We won’t be in Tampa tomorrow, but there are a few good men that will be. Be sure to check them out for all of your Outback Bowl news, commentary, and analysis. And even something funny.
Mike Reiter, SportsWithMike.com
Might be doing some analysis from the Twitter account tomorrow, so follow that if you haven’t already.
Sam Smith of blogs.bulls.com joins Ace McNeil and Mac Little to break down the Chicago Bulls and their Central Eastern division counterparts. Why has the buzz surrounding the Bulls been so quiet? Are the moves the Bulls made enough? And are the Pacers more of a threat? All this and more are discussed.
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Eureka! Here’s the the first podcast out of our 12-Hour NBA Preview. Josh Kinsey and Mac Little are joined by Michael Cunningham, the Atlanta Hawks beat writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The guys ask MC about the “No excuses mantra”, the development of Jeff Teague, a player to look for a breakout season (cough, Marvin Williams, cough), and MC’s plans had he missed an entire NBA season. And some other things.
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We’re having some technical difficulties here at WUOG Sports. Apparently editing a twelve hour NBA Preview show is difficult for programs like Audacity and Garageband.
But we’re still trying. Stay tuned.
It's back baby.
We here at WUOG Sports love the NBA. We love it so much that we began to wonder what we possibly could do with all of our free time over the break. With the lockout appearing like it would consume the entire NBA season, what were supposed to do Christmas Day and various other weeknights? Talk to our family? Sounds lame.
So when we found out that the players association and owners had come to a preliminary agreement over the new collective bargaining agreement and were indeed set to tip-0ff on December 25th, our hearts inflated with joy. No longer were we forced to talk to relatives with attentiveness, no longer would we have to labor through the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl, no longer would we have to pretend college basketball was equally as entertaining.
No sir, the NBA is back. And the unfortunate part is that while most of the big NBA headlines are being written, WUOG’s airwaves went into Break Radio. How were we to share our excitement with the people of Athens and beyond?
Here it is: a 12-Hour NBA Preview Show brought to you by none other than the fine sports staff at WUOG. We start tomorrow at noon and end at midnight. This is not a show for the faint of the NBA heart.
The show will be split into six, two-hour segments. Each segment will be talking about a main theme of the NBA season and then preview each division.
Want guests? We got them? Some of the best basketball writers from across the country are calling in to WUOG to help us in our fearless endeavor.
We’ll be talking trades, CBA, Hawks, Kobe, you name it. We will talk about everything. It’s time to step your NBA game with WUOG Sports. Here’s a schedule of tomorrow’s programming:
12PM-2PM Ace McNeil and Mac Little, Top NBA Headlines and the Central East Division, Guests: TBA
2PM-4PM Josh Kinsey and Mac Little, Atlanta Hawks and Southeast Division, Guests: Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution
4PM-6PM Matt Ryan and Mac Little, Potential and Actual Player Transactions and the Atlantic Division, Guests: Vincent Thomas, SLAM Magazine and FSS Columnist
6PM-7PM Trey Roberts and Patrick Bender, the new guard of the NBA and the Northwest Division Guests: Darnell Mayberry, Oklahoma City Thunder beat writer for The Oklahoman
7PM-8PM Mac Little, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, Guest: Larry Coon, NBA writer and resident salary cap expert for ESPN.com
8PM-10PM Ken Nasse and Mac Little, Update on NBA Headlines and Pacific Division, Guests: Corey Butler, former UGA point guard, current coach at Stanford University and self-proclaimed Kobe Bryant lover
10PM-12AM Mac Little, Show Wrap Up and Southwest Division, Guests: TBA
Listen in at 90.5FM Athens or at this link anywhere else. If you can’t listen tomorrow, we’ll be rolling out podcasts of all of our interviews within the week.
Editor’s note: This is today’s transcript of Mark Richt’s weekly press conference held every Tuesday, which is provided by the UGA Sports Information Department. Video from today’s press conference will be coming in the following days.
Richt, Bulldogs Preview South Carolina
UGA Sports Communications
September 6, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATHENS—–Georgia head coach Mark Richt and a delegation of football players met with the media Tuesday during the Bulldogs’ weekly press luncheon. They offered the following comments:
Head Coach Mark Richt
Opening Statement…
“We are getting ready for South Carolina – the first Southeastern Conference game of the year. It’s definitely a great challenge. Of course Coach (Steve) Spurrier has been coaching a long time and is doing a great job. Over the years he’s got South Carolina going the way he wants it. So we know we have our work cut out for us.
“Their offensive line is big. They are kind of a downhill running team. They kind of maul you a little bit; that’s what their goal is. Of course when you have a back like (Marcus) Lattimore, who can run as physical as he does at 230 pounds now, they are doing the right thing with those linemen, just kind of zoning you up and getting the big bodies on you and pushing the pile and creating some seams for Lattimore. They’ve been protecting well so far. Marcus is a great player, not a good player. He proved to be a great freshman. Of course a year ago he broke out with 37 carries and 182 yards, so it’s not like we can forget about that. He will get spotted a little bit with Kenny Miles and Shon Carson. Mainly it’s his show in the backfield.
“Stephen Garcia, I would have to guess, would be their starting quarterback. He is a veteran, a senior. He has been through a bunch – good and bad. He is also the quarterback who led his team to the Eastern Division championship a year ago, so he is a heck of a football player. He throws it well. He has a great big target in Alshon Jeffery. All of the receivers are big actually, but not as big as him – 6-4, 230, a guy who can go deep and a guy who can catch a screen and run people over for four, five or six yards after contact. He’s really a great player.
“Garcia is also a threat to run the ball as he’s done from time to time. The only receiver who is not a big guy is Ace Sanders. He’s more of a slot guy, more of a jitterbug type of guy. He also took a punt return back for a touchdown 69 yards last week, so he’s a guy we have to keep an eye on. They do a good job of using his skills.
“Defensively they are a team that takes their front four and basically plays eight people there. They rotate just about everybody in and out of there. Melvin Ingram is an outstanding player who plays inside and out. He’s big, he’s physical. He showed up very big, we thought, in the last ballgame. We thought he played extremely well.
“Devin Taylor is also a great player, preseason All-SEC. Of course everyone wants to talk about their freshman Jadeveon Clowney for good reason. You can see he’s destined to be a great football player. He’s already a very good football player, but I can’t imagine what will happen once he gets an offseason under his belt. He’s going to be a special football player.
“As far as their linebackers are concerned, they play everyone, about six of their linebackers. They rotated them around and kept everybody fresh. Antonio Allen played the spur, or what we call a nickel linebacker, and had 16 tackles in the game. DeVonte Holloman, I don’t think he played the last game. I don’t know what the reason was, but he played safety last year. I think he’s been moved to that spur position too. It will be interesting to see who plays there.
“Stephon Gilmore, the corner, is a preseason All-SEC player and a great football player. On the other side, (C.C.) Whitlock is a returning starter at corner also, but then you have Akeem Auguste, who did not play in this last ballgame. I’m sure he will play this week, or we’re hearing he’s going to play. I’m not sure if he’s going to line up as a corner or a safety; he’s played both over his career.
“Their safeties are kind of twin safeties. Some teams will have a safety that plays the deep-middle, and one guy is always in the box, but these guys share the load both ways. They are very well coached defensively.
“As far as their special teams are concerned, (Jay) Wooten didn’t play against us last year, but he is the kickoff man. The majority of his kicks have been returnable, or were at least a year ago. We’ll see how that goes, but we expect that we’ll have some kicks that will be returnable. They usually have a twin-safety look at their kickoff return. It looked like (Bruce) Ellington is the guy they are trying to get the ball directed to, but he also played some wildcat for them. He’s a very multitalented kid.
“I mentioned earlier that Ace Sanders returned a punt for a touchdown. Gilmore started out and muffed one, then Ace got a chance and took it to the house, so my guess is Ace will be the guy. Their punter, Joey Scribner-Howard, is a senior and he’ll be handling their punting duties. I don’t know if they’ll do any rugby kicks or not. I don’t think they did it game one. We’ll have to wait and see and prepare for that.
“That’s South Carolina. We have got to really play a physical game. I think the game is going to be won in the trenches. I think whosever offensive and defensive line plays the best will have the best chance of winning the game. It will be a great challenge for us – our players and our staff. Today we are going to have a good, physical Tuesday practice and competition day. I think Coach (Vince) Dooley called them bloody Tuesdays, and I think we’ll call it that today too. We’ll be ready to go.”
Wilkins driving in with the ball in a game against the Magic.
It’s safe to say Damien Wilkins’ NCAA tournament bracket was busted since day one.
“I had [Georgia] winning it actually,” said the former Georgia player. “People thought I was crazy. I had to, I couldn’t go with anyone else.”
Wilkins’ loyalty didn’t do him any favors. Georgia lost it’s opening round match up against the Washington Huskies.
Despite their shortcomings in the postseason, Wilkins was impressed with this year’s Bulldog team.
Comparatively speaking, of course.
Wilkins, now with the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA, was a member of the 2002-2003 Georgia team, the last Bulldogs team to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
“I would always say our team was the best team that was there,” said Wilkins. “Their inside presence actually now is much better than what it was we was there. We had all perimeter guys.”
As talented as they were, the university decided to forfeit any postseason appearances due to NCAA infractions involving former head coach Jim Harrick and his son and assistant coach Jim Harrick, Jr.
Now in his seventh NBA season, Wilkins sees a bright future for his alma mater.
68-65 WASH Final
Like my colleague Mike Reiter said, a frustrating season ends with a frustrating loss. A Trey Thompkins three briefly gave Georgia hope, bringing the score to 67-65. Sends Washington to the line. Where they make one of two. 68-65. Robinson finds Leslie to try and sink the three, but Isaiah Thomas, of course, attempts to swat it down. Lelslie somehow gets a hold of hit, but can only launch a one-handed three-pointer that bounces off the left side of the backboard.
Just some quick postgame stats:
-Trey Thompkins had yet another great performance in the postseason: 26 points on 11-14 shooting, including 2-2 from three, and 11 rebounds. All in 39 minutes.
-Isaiah Thomas responsded out of halftime with 15 second half points, going 7-7 from the line.
-Believe it or not, Georgia actually won the rebounding battle in the second half, 16-11 (6-4 offensive, 10-7 defensive).
-Stat that explains loss? Probably this one. Washington had 17 points off of 15 turnovers by Georgia. Georgia had 3 off of 5 by Washington.
I have to make a big drive so I don’t have time to really talk about this game. Instead Mike will fill you in on postgame media conferences.
Fun season, Georgia.
44.8 65-57 WASH
Washington calls a 30-second timeout. Georgia needs to score here. But they don’t. Thomas gets a steal and is sent to the line to shoot two, makes first and second.
Georgia gets a two from Thompkins and calls a full-timeout. With only 34.2 remaining, Georgia needs a turnover. Fox sends in Vincent Williams. Que?
3:26 61-51 WASH
Price at the line shooting one-and-one. Washington with 8 team fouls. Getting into double bonus and slowing down this game may be only way Georgia can get back in this one. Georgia still cannot stop Washington on the other end. Ping-pong.
4:25 59-49 WASH
Darnell Gant with a wide open dunk. How will Georgia respond?
7:41 53-44 WASH
Just had a fan behind me scream, “Come on, somebody lead!” Not the worst point in the world.
Isaiah Thomas starting to come on a bit strong. Has four straight points and just forced an offensive foul on Thompkins. Also has his season average of 6 assists with seven minutes to play.
10:50 49-39 WASH
Probably feeling like we’ve been here before. Georgia having problems with the press so Fox calls time-out to cool down team.
Leslie gets a put-back that is not called for basket interference and gets a foul. Huskies respond with a Scott Suggs three. Teams trade baskets. UGA’s defensive rebounding catching up to them.
15:37 37-32 WASH
Georgia comes out looking to establish Price early with a two off the glass. UGA goes into zone and forces late three from Thomas, but fouls him. Makes all three free throws. Price picks up deadly third foul. Chris Barnes once again to be heavily relied on. Questionable call when Barnes lay in rims out, but Leslie slams back in. Referee calls basket interference. Sends Georgia fans and Fox into stir. Washington coming with the press…
Halftime 28-28
Forgive the pun. It’s a dog fight out there.
UGA having some troubles down the stretch getting defesnive rebounds. Darnell Grant had a tip-in at 3:46 and Isaiah Thomas was able to even the score with a spinning lay-up after Washington was able to get another shot before the clock expired.
Best Georgia play came from Travis Leslie who penetrated into the center of the lane, pulled up but dropped the ball to Thompkins who finished with yet another dunk and a foul.
I’d say Georgia is playing a pretty decent game so far. They are turning the ball over a little too much, but not allowing Washington to capitalize. Still would like to see Thompkins get more inside, but Washington’s length making a lot of UGA’s entry passes difficult.
Stats that stick out to me are the turnovers (UGA 8, WASH 3), fast break points (UGA 2, WASH 12), and bench points (UGA 0, WASH 14).
Probably need to fix at least one of those three things if you want to win this game. Georgia has the slight rebounding edge 20-18.
Washington launching a lot of threes. Currently 2-14 from beyond the arc while Georgia is 3-6. Neither shooting particulary well with UGA at 11-26 and Washington 12-34.
Leading point man is Thompkins with 15. Robinson second with 8. Leading rebounder is Thompkins with 8.
Thomas so far is 2-7 from the field, 0-2 from three with 4 points. Can’t ask for much better D. Of course, there is always a second half.
3:45 23-18 UGA
Since we last posted, UGA has turned the ball over four times. Lucky enough Washington has only converted those to two points. Only bright spot was Thompkins pull-up three. Shooters gotta shoot, I suppose.
7:39 20-16 UGA
Georgia scoreless since Leslie’s raucous dunk. After hitting two threes earlier, Robinson airballs one. Dustin Ware settles for long three from himself. Fox tries to get some bench relief with Williams, Barnes, and Thornton with Robisnon and Ware. Price with two fouls, will likely see limited playing time rest of half.
9:50 20-14 UGA
Robinson three. Trey rebound and slam. Leslie steal and dunk. All I could type within timeout.
12:47 1st, 12-9 WASH
After scoring five unanswered points, Washington comes roaring back with a threes from Scott Suggs, C.J. Wilcox, and Thomas’ first basket, a lay-up following a long miss from Thompkins.
Dogs looking sloppy on offense, forcing difficult jumpers.
15:57 1st, 4-3 UGA
Georgia finally gets it’s first field goal at the 15:57 mark. Travis Leslie makes a nice pass inside to Trey Thompkins who makes the basket and is fouled. Free-throws to come.
Thomas scoreless so far. As expected, Robinson is taking him defensively. For a moment, Georgia went into zone. Will be interesting to see if they continue this look. Refs controlling game a bit too much.
Hey folks, we’re still a bit from tip-off, but I figured I’d start the ‘ole blog up a little early so we get a nice little look into tonight’s match-up.
I already listed some pre-game “Keys to the Game” here. Check those out and let me know what you think.
Tonight’s projected starting line-ups are as follows, previews for Georgia players and stats for Washington players:
Georgia Bulldogs (21-11, 9-7 SEC)
#1 F Travis Leslie, 6-4 Jr. Coming off back-back to back doubles in both SEC Tournament games.
#33 F Trey Thompkins, 6-10 Jr. Only two rebounds against Alabama, will need to rebound aggressively tonight.
#50 F Jeremy Price, 6-8 Sr. Five personal fouls kept Price limited last week, only 6 points.
#3 G Dustin Ware, 5-11 Jr. Lead SEC in 3P% and Assist-to-turnover ratio.
#22 G Gerald Robinson, 6-1 Jr. Shot 6 for 24 in SEC Tourney. Did have 11 assists and 6 steals against Alabama though.
Washington Huskies (23-10, 11-7 Pac-10)
#2 G Isaiah Thomas, 5-9, Jr. 16.8PPG 3.6RPG 6.0APG
#11 F Matthew Bryan-Amaning, 6-9, Sr. 15.5PPG 8.1RPG 1.6BLKS
#22 F Justin Holiday 6-6, Sr. 10.8PPG 5.4RPG 2.2APG
#44 F Darnell Gant 6-8, Jr. 5.1PPG 3.7RPG 0.6APG
#31 G Terrence Ross 6-6, Fr. 7.9 PPG 2.8RPG 1.0APG
Feel free to comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter to get a discussion going on tonight’s game. Until then…
We’re a couple of hours from game time here in Charlotte so let’s discuss some so-called “keys to the game”. In basketball, the typical key to a game is to score more than the other team before time expires. We’ll go a little bit more in-depth here.
Shutting down Isaiah Thomas
Stopping Isaiah Thomas will be a huge key for the Bulldogs to get a victory.
This is one is long because this one is without a doubt the biggest key to this game.
You’ve heard the name before. Maybe because of this. Most likely because of this. But above all that, you’ve probably heard of the Huskies guard because he’s really good at basketball.
Real quick, here’s a run-down of Thomas’ career at Washington:
-2011 Pac-10 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, in which he scored 43 points against Washington State, dished out a Pac-10 Tournament record 12 assists against Oregon (also had 10 points), and had 28 points and 7 assists, and that buzzer-beater against Arizona in the final.
-First Team All-Pac-10, presumably for averaging 16.8 ppg, 6 assists, and 3.6 rpg this season.
-1,690 career points at Washington, with 1,134 coming in his first two seasons, the most any Husky has scored through two seasons.
-His 6.0 assists per game is the second highest season average in Washington history.
Two other Huskies, Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Justin Holiday also average double figures in scoring (15.5 and 10.8 respectively), but no other player comes close to Thomas’ assist numbers.
If Thomas has a bad night scoring-wise, Washington isn’t necessarily done for. What scares me obviously is his assists. Even during down nights, Thomas finds ways to get his teammates involved. Since Washington is third in the nation in scoring, they have plenty of options.
So the question is how exactly do you stop Isaiah Thomas. Just looking off of his stats, it’s pretty obvious that the offense runs through him. He wants the ball and he wants to score. If he can’t score, he’ll find somebody else. So what do you do? Keep him off the ball. And who should Georgia turn to to shut down Thomas? Enter Gerald Robinson.
Fair warning, I’m going to use the words “at times” a good bunch here. At times, Gerald Robinson has done a good job of handling do-it-all guards this season. Again, at times. As in the first half, at times.
Both Xavier’s Tu Holloway(0-5, 0-2#3P) and Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins (0-5, 0-3) were held scoreless in the first half in their respective match-ups against Robinson. The second half was a different story. Tu Holloway scored 18 points, with 11 of those coming from the free-throw line. Jenkins had 21.
Like many of Georgia’s vices this year, it’s really story of two halves. Pretty solid defense in the first, not so solid in the second.
In order to win this game, Georgia will need a solid defensive output from Robinson. He has the skills to do it. The question is whether or not he can do it for 40 minutes.
Getting aggressive down low
It seems like I type this every time I do a game preview, but it’s for good reason. Not many teams have the luxury of a 6′11″ power forward who can score down low and stretch the floor from outside and a 6′8″ center who not only rebounds well, but is a pretty decent scorer inside.
Washington is a pretty small team so, once again, I would like to see Georgia go to Trey Thompkins early and often. If you can establish at least one of these guys inside, you have a good chance of answering scoring charges from Washington.
When shots aren’t falling, get back on defense
You don’t score 83.5 points a game off of jump shots. While Washington is small, they’re quick and will look to score quickly in transition. Thomas will exploit any holes resulting from slow transition.
That’s it from me. See you guys at tip-off.
What a coincidence that a documentary about the Fab Five is programmed right after ESPN’s Selection Sunday of superfluous special programming.
What a coincidence that the documentary features five college athletes who competed in the NCAA Tournament, but, admittedly, never walked away with the trophy.
What a coincidence that the film discusses the exploitation, or glorification depending on who you talk to, of college athletes. Especially during a time where names like Cam Newton, AJ Green, or even a lesser known Enes Kanter, have graced our headlines not for their statistical accomplishments, but for their alleged misdoings as an amateur athlete.
What a coincidence that Jalen Rose, a member of the Fab 5, is now a member of another well known mega-team. And wouldn’t you know it? That same mega-team is putting their employee front and center to enjoy some more exposure after a somewhat forgettable NBA career.
And what a coincidence that Chris Webber, undoubtedly the most talented and troubled individual this film profiles, has politely declined to be a part of it.
