Sports

I was all set to live blog the UGA vs  Arkansas game tonight from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee but I had some technical difficulties. For some reason my pc dislikes me or maybe it was bad luck but I kept getting kicked off the internet inside the Arena. In the media work room things worked fine. Such is life.
Since the Bulldogs beat the Razorbacks tonight 77-64 they will face Vanderbilt tomorrow(well tonight actually) at 9:45ET I will attempt to live blog it but I’m not sure if things will work out.  I’m going to have a chat with the IT guys before tip off to see if I can get things fixed.
Enough of that though, let’s discuss the win over Arkansas. In the battle of Dawgs vs Hogs, Georgia got ahead quick and it stayed that way for the remainder of the game. Arkansas’ last lead was 4-2 with 18:56 left in the first half. Georgia held a solid lead for most of the first half until around 3:05 left to go when Arkansas got within one point. McPhee hit a very deep three  as the buzzer sounded and Georgia had an 8 point lead 40-32.
The Bulldogs struggled to hit shots in the second half but unlike the last time they played Arkansas they were able to maintain the lead throughout by crashing the boards and out rebounding the Razorbacks 45-28. 17 of those rebounds coming on the offensive end. The refs were very foul happy in this game calling a total of 50 fouls, 25 a piece for each team.  Albert Jackson fouled out for the Dawgs while Trey Thompkins and Jeremy Price had 4 fouls. Georgia was 69.2% from the free throw line and 46.6% from the field; one area the Dawgs will need to improve on before they face the Commodores Friday night.
So what needs to happen for Georgia to continue it’s success? They need to rest. The foul happy refs led to a lot of minutes played. So rest up and be ready to battle it out against a team that is scared to play you. Every team should be afraid to play these Bulldogs. They’re a team with nothing to lose. A team that didn’t the greatest of seasons going 0-11 on the road and finishing last place in the SEC East. However they’re a team that fights and will play hard. And if you fall asleep and let your guard down these Bulldogs will bite at the chance to take the lead. It certainly showed tonight as they came out on fire and ready to go. The difference in this game was being able to finish the drill. Which is another thing the Bulldogs will need to do if they’re looking for a repeat of the miraculous 2008 SEC Tournament run. There have been so many games this year where Georgia hung in there but just couldn’t finish. They closed it out tonight but the question is, will it continue this weekend? We shall see. Georgia had a decent crowd turnout, but nothing compaired to that of Kentucky, and they didn’t even play today. It was like a sea of blue in some areas of the arena. But I have faith that Mark Fox can get fans excited about Georgia Basketball. Winning certainly is the way to do it, and under his coaching Georgia Basketball will continue to get better.
Thomas Wilson and I will be at Bridgestone Arena this weekend for as long as the Bulldogs keep winning. Big thanks to Thomas for getting the media passes courtesy of our weekly news show, UGA Newsource. Which airs on WNEG(channel 6 on Charter) at 7:30, Monday-Thursday.

Our view:

Until next time,

Eric Bowman