, the only road games we should be anywhere close to being competitive in would be South Carolina and Vandy. Furthermore, any home game against a team with a sub 100 RPI would be a huge upset. I'm willing to say we can win one of USC (not likely, but possible) and George Washington (who has struggled recently and also lost to Youngstown State).

That leaves Florida A&M, one of George Washington/USC, Mississippi State, Auburn, South Carolina at home, one of South Carolina/Vandy on the road, and that one crazy game that we always have at home where we slip up and surprise someone. For good measure let's say we have two of those games. That is 11-20.

Isn't 7-24 the downside?
God no. We could go 1-17 in the conference and only win one of the remaining OOC games. That'd be a gut wrenching 5-26. For that matter, we could go 0-18 in the conference if Fox loses the team. The SEC, while far from being as good as it has been in some years is much better than it has been. Furthermore, Georgia's schedule, looking forward, is very tough. We get four of the top five RPI teams in the conference twice. We only play one of the other bottom feeders (South Carolina) twice.

Like I said earlier, the only thing that gives me any hope for better than 10 wins is somehow the younger lineup starts to gel and we find some offense to go with the plodding game pace. You can complain about the pace of the game, but we aren't going to win many any games in which an opponent scores 80 points. If we can squeeze another .10 of point out of each possession, we could be close to .500 for the rest of the season. That would put us at 14-17 on the season.

Then the question then becomes is 14-17 good enough for Fox to keep his job?

TD

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Auburn: A Case Study in Fail

Nevah laid a glove on me.

Two years removed from a national championship, Auburn in in trouble. Not the kind of trouble they were in during that year. No. There is dissension. Dissension on campus. Dissension in the locker room. Dissension in the President's office. Dissension among the alumni.

The latest news of that dissension is the hiring of a private security firm to enforce weeknight curfews on players, even those living off campus. Game eve curfews are a normal thing. Unless you are Stephen Garcia. Mere things like rules can't hold a playa like SGar down. A weeknight curfew? Damn. I'm pretty sure those guys are called consultants in Tuscaloosa.

I'm not here to judge their issues. I'm here to enjoy them. Here's hoping the NCAA has just hired Charles Robinson to go snooping around in Auburn.

TD

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Dawgs Lose to South Carolina

When you lose to a team that is as bad as South Carolina, you would think you could look at the box score and have something just jump off the page at you. Disparity in turnovers or shots taken or free throws. Something.  But...there isn't. Georgia just showed up and didn't play like it mattered if they won or loss.

We can blame poor ball management in the last minute for the loss, but it was an entire game of not being smart. We had two 7 point leads, yet still didn't do anything to stem runs by a team that isn't geared to make runs or score much for that matter. We again switched from an offense that was creating problems for them handle to one that they disrupted easily or we couldn't run (insert your own Bobo joke here). There is a stunning lack of outward care in Georgia basketball. I have no doubt these losses gnaw at the coaches and players, but from the outside, it looks like all anyone is saying is 'one of those basketball deals' [shrugs shoulders and walks away from the mic].

The last week was nothing but fools gold. Fools Gold, y'all. 
TD

PS. I feel for KCP, as he is shouldering the blame with the big turnovers in the last SC run and the cold day shooting, but he was hustling on defense the whole game. He took some ill advised shots, but often he was the only one that wanted to actually take open looks instead of passing the ball.

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Not Good

When the only thing about the night that seemed to go right is not getting pushed onto the tracks waiting on the Marta train, it isn't a good night.  Obviously, I'll have more later, but I got to Athens at 2:30am, so the only thing I have right now is the recurring thought that this must be what it felt like being in the Johnson administration during Vietnam.  We are a power without the will or leadership to do what it takes to be a superior power

Right now, there is no end in sight, no hope of a resolution, and no signs any of those things needed fixed, will be.  Hats off to Boise State.  They came in, played their game, and dominated in the places where they had advantages.  I hope they are a really good team, a top 5 team, because if they are merely a good MWC team....well, it is hard to contemplate how mediocre an SEC team we are.

I won't have a chance to watch the replay until later today, so I am sure whatever rays of sunshine I can find will involve gallows humor about the fact that I didn't wake up in Boulder this morning.

TD

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Why the AJC is such a joke

A UGA player not getting arrested for receiving a relatively minor citation makes the paper. While a two year long NCAA investigation into Georgia Tech resulting in sanctions goes unreported until the final day of the process.

That's not a shot at Chip Towers. It's a huge shot at the gross incompetence and/or negligence of the former Tech beat writer and the AJC's Sports Editor. Every time I think I'm done commenting on the GT thing...I get dragged back into it.

PWD

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GT goes down over $312

I remember UGA basketball fans saying, "I can't believe we got in all of this trouble over a $300 payment to Tony Cole and a bogus PE class."

My retort to all of those Harrick apologists at the time was pretty simple. It wasn't the violation that killed us. It was the moment where Jim Harrick allegedly told Chris Daniels and Reshad Wright to lie to the investigators about the PE class that got us slaughtered.

There's nothing worse than a cover up to the NCAA. That's why Bruce Pearl was fired at UT. It's why Jim Harrick was fired at UCLA. It's why Jim Tressel isn't at Ohio State, and it's why Georgia Tech is no longer the ACC Champion from the 2009 season.

As for GT fans who think the punishment is too harsh....Thomas caught a 70 yard TD pass on a 1 play drive in a game decided by five points in which he should've been sitting down pending the outcome of his investigation. Even UNC had the good sense to sit their guys when the NCAA started snooping around.

Read the report sometime. It's amazing how inept their cover up attempt was.

That said...all those who think DRad is a bad AD because this happened on his watch, I present an alternate theory. Any AD who can keep an NCAA investigation a secret for over 20 months is running a tighter ship than most. It also helps to have a hometown newspaper completely and totally asleep at the wheel.

Georgia fans get three days of articles on the transfer of Brent Benedict and a full article on the assistant recruiting coordinator (a guy I had never heard of) leaving while GT is going through an investigation in two sports without a peep.

Amazing.

PWD

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Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln

With the whirlwind of speculation going on around the resignation of Jim Tressel, what are the bigger lessons for college football programs?

Based on the SI article out yesterday, it looks like one answer is insulate your head coach. I couldn't tell you if the Vest is a control freak, but from the outside looking in, it sure seems like he is. For his new gig selling insurance...or used cars, he needs to learn to delegate.

I am not making light of those decisions or the outcomes. They are very bad on both accounts. However, it isn't hard to make the argument that had Tressel trusted an assistant coach or a director of football programs, he'd still have Gordon Gee picking up his lunch tab on a regular basis. His pleas of ignorance can only work if he has plausibility deniability. You have to have the pretense of not being in the loop to make it work.

The sin of omission is viewed very differently than the sin of commission. When you are the loop, there is no one to kick the smoking gun toward when the police show up. Gene Smith and Gordon Gee are about to prove that point pretty convincingly in front of the NCAA.

I am sure we'll see more about this in the coming days, but it isn't hard to see why blue chip players thought Columbus was such a cool place to play football. Being treated like royalty is hardly unique in a college football town. Being treated like Vince Neal on the Girls,Girls,Girls tour is something entirely different. Not to say it doesn't happen other places (it does), but when you add that context it makes those decisions more understandable.

TD

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Ed. note: After re-reading this, it appears I could be condoning these actions. I am not. I am simply saying Pat Dye and Jim Tressel got into trouble when they took matters too much into their own hands.

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Mike Slive's faux accountability

At the risk of belaboring the whine-a-thon regarding the LSU game, Mike Slive invites some discussion when he says the SEC has an accountability system for officials and if somebody is not good enough they won't stay. Slive's "just never felt that a public hanging in the square" will make better officials.

That accountability system must really be effective if Al "Jasper was down!" Ford is still around. He was the replay official for the LSU game Saturday and the poster child for the fact the SEC does not run a meritocracy with respect to officials.

Bobby Gaston, right, selects his successor.

The problem with Slive's comment is that no one knows anything about the accountability system. And if there is an accountability system, shouldn't the conference talk with specificity about how it operates in order to inspire the kind of confidence Slive was trying to create?

I think such a discussion is important to the integrity of the game. The system for hiring, firing, and evaluating Southeastern Conference officials lacks transparency. It's precisely this veil of secrecy that permits conspiracy theories to take hold. It's easy to believe the SEC Supervisor of Officials is a patronage position for farted-out old Tech ankle biters when only Total Assholes Persons like Bobby Gaston and Rogers Redding have ever held the job, and no one quite knows what they do. Was that job opportunity even posted, or a successor merely annointed?

I would like to see the SEC talk about how it selects officials (are there fitness & vision requirements? How are they enforced?), what kind of training is required, the rate at which officials are involuntarily "retired" and other related facts. The LSU game merely brought these kinds of questions into focus for me, and Slive's bobbing and weaving on the issue only makes it look worse.

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Miami DC departs for Oklahoma State

According to the Miami Herald, Defensive coordinator Bill Young has left the University of Miami to join his alma mater, Oklahoma State. Miami head coach Randy Shannon did not tip his hand regarding potential replacements. The Herald quotes him as saying: "I will be looking for the best possible defensive coordinator to replace him. If that candidate is not out there, those responsibilities will fall to me."

Randy had better get a move on if he doesn't want to double up as his own defensive coordinator, because he still has not replaced offensive coordinator Patrick Nix.

According to the AJC, Mark Richt's spokesman said Miami had not requested permission to speak with Willie Martinez.

Who has two thumbs and no comment?

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You see...what I meant was....

Gene Chizik on the move from Auburn to Texas:

"I left Auburn because I thought The University of Texas was the best job in the country and I think Mack Brown is the best coach in the country. You come to a crossroads in your career when you've got to make a decision that's the best for your family and yourself."
-- BurntOrangeBeat 01/01/2006

Gene Chizik on the move from Iowa State to Auburn:

"Through my travels in coaching over the last 23 years, there's one place that I've always wanted to return to and that is Auburn," Chizik said. "The tradition of the Auburn football program combined with the passionate fans and their love for Auburn are second to none. My family and I are Auburn through and through, and look forward to being part of the Auburn family and community."
-- Official Auburn Statement 12/13/2008

So...he's really excited to be there. Unless something better opens up.

PWD

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George Wallace's Reaction to the AU Hire

George Wallace Approves of this Hire
I'm not one to get into race very often on the blog because it never ends well. But just how exactly does Auburn justify the differences between Gene Chizik's resume and Turner Gill's resume?

Chizik is 5-19 while riding a 10 game losing streak at Iowa State. Meanwhile, Turner Gill took over arguably the worst program in college football history, and he made them MAC Champs in three seasons. In fact, Gill's winning percentage as a head coach is almost exactly twice the percentage as Chizik's.

The only teams that both programs have played over the past two years are Kent St. and Toledo. Chizik was 1-2 vs. them while Gill was 2-1. As for national titles as an assistant, Gill has three to Chizik's one.

Basically, Auburn's athletic department could've made the search easier if they had simply spun George Wallace's "Wheel of HR Success" to find the appropriate hire.

Ironically, Gill would be an exceptional hire for Iowa State given his ties to the Big 12 North, and his expertise in program building. So this could end up being the best thing to happen to Turner Gill.

See Also:
-- "Nick Saban will eat Chizik for Breakfast" - Birmingham News
-- Tide Fan Rolls Toomers Corner (Ht - Finebaum.com)

PWD


(ht - weaglejohn for the Wallace reference)

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