Game OVER for Dennis the Menace

Time has run out for Dennis Felton as basketball coach at the University of Georgia. Let’s forget for a second about his losing streak. Let’s look at him for a minute. He came to Georgia from Western Kentucky, a defensive-minded coach that was everything Jim Harrick wasn’t. He was a young black family man that was going to come to Athens and tear down and rebuild the “right way” with “role models” that would represent Georgia proudly. I was a student season ticket holder for four years under Harrick and I graduated three months after Harrick shamefully left the University. But with five returning seniors plus three great recruits, I figured as long as Felton just rolled a ball out there, the team was a LOCK for the NCAA tournament. I signed up for season tickets, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to make it back for most games with my new job in Clayton, GA, but as News and Sports Director, I would still follow the Dawgs and discuss them everyday on the radio.
Well we all know now that Felton DIDN’T just roll the ball out and let them play. He started kicking folks like Steve Thomas and Wayne Arnold off the team and two of the three recruits never set foot on campus, instead going to conference rivals Tennessee and Florida. The offensive minded team that had averaged near 80 points the previous year struggle to score at times, many times not scoring for 8 minutes at a time. I was in the stands as the team had a big halftime lead against Arkansas, only to not score for the first 12 minutes of the second half. This was a team with 4 senior starters, including Point Guard Rashad Wright. The team lost in the first round of the NIT, with talent that SHOULD have made the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. The next season Felton’s collection of “talent” won 8 games and only 2 SEC games. The following year Felton tried to hitch his wagon to high school star Louis Williams, but Williams, as EVERYONE except Felton knew, went straight to the NBA. In the process Felton recruited Williams’ buddy Mike Mercer to be a Dawg, hoping that would get Williams to Athens for at least one year. Because Williams left, a spot was open for Billy Humphrey.
Well in the first season for those guys, the team AGAIN didn’t do much, finishing 15-15. The second season ended with an injury to Mike Mercer and a loss in the second round of the NIT.
Then the boat started taking on water. Felton has routinely kicked off players from the squad or players have decided to transfer because they didn’t like Felton. Levi Stukes was suspended for the Kentucky game late last season that could have gotten the Dawgs into the NCAA tournament. Channing Toney, Corey Gibbs, Marcus Sikes, Younes Idrissi, and Kendrick Johnson all left the program over the past few seasons, but with the dismissing of Takais Brown and Mike Mercer before the season started for academic and attitude problems, respectively, Felton’s armor was finally chinked. He couldn’t blame these players on Harrick as he as done for his first four seasons. He also was forced to say that his role models weren’t quite representing the University the way he wanted them to. Then came Rashaad Singleton’s quitting the team and Billy Humphrey’s first arrest. Then came Billy Humphrey’s second arrest. The worst part of Humphrey’s second arrest is that he doesn’t seem to care. He called it a “nag.” This is a kid being a kid, but let’s also realize that he is a scholarship athlete representing the University of Georgia. And he has a criminal record from four months ago. Maybe stay in after you lose on your home floor. Or maybe you practice since you haven’t had that great of a shooting month.
I know everyone will say that Felton hasn’t been given a fair shake. Maybe the situation was tougher than he originally thought when he signed on. I say NO. He had a great team his first and he screwed that up. Look at what Bruce Pearl did with his first team at Tennessee. Bruce Pearl had a different system than Buzz Peterson did, but Pearl recognized what he had, only tweaked the team his first season, had GREAT success that first year, then began his changes the second season. Felton couldn’t have done that too?
People will also say that firing Felton now would mean only starting over again. I don’t think anything has really been built, so the demolition wouldn’t be that great. This team is young, outside of Yata Gaines and Dave Bliss, who will be gone next year. The team would have to be rebuilt anyways. I have three options to replace Felton. Anthony Grant, head coach VCU. Grant led the Rams past Duke in the first round of last year’s NCAA tourney. Then he nearly packed up his tent and headed to take over the two-time defending champion Florida Gators when Billy Donovan was flirting with Orlando. Grant is part of the Donovan tree, and why wouldn’t be want to follow in Donovan’s shoes (go to an SEC rival school from where you started and build a power like Donovan did with Florida from Kentucky). You could also go with Chris Collins, assistant coach at Duke. Collins has helped the Blue Devils win a national title in 2001, and several of his guards have gone on to win All-America honors then net first round selections in the NBA. Plus Collins, in addition to learning under Coach K has his father Doug from which to seek help. My last option is Gregg Marshall, head coach at Wichita State. Marshall, in his nine years at Winthrop took the team to the Big Dance seven times and compiled a 194-83 record. This is his first season with the Shockers and after the season has ended, he will have over 200 wins in his first 10 years as a head coach. That’s an average of 20 wins per year. Georgia could use a winner like that. Plus he always had his team ready to play in the tournament the last few years, and they knocked off Notre Dame last season.
So Georgia has options and something needs to be done. Felton’s teams always tried entering this year. They always played hard and sometimes over their heads. True there would be times when the scoring wasn’t there, but you could count on the defense at least trying. That’s not the case anymore. The effort doesn’t seem to be there anymore and during the Tennessee game, Felton was just sitting there. He didn’t call a time out until nine minutes remained in the game. Come on Dennis. It seems right there he quit on his team. Maybe it was a bad day, but if I saw that on national tv, so did potential recruits. And that is not good for the future of this program. Some new blood is needed at UGA. The University needs to find its Mark Richt of basketball. And Felton isn’t it.