As a proud alum and donor to the University of Georgia, I feel that I can weigh in on this and in the past I have never been ashamed to weigh in. (Hey, my money is going to the athletic department, along with the Grady College, so I feel I have the right to talk) I read where Georgia may or may not have offered Mizzou coach Mike Anderson the gig as men's coach. He apparently met with Damon Evans, fresh off his appearance in the Elite 8 and could be looking at a deal worth 2M per season.
Apparently UGA may also be chasing Jeff Capel of OU, but I doubt that is happening. What NEEDS to happen with whomever the Dawgs hire though is the team MUST be able to score points (something it did under Harrick but failed to under Felton) AND it MUST MUST MUST tap into the rich in-state talent. When Harrick had Georgia cooking (and it WAS while I was there!) it was with home-grown GEORGIA talent in the lineup. Rashad Wright-Statesboro. Ezra Williams-Marietta. Jarvis and Jonas Hayes-Atlanta. Steve Thomas-Carrollton. Chris Daniels-Albany. Even Damien Wilkins had the Georgia ties.
For whatever reason Felton thumbed his nose at in-state talent, instead going to Wisconsin for Dave Bliss; NY for Sundiata Gaines; Virginia Beach for Terrence Woodbury; Texas for Singletary, Louisiana for Jacobs, Maryland for Stukes.... Don't get me wrong, there is NOTHING wrong with plucking a prospect here and there from out-of-state, but build the foundation from IN-STATE. There is CERTAINLY the talent in the state of Georgia with which to do what. Heck, Anderson at Missouri saw the talent that JT Tiller (Marietta) had and brought him out to play for the Tigers! But Felton couldn't have gotten him to Athens?
Look at what Mark Richt did with the football program: his first few years he built a fence around the state, then after being successful, he decided he could go OUT-OF-STATE to get the cream of the crop, but he still gets nearly ANY in-state prospect he wants. That should be the way that the new coach handles his business. Build a strong in-state pipeline then go out of state every now and then to grab a prize guy.
Also, something Felton never realized: in this day of one-and-done possibilities, PLAYERS WANT TO PLAY OFFENSE, not defense. Yes, defense wins championships, whatever. The players want to score. Get a couple of scorers then teach a few of the role players to play defense, OR get talented enough guys that can do both and if they really buy in to what you are selling, they will play D. Or just try and could score them until the very end and just bring a "lock-down" defender off the bench for a stretch towards the end of the game. That's what I would do. Make EVERY game a 79-76 score-fest. You'd get the local kids to what to come and play and that would make you better in the long run and ....(See above).
The next coach MUST tap into the local talent. Georgia is a talent-rich state that one of its big-time programs should be able to thrive on in-state talent. Once a coach realizes that, he'll turn Georgia's arena into the place to be like it was from 1999-00 thru 2002-03. Back when basketball mattered.
1 comment:
Most importantly. Mike Anderson is a winner and has been at every LEVEL not a guy from a AA school who is a tough guy.
I find it rather poignant that Georgia Tech who has whined for years about academics is now supremely focused on EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS MARK RICHT! Recruiting in state! The state of Georgia is rich with talent and just like Maryland it has been leaving the borders. This BS argument that Chuck Oliver is making about UGA not being a basketball school.. yeah OK. They aren't getting alumni to drive from Atlanta. Screw that. Build me an 8,000 seat media friendly (well lit, students on the court) arena and give me a consistently winning and or productive program and I'll show you a full arena night in and night out. This BS that UGA will lose money on a coach paying him 2.3M a year is shortsighted. They DID pack it under Harrick. They WILL pack it for a winner... any school will but you have to be interesting. You going to tell me that if you're a student you wouldn't go in to watch Brandon Boykin throw down some dunks if you had any idea who he was in high school? Give me interesting and athletic.... I'm in especially on a Tuesday night when I don't want to study anyway. Dennis Felton was not only unable to build a winner, he built a really boring watch. Not good enough at UGA. Mike Anderson's hallmarks... physical and pounding. Sounds great to me. You want to take that shot inside Jody Meeks.... Ooops, my elbow hit your face.
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