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Gator Poaching

Posted on Jan 9, 2013 by Rob Sherrell  | 

2 Comments  | 

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Welcome to the world of Bulldawg Basketball, the SEC Chronicles. It was this time last year when I said I had no idea how good or bad our team could be. Well this year, we know it can be pretty darn bad. I hoped at the beginning of the year if we could get 40 a night from the trio or KCP, Djurisic, and Donte Williams. Then get 25 from everyone else and hope the defense could hold them to 64. Well, we are averaging 61 a game, but our main trio is averaging 17, 9, and 6 respectively. That won’t get it done. That’s also why we’ve lost to Iona and Youngstown State and scored under 60 or less in 9 or 13 games. It is also why Mark Fox has not been happy. So things look real bad heading into SEC play. You may even be wondering where’s Hugh Durham when you need him. But maybe there’s a little light at the end of this tunnel.

First, as a team we are playing better of late. While the talent list of our opponents is not great, we’ve won four in a row. We got a superstar in KCP and he’s leading the team in scoring and rebounding. Djurisic has had his best back to back games in his career. John Cannon seems to have a solid low post game and hasn’t missed a free throw this year. Charles Mann and Brandon Morris both appear to be improving and are contributing more and more each game. They should both be solid contributors for four years. So there is room for some optimism. However, we need our bigs to play better. Donte Williams has looked disinterested. John Florveus has looked uncoordinated. Marcus Thornton has not looked like the Mr. Basketball for the State of Ga. Senior guard Vincent Williams has looked confused. All the guys that are under-performing are most likely better than that. They just haven’t shown it yet. This is team sport. And we’re not playing like a team. Thus, Mark Fox has still got a ton of issues to deal with. As of right now from top to bottom, it’s arguable that we have to least amount of overall talent in the SEC. And that ain’t good when turning to Wednesday night.

We are playing ball in the O’Connell Center Wednesday night and it could get ugly. We’ve not won down there since 2001. I told someone right before last year’s game down there we’d lose by 25. However, we hit a three with time expiring to lose 70-48. We’ve only kept the deficit in single digits once since 2004 and that was a nine point loss two years ago that really should have been much worse than that. So we know we’re going to play a really good program in a place where we don’t normally play real good. They are raked 11 in the country. They have superior talent and a really good coach. What does all of this add up to? Most likely double digits.

So do I think the odds are we lose? Probably. Does that mean I’ve written us off? Absolutely not. For as poor as we’ve played down there, I’ve seen worse turn around. I saw our football team mess the bed in Jacksonville several years in a row against this same bunch only to finally right the ship and start a two game winning streak. Plus, as bad as we’ve played in Jorts Country, we’ve given them hell in Athens winning three of the last four at home. So we can beat this team and I’m got giving up hope. I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I’m getting a case of beer. I’m getting the Dawgs on the tube. I’m turning the sound up and the wife down. I’m going to watch every second of this game and pull as hard as possible for my beloved Red and Black! Gators are my least favorite reptile. So let’s do a little poaching! Go Dawgs!

Tagged: uga basketball, florida basketball, georgia bulldogs, florida gators, rob sherrell, mark fox