Not There Yet

It has taken Georgia 9 years to get back to the NCAA Tournament based on their body of work from the regular season. The Dawgs looked brilliant at times this season, but the troubles that plagued them in the second half of the season cost them the game tonight against the Washington Huskies. Periods of sloppy passes and bad shots, combined with an inability to handle full court pressure and hold onto a lead killed the Dawgs tonight. Georgia may well become a great basketball program, but we are not there yet.

Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie have blossomed into great players but it appears as though their Georgia careers will end with a year of eligibility left. If Thompkins had been healthy this season, Georgia may have had a better record and more confidence heading into the game tonight. As it was, they were the underdogs and they played like it. With absolutely no scoring from the bench, the Dawgs just could not keep up with the fast paced Huskies. Too bad there was not about two more minutes, or the Dawgs may have won it.

Coach Fox certainly has the team headed in the right direction. While we may lose Thompkins and Leslie, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope comes to campus next fall as the only 5 star player we have had since I started at Georgia in 2000. Football signee Nick Marshall will also play basketball (and maybe even Jay Rome). A bright future for the Georgia program is beginning to come on the horizon.

Congratulations to Coach Fox and the Georgia program on a great 2010-2011 season.

We now return to your regularly scheduled football blog. Thanks for watching!

The Dawgs are Dancing as a 10

Screw the experts! Georgia made the tournament with eases, securing a #10 seed in the East regional. And while getting a 10 seed is great, the Dawgs do have to take on a Washington team that just won the Pac-10 conference tournament.

I would love the see the Dawgs pick up a win Friday and take on the North Carolina Tar Heels for a shot at the sweet 16. Either way, getting the Dawgs back to the tournament in only his second season was quite an accomplishment for Coach Fox. I congratulate the team and wish them the best of luck in Charlotte on Friday.

GO DAWGS!!!

BnE's March Madness Bracket Challenge

With the Dawgs on the doorstep to a spot in the Big Dance, the first time since the 2008 Tornado Tourney miracle, we here at BnE feel it especially appropriate to host a NCAA Basketball bracket for the tourney.

In honor of the Dawgs' pending spot in the Dance, as well as our recently relocated and current expatriate BFR, the big winner of the bracket, beyond the fame, fortune, accolades and women will receive one copy of Lewis Grizzard's If I Ever Get Back To Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet To The Ground as well as one copy of AUMaverick's favorite Grizzard book, Shoot Low, Boys--They're Ridin' Shetland Ponies.

Entering the Bracket: We will be using CBS Sports' scoring system and default point scores. To enter, here is the link to the official BnE Bracket Challenge, and the password is 'lewis' (no quotes).

Will the Georgia Bulldogs go all Butler this year and make a deep run? Heck, if Dennis Felton and inclement weather at the Georgia Dome can get us a SEC Tourney trophy, who knows what Fox's Hounds can do....

Finish like Herschel!!!

(Photo Courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Herschel Walker made quick work of Scott Carson on Saturday night to improve his MMA record to 2-0. Hopefully, Herschel has set the tone for the entire Bulldawg Nation for the remainder of this week. Here's what is coming up:

- It is make or break week for Georgia basketball. After two straight tough losses to Florida and Kentucky, the Dawgs face two SEC west opponents this week. Arkansas is coming off a win at Vanderbilt, so the Dawgs better be more ready than they were on Saturday. Auburn comes to town this weekend and if the Dawgs lose that one, there is not shot of making the NCAA tournament.

- But the real focus of this week is recruiting. National Signing Day is Wednesday, but the recruiting season won't officially end until Saturday when John Jenkins makes his decision. At this point, I am pretty confident that Georgia's gets Crowell and Pagan on Wednesday. Richardson and Turene would be nice as well. But getting Jenkins to fill the hole in the middle of the D-line remains the most important player left on Georgia's big board.

Big Game for the Basketball Team

Kentucky comes to Athens to open the SEC basketball season tomorrow. Georgia is 11-2, with its only losses coming to Temple (who was ranked #20 at the time) and Notre Dame (who is currently 13-2 and has climbed to #14 in the rankings). This is chance for Mark Fox's team to make a statement. Georgia played Kentucky close last season, and who can forget this:



GO DAWGS!!!

Just Like Football!

The Georgia men's basketball team defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets last night, 73-72. This was the second straight victory for Georgia over Tech in basketball, but Georgia's first win at Tech in nearly a decade. The victory comes just two weeks after the Dawgs defeated the Jackets on the football field. 2010 has been a rough year overall for Georgia athletics, but there's hope that the basketball team could help turn things around.

2010 was a tough year for Georgia football and baseball. Both programs who during the last decade have consistently ranked near the top of the rankings fell hard during 2010. The football team finished 6-6 and will head to the lowly Liberty Bowl to close out the year. The baseball team, who had played in the College World Series during the last 3 even year seasons (2004, 2006, 2008) struggled through what many consider the worst season in Georgia history. The Dawgs finished 16-37 overall with a dismal 5-23 record in SEC play. 2010 was also a tough year for Georgia's most dominant sport, women's gymnastics. The Gym Dawgs had won five consecutive national championships coming into the 2010 season. But the retirement of legendary coach Suzanne Yoculan combined with graduation of a number of stars lead the team to miss the NCAA finals.

But there is hope for Dawg fans. While the football team did struggle this fall, they managed to turn a 1-4 start into a bowl appearance. Aaron Murray will return next fall and is poised to become the next great quarterback in the SEC. Georgia baseball had another great recruiting class and junior outfielder Zach Cone is considered one of the best players in the SEC. But leading the charge for Georgia sports in 2011 may be the men's basketball team. At 6-2, Coach Mark Fox's team is off to a strong start with both losses coming in close games during the Old Spice Classic tournament. Trey Thompkins is just now getting healthy and will only improve throughout the season. The Dawgs have also managed to do something twice this season that they failed do all season last year, win a true road game.

The SEC will be tough, with Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida all looking strong. But if the Dawgs can split home and home with them and win the games against the weaker teams out west, the Dawgs could be headed back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007.

GO DAWGS!!!

Tales of a Bulldawg in Columbia

As I hinted at in an earlier post, I am enrolling this fall in South Carolina’s School of Law. While I was running around Columbia this week on errands, I went into Publix for groceries, wearing a Butler Bulldogs t-shirt.

Now before I get to the punchline, I actually have a direct connection to Butler, having lived outside of Indianapolis for 7 years while also living 2 doors down from the future head coach of the Butler Bulldogs, Brad Stevens. Plus there’s the whole Hoosiers appeal too.

Brad Stevens, professional baller

Anyways, as I was walking near the produce, a 60-ish Publix employee stocking the shelves stopped and asked me, “Who is Butler?” After explaining that Butler actually went to the NCAA basketball championship game in March before losing, he replied with a big smirk, “Well, South Carolina beat y’all”. It took a second of confusion for me to realize he was hanging his hat on the Diamond ‘Cocks baseball championship and just wanted to make sure I knew about it, sport be damned. I did correct him on his sport confusion, but did not inform him of my UGA connections, as it would have required 10 more minutes and some verbal football sparring over South Carolina’s history of gridiron mediocrity.


By the way, I’m really looking forward to wearing my Larry Munson t-shirt to campus when classes start.


Matt Howard's vicious half-court screen made him immediately first-string on Butler's football team.




Hopefully I will be able to provide a little blogosphere color during the run up to the September 11th UGA-SC game and beyond, from the wilderness of Columbia.

Huge Commitment: Wilcox County's Nick Marshall

The Dawgs continued to put together what looks like to be an amazing 2011 recruiting class with the commitment of Nick Marshall from Wilcox County High School. My brother in law's father is from Rochelle and friends with the coaching staff down there, and they have nothing but great things to say about this kid. I saw him play in the state championship game last year and he played great at the quarterback position. With LeMay already a part of the class, I am glad to see that Marshall expects to play DB at Georgia. While some may be concerned that he is leaving the QB position, here's a video of what he can do on the defensive side of the ball:



What is even more exciting about Marshall's committment is his plan to play basketball for Coach Fox as well. He will easily be among the top players in the state next year and because he will be on a football scholarship, he will not count against the basketball scholarship limit. I am really excited about the direction the basketball program is taking.

Welcome to the Bulldog Nation, Nick! Can't wait to see you in the red and black in 2011!

Guest Post: Who is Mark Fox and what has he done to our team?

Friend of the blog and regular commentator here at B n' E, MT, attended the basketball game against Tennessee in Athens last night. Here are his thoughts on Mark Fox and how he is transforming Georgia basketball:

Who is Mark Fox and what has he done with our team?

By MT

We look more and more like a team that is starting to buy into Fox’s triangle system and believe in themselves. Even though Fox is dealing with a short bench, he is making the most out of his depth, with 11 players rotating in during just the first half.

Georgia led the rest of the way after 3 minutes into the game. Even though Bruce Pearl quickly turned on the full court press against Georgia for the rest of the game, we had little difficulty inbounding and moving the ball around, unlike in the Felton era. Once the game started to truly get out of hand, we surprisingly saw a lot of minutes from Stevie Pearl… I wonder why?
Travis Leslie’s dunk five minutes into the game blew the roof off of the Stegasaurous and will definitely end up in Sportcenter’s Top 10 tonight. Leslie has to be Georgia’s best recruiter right now, with the amount of highlights the WWL is giving him each game. I don’t think I have ever seen as many unmolested dunks as I did tonight, as Tennessee seemed to collapse on the driving player every time, opening up the paint.



The students were packed to the rafters over an hour before the game even started. There was a lot of good signs in the game, from “You shoot better off the court!” to a Tennessee hostess escorted by three USC clad students with Orgeron, Lane and Monte Kiffin masks. For some reason, there was also a student that lathered himself in peanut butter too. Ultimately at the end of the game, we were thwarted at storming the court.

Chants echoed throughout the night, from “Where’s your handcuffs” to “Please don’t rob me!”

It was all good fun with our rivals to the north. The Vols showed up in jumpsuit-clad force, but after Leslie’s NBA Jam-esque dunk, they were not heard from again. It’s got to be noted that we’ve got one serious head ball coach, and we need to make sure he’s locked up for a long time. March Madness is a magical time and Georgia Nation deserves to be a part of it each year.
After this win, I think we can legitimately start talking about making the tournament this year. Sitting at 9-8 (1-3) with one of the nation’s most impressive schedules, a couple more big wins would put us right on the bubble. Add two wins in the SEC Tourney and we truly enter the discussion.

Gaines at Hawks Camp

Former Georgia point guard Sundiata Gaines has been invited to mini-camp with the Atlanta Hawks. Gaines was a damn good dawg through the four hellish years following the Jim Harrick scandal and led the Bulldogs to an improbable 2008 SEC Tournament Championship.

Good luck Sundiata. I would love to see you on the basketball court here in Atlanta again.

Bubba Does Basketball

Well, the University of Georgia has taken the plunge and hired a new basketball coach. This hire is very intriguing for me and let me start by saying that this is an opportunity that I can get on board with. Yes, it is very easy to say “Who is this guy?” and other than the fact that Trent Johnson coached Kirk Snyder there, that’s all I know about the University of Nevada besides the fact that it is in Reno, ugh:

Back to Dr. Naismith’s game and the positives that I see out of this hire:

First, UGA needed a change, plain and simple. Mark Fox gives the Bulldogs this opportunity right out of the gate. He has no prior notions about the basketball program being a Midwest guy coaching towards the West Coast. This, in my opinion, gives him an opportunity to change the culture of the players and change the image of how UGA basketball is run. It is easy to be concerned with the fact he has no current connections to the Southeast, but the man has been successful at winning basketball games and getting talent to play at Nevada. He had to build relationships over time to get strong personnel in Nevada and judging from his success over the last 5 seasons, I believe that he has the ability to build superior relationships in Athens. His mentor from Nevada, Trent Johnson, had no prior connections to the Southeast and won 27 games at LSU last season. UGA definitely does not have the recent record of LSU nor does it have their roster, but this should give Mark Fox some insight as far the job that he has taken and the work that he must do.

Second, it looks to me that Coach Fox has the ability to develop players. UGA has not developed the skills of its players throughout the tenure of Dennis Felton. Mike Mercer was an undisciplined mess and he, along with Takais Brown, took whatever Felton had built over his first few years and threw it out the window when they were kicked off/left the team. Sundiata Gaines and Dave Bliss were the only two players that I can honestly say I saw get better during their time at UGA. I hate to speak poorly about Coach Felton because he is a good man and worked hard for the University, but his way was no longer working. There is enough talent in the Classic City to be competitive in the SEC and field some semblance of an offensive game plan. Trey Tompkins, Dustin Ware, and Travis Leslie (if eligible) have individual unique talents. Barring their transfer, and it will take one helluva sales job to keep the current roster intact, Mark Fox with his record, can build a team with those young players. Over 40 players were in the NCAA tournament this past season on non-Georgia teams, get one to two of those players a year and you are moving in the right direction.

Thank You Coach Felton, at least someone won a Title on the Trade School Gym Floor, ba da boom!

Third, Bobby Knight wasn't and would never be the answer. Simple question, where does Bobby Knight leave you in two to three years when he is sick of coaching? Yes, he won 20 games every full season but 2004-2005 at Texas Tech, but he is burnt out. Do you as a fan really want to end up with Pat Knight as your coach after he is fired by the brass in Lubbock? Personally, I don’t. Mark Fox is fresh and hungry while Bobby Knight is probably still in that bunker at the golf course (caution, extreme language):

Fourth, this is funny:

I think he could hang with Steve Newman (Sorry Steve, but you were not good).

In closing, is Mark Fox the splash that Anthony Grant would have been? The simple answer is no, but for two guys coaching at the same mid-major level, they have been equally successful. Grant ultimately didn’t have the interest in UGA that our fans had in him. The Parker Executive Search firm put UGA in a position to hire an experienced coach that UGA, for all intents and purposes, probably never would have considered. A coach that is a new direction for a program in turmoil and I see nothing wrong with a new direction. Damon Evans is not an idiot and is one of the bright young minds in college athletics, like Damon, let’s give this guy a shot.

Good Luck Coach Fox and welcome to the best nation on Earth, Bulldawg Nation.

Georgia 90, Kentucky 85

Normally, after sitting through a game earlier in the season where we get utterly destroyed by a team, I would have no problem rubbing it in that we beat them later on to get our revenge in one of the most historic arenas in college basketball (and thereby potentially cramping that team's plans for making the NCAA tournament).

But, I'm not going to do that. Nope. Kentucky fans are great people, and if you don't believe me, read this post from BFR and mine's road trip to Lexington last November.

Kentucky fans are some of the best, and I'm going to hold back just for them.

Go Dawgs.

Florida Sucks.

College Basketball's Biggest Cheaters..... Who Got Caught: A Series

With the Madness of March right around the corner, BNE has decided to take a look back at some of college basketball's biggest cheaters of all time who got caught, because we all know if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'. I'm going to get this disclaimer out of the way right now..BNE is a college football blog. While we do follow college basketball to an extent, by no means do we follow it religiously. We are SEC fans after all.

This post will look at some of the "dis"honorable mentions that didn't make Earl's Top 5 College Basketball Cheaters Who Got Caught of All Time. The next post will cover #5 on the list.

While this list will consist of major Division I-A basketball coaches, let's not forget some of the boosters behind the scandals. And while most coaches like to claim that they never knew what was going on with said boosters, most college fans know that those claims are full of you-know-what.

There are three coaches on Earl's Dishonorable Mention List: Jim Harrick, Eddie Sutton and Kelvin Sampson.

Obviously, we are all familiar with Harrick. There was some debate to include Harrick in the top 5, but ultimately nobody could be pushed out of the top 5 for him. Harrick has a checkered past at three separate universities, UCLA, Rhode Island and Georgia, falsifying expense reports, paying players bills and making academic tests insanely easy. We all know about the damage he did at Georgia, providing Jarvis Hayes with a cardboard box (a little inside joke). But, in all seriousness, damn you Tony Cole (and Jeremy Schaap, who still has a long way to go to catch his father). It's really a shame because Harrick was such a good coach, leading four schools to the tournament, the three mentioned earlier plus Pepperdine.

Junior contemplating just how much a 3-pointer is worth? A coaching career?

Eddie Sutton is one of only a few coaches with more than 800 overall wins. Like Harrick, he has had tremendous success at a number of schools, taking four schools to the tournament, Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State. Sutton's indiscretions at Kentucky in the mid-80s, though, land him on this list. It all came to a head when an Emery Worldwide package broke open and $1,000 in $50 bills jumped out in transit to high school recruit Chris Mills. The package was from Kentucky assistant Dwane Casey. Sure, payment of recruits goes on all the time, but the cash money literally fell out of the envelope. That's just too good of a story not to make this list. The Wildcats were very close to the death penalty...again (a little foreshadowing to the list's #3 Biggest Cheater of All Time). Sutton and athletic director Cliff Hagan were forced to resign.

I coach the basketball, you seal the envelopes. You got that Dwane? I swear, I ask you to do one damn thing...

Kelvin Sampson is just dumb. Sampson gets fired from Indiana for committing the same infraction he committed at Oklahoma only two years earlier. Really!?! Really!?! Ultimately, Sampson would've never been on this list if he had just committed the infraction once. Sampson placed more than 550 illegal phone calls to recruits while at Oklahoma. The NCAA barred Sampson from recruiting off campus and making phone calls for one year. And yet Sampson made the same mistake at Indiana, making impermissable phone calls to Eric Gordon and other IU recruits. Shame on Indiana for hiring Sampson and shame on Georgia for hiring Harrick. Both schools got what they deserved.

Well played, BoilerSports.com, well played...

Speaking of Harrick, he learned his basketball from the legendary UCLA coach John Wooden and Wooden's famous Pyramid of Success. While I haven't included Wooden on this list because he's known today for his trust and honesty, there were some questions during UCLA's run of 10 national championships in the 1960s and 1970s. The questions mainly circled around Sam Gilbert, known as Wooden's money bag man during the run. Gilbert, who never graduated from UCLA, was a millionaire contractor in the Los Angeles area. And the NCAA did sanction UCLA for Gilbert's interaction with Bruin basketball players, but never vacated any national championships, and only after Wooden had retired.

The fact is that UCLA went largely unpunished because the NCAA didn't want to bring down its marquee team. The same reason why Notre Dame football and Alabama football went largely unpunished during the same time period. Many of Wooden's players claim that Wooden didn't really know what Gilbert was doing for the players.

Many coaches in southern California knew better, including our #2 Biggest Cheater of All Time, who was coaching Long Beach State at the time, claiming that Gilbert wanted to pay one of his stars just because he liked the way he played. "You couldn't be more obvious than Sam Gilbert," said the former Long Beach State coach.

Sorry UCLA fans (because I know so many UCLA fans read BNE), but if you're going to do a post on the biggest cheaters, you can't avoid the biggest programs just because a sainted coach looked the other way.

Coming later this week: #5 Clem Haskins, Minnesota

Pitt Basketball, UGA Football and National Championships

Earlier this week, Pitt basketball rose to #1 for the second time this season, holding the spot for 2 weeks previously. In its first game back at #1 last night, Pitt was dominated by Providence 81-73, never leading and at one time down by as many as 20 points. Providence is 17-11, 9-7 in a very tough Big East conference, but by no means should dominate the #1 team in the country.

Under Jamie Dixon, Pitt basketball has continued the success started by Ben Howland before his departure to UCLA. In fact, Dixon's overall record stands at an impressive 157-43 over his first 6 years as a head coach. He is just 5 wins away from overtaking N.C. State's Everett Case (1946-1952) for the most wins by any head coach in NCAA history in the first 6 years of his head coaching career.

Pitt is 25-3 this year and primed for a possible #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, something it has never accomplished. Under Dixon, the Panthers have consistently competed for #2-#4 seeds in the tournament. Yet, Pitt has never advanced past the Sweet 16 in those years.

In Dixon's first season (2003-2004), Pitt went 31-5 and won the Big East conference's regular season championship and Dixon was named Big East Coach of the Year. In 2006-2007, Pitt finished second in the Big East's regular season. In fact, Dixon's Panthers have never won less than 10 games in the Big East, one of the nation's toughest basketball conferences. And Pitt has advanced to the Big East tournament title game in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008, winning it in 2008.

Yet, they quickly lost as the nation's #1 team and haven't advanced past the Sweet 16. Sound all too familiar?

From all appearances, Jamie Dixon runs a clean program like Mark Richt. They are both excellent head coaches. They both have conference championships in the nation's toughest conferences for their respective sports. And yet both programs have proven time and again that they are not-ready-for-primetime players, losing quickly when ranked as the nation's #1 team and in dominated fashion. That or losing games when it seems like the programs are only a couple of rungs away from the top of the ladder.

So what gives? Only Dixon and Richt can answer that question. And that question needs to be answered by those two coaches because in today's 24-7 sports world, if a coach can't answer that question and falls short of a national championship because of it, he can kiss any mention of his name with the top coaches goodbye, no matter how many games he wins.

Dixon, being interviewed by ESPN about his impressive 6-year record, was asked why Pitt wasn't in the same discussion as the UConns of the world. He had a simple answer: Pitt hasn't won a national championship. Dixon simply said, "We have to win a national title."

Jim Calhoun and UConn is a great example. Calhoun built the UConn basketball program over many years. But until UConn upset Duke in the 1999 national championship game, UConn just wasn't mentioned with the Dukes of the world. It didn't matter how many games Calhoun had won up until that point.

As many games as Richt has won at UGA, he has to win a national championship to be mentioned with the Floridas and LSUs of the world. It doesn't matter that LSU won a title with 2 losses and it doesn't matter that Florida has never gone undefeated and it doesn't matter that Richt and UGA only lost 1 game in 2002. In the public's eyes, it comes down to the mythical national championship. God, that's tough to write...because what matters is winning when it counts, on the big stage.

I like Jamie Dixon and I like the hard-nosed basketball that Pitt plays. So, here's to the Panthers, the UGA of college basketball, winning on the big stage...or getting out of the Sweet 16...at least...

Disclaimer: I realize that some UGA fans will never cheer for Pitt at anything due to Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino. And, yes, I threw up in my mouth a little thinking about pulling for Mark May's alma mater.

If You're Gonna Win 1 game...

..let that 1 be against Florida. Terrance Woodbury had a career high 32 points as the Georgia Bulldogs basketball team defeated the hated Florida Gators 88-86 on Saturday in Athens. The win was apparently inspired by a pregame speech from football Coach Mark Richt. There was lots of talk this week that Georgia may go winless in the SEC, but after playing their best game of the season, the title of last team in the SEC to go winless remains with the 1952 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

GO DAWGS!!!

Knight's Crystal Ball

In BNE's on going series of Bobby Knight clips, here's Coach Knight becoming a genie with his crystal ball, er, glass. Knight discusses former Indiana player Damon Bailey's future.



I'm rubbing the crystal...I see the image...Georgia hires VCU's Anthony Grant.

Bobby Knight Plays Golf

While I disagree with Georgia entertaining the idea of Bobby Knight as its basketball coach, the mere thought of it provides the Bubba 'N Earl blog an excellent opportunity for commentary...

WARNING: Some very strong language is used here as Coach Knight tries to get his golf ball out of the sand bunker. We will be bringing you these Knight classics all week long because they're just too damn funny not to. And who hasn't used these words while trying to get out of a green side bunker before...



Message to Damon Evans: Please hire VCU's Anthony Grant in 2009.

Seriously?!?

While most of us here at Bubba 'N Earl are fans of Bobby Knight, it is safe to say that we don't want to see him coaching the UGA basketball team. That being said, this never gets old:



Doesn't Leonard Pope still have basketball eligibility?

Lewis Grizzard on Basketball and Recruiting

With Georgia currently in the national headlines concerning the potential of Bobby Knight coming to Athens and National Signing Day just two days away, I thought it appropriate to share this Lewis Grizzard story concerning recruiting violations, college basketball, and how he might fix the entire mess.

"My alma mater, the University of Georgia, has been placed on probation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for recruiting violations within its basketball program.
Georgia gave a prospect a T-shirt. It is against the NCAA rules to give a prospect anything, even a T-shirt.
Georgia gave a friend of another prospect a ride to a restaurant and then to his hotel.
It is also against NCAA rules to give a friend of a prospect anything, even a four-mile ride.
A T-shirt here, a pair of shoes there, a ride for a prospect's friend and Georgia's Athletic Department and the enitre school suffers the embarrassment of probation.
"I know the charges were minor," a member of the Athletic Department told me. "But nobody outside the inner circle really pays attention to the details and so people think we are buying and selling kids like we were slave holders."
What was the Georgia coach supposed to do when the prospect's friend asked for a ride? Tell him to walk and probably lose the prospect because he turned his friend out on the street?
We're talking big-time college basketball here, where millions of dollars and extended contracts are on the line. If a tall kid who can dunk with both hands asks for a T-shirt, you give him a T-shirt.
I'm not defending my school, here. Georgia knows the rules, yet Georgia broke the rules, as silly as they might be, and they got caught and they got punished and that's the name of that tune.
But the NCAA is like the IRS. They go after you, they get you, with even some help from college coaches who turn each other in, some standing on their pedestals claiming piously "We will bring these cheaters to their knees."
Horse dung. They turn each other in for strictly selfish reasons. You get you r rival in trouble with the NCAA and the NCAA takes away a few of its scholarships, and all of a sudden you're beating his brains out and you become a genius with a fat raise.
College basketball players are shaving points for gamblers and are going to jail for it. Millions are being handed out for television contracts, big-time coaches are getting rich and the NCAA is worrying about a high school kid getting a free T-shirt?
I don't have a solution for all this idiocy, but I know how I wish college basketball and footall worked.
Whack Hyder, who coached basketball at Georgia Tech before he got sick of recruiting and quit, had the idea years ago.
"What I would like to be able to do," said Whack, "is to put a sign on the bulletin board in the PE department that said, `Any student desiring to try out for the men's basketball team, report to the gym at 4 o'clock.'
"I play with the kids who happen to come to my school. You play with the kids who happen to come to yours."
Thus, recruiting becomes a thing of the past. The sport purifies itself and all the athletes get are a pair of shoes, socks, a jock, and an opportunity to have a little good clean fun."

- Lewis Grizzard, "Georgia on Probation"

***This story and others can be found at the official Lewis Grizzard website, http://www.lewisgrizzard.com/columns/archive/.

Basketball Embarrassments

I attended the UGA-Kentucky basketball game in Athens Sunday, and I was thoroughly embarrassed by the spectacle I saw.

I'm not talking about the performance of our team (although that was torturous to watch, how many blocked shots can there be in a game!?!); I'm talking about the magic show that took place at halftime.

Yes, A MAGIC SHOW AT HALFTIME.

I sat there befuddled as to why we need a magic show AT A BASKETBALL GAME. Having one just screams, "THIS IS NOT A REAL SPORT!" Or perhaps, "this is not a legitimate team or program," would be a more appropriate assessment.

I expect this kind of stuff at minor league baseball games. Streit and Earl were even recent witnesses to the famed "teddy bear toss" at a Gwinnett Gladiators minor league hockey game (see below).



It was particularly irritating to watch since we were playing a legendary college basketball program. I began to wonder if programs like that have halftime magic shows. Somehow, I don't think that would go well with the bourbon crowd in Lexington. Then again, it is basketball.

To be honest, I can't even remember what took place at most halftimes of the other UGA basketball games I've been to over the years. Apparently, as some have described to me, it is often similar spectacles that are just as ridiculous. I guess I was always getting a coke or staring at co-eds.

Maybe I'm overreacting, because it is a basketball game. Annoying music, dancing from scantily clad women, and t-shirt cannons are just accepted parts of this sport.

I will admit that the end of the magic show was awesome. The magician instantaneously changed from wearing his magician's tuxedo to wearing a Georgia basketball uniform.

My assessment of the whole situation might be wrong because the ENTIRE CROWD GAVE THE MAGICIAN AND HIS ASSISTANT A STANDING OVATION (except me, of course).

Was I in an alternate universe where such novelties are acceptable (it is a basketball game, afterall), or am I just that hateful?

That question may never be answered in our lifetime (I probably am just that hateful), but I hope this ridiculous display doesn't happen again at one of our sporting events.

Next thing you know, we will play techno music at football games, and then I will abandon all I hold sacred in life.