The University of Georgia Bulldog basketball team got new coach Mark Fox his first conference win last night as well as his first win over a top ten opponent in Athens when Georgia dominated Tennessee 78-63. The Dawgs actually led by 24 late in the second half and Trey Thompkins had 21 while Travis Leslie nearly went triple-double on us with 9 rebounds and 7 assists to go with this 17/19 points.
Earlier this week I wrote that Fox inherited a less than stellar collection of talent from Felton, and I still believe that. However unlike what Felton did with this team, Fox has been able to make them believers and they seem to want to play defense because they seem to enjoy offense.
Apparently what we saw last night (a 19-point lead with 20 seconds to go before halftime and a 24 point lead with ~6 minutes to go in the game) is what happens when you let the team shoot some threes, attempt some alley-oops and not get pulled after turnovers like under Felton. They seem to enjoy jumping the passing lanes because they aren't scolded when the other team scores. Oh, they scored, let's go score too!
And what is interesting is that when the defense wasn't working, instead of calling a timeout to yell at his players, Fox continued to coach, switched his defense and then watched the new defense work.
WOW
When Fox was hired, I was a bit "huh? Who is this guy?" But then I looked up his resume and saw that his track record was pretty dadgum impressive. Fox is saying the right things and realizes that he is sitting on a sleeping giant at Georgia. With all of the talent at his disposal just 60-80 miles away, he could be on top of the SEC East (well, maybe behind UK until they go on probation) within three seasons.
And if he keeps using Ware, Leslie, Thompkins and Ebuka Anayorah (NC-C, Columbia, Wesleyan, North Gwinnett) like he is, local kids will WANT to go play for him in Athens. Why go to Tennessee or Memphis or NC State, when Georgia is going to be going to the Big Dance before long.
If they keep playing like they did last night and keep finishing games like last night, they might make the tourney this season.
OK, I won't get ahead of myself. But the Dawgs have played with passion ever since the Mizzou blowout and with wins over Illinois, GT and now Tennessee, this team has shown that the UK loss (when they had a halftime and late lead), the Ole Miss loss (down with a chance to tie with 10 seconds left), and the Miss State loss (had the now-ranked Bulldogs on the ropes in Starkvegas late but blew a double-digit lead late) were not flukes but just the door that needed to be burst through to find success.
Hopefully Fox has finally pushed the Dawgs through that door. If it takes 100 swipes to crack a rock, it isn't just the 100th swing that breaks the rock, ie the Tennessee game, it is also the Wofford loss, the UAB loss, the New Orleans win and the GT win that help too.
Stegeman looked packed last night on the TV and people will come out for a winner. Fox appears to have the fans interested, something Felton never seemed to be able to do. Now this giant may be done hitting the snooze button. He may be ready to get out of bed and into the discussion. And if Fox does get some of the local talent in here, Florida, Texas and Tennessee won't be the only football "powers" to also have a basketball team to keep folks entertained until two-a-days start.
No comments:
Post a Comment