Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
The level of criticism is revealing. People do not understand Georgia has a mid-tier budget for attaining basketball players, and White has put together a good team that is still in position to make the NCAA tourney for what would be a second straight year. The SEC is a very good league, and Texas A&M leads it and Tennessee is hot. Texas has a much larger budget — and some key bigs UGA could not match up with. Makes the Georgia wins over Auburn and Arkansas — two other NCAA teams with higher budgets — even more impressive.
@MikeGriffith I appreciate you like a brother but you are starting to look like the defiant mouse giving the eagle the finger as it swoops in for the kill. Nothing in your counter point justifies WHY these Mediocre Mike teams are so FUNDAMENTALLY challenged. It doesn’t take an elite high dollar player to block out, it doesn’t take not take an elite high dollar player to make pick instead of just pretending to, it doesn’t take an elite player to pass to the open man and it certainly doesn’t take an elite player to shoot a 3 point shot when your trailing by 3 with a second to go! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, White is in his 4th year at the helm, fundamentals should be ingrained into the program by now, yes?
I agree with the opinion. UGA basketball has been under resourced for years. I seem to recall that Josh Brooks even "apologetically" said as much when reflecting on Mark Fox's return to Athens as a member of the Kentucky staff last season. These "key bigs" that Mike refers to are going to TA&M, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama, Auburn, etc. for more money. Mark Fox was a good coach, but he didn't have the facilities and other resources to recruit against teams that had made more significant commitments to basketball.
dazzledawg: "All the schools schedule cupcakes early in the year. Not unique to UGA"
———————
CLASSIC DEFLECTION.
It's still a despicable practice—just as it is in football—that does nothing to improve the team or its rankings; nothing to prepare the team for real competition in league play. What is proven by beating up on a hopelessly undermanned opponent?
Disgraceful.
That's a pretty harsh evaluation. And I'M accused of being negative? Seems like quite a double standard here.
UGA has not committed the resources necessary for basketball to be competitive on a national level. These days it is easier than ever to buy some better players. It seems that every player basketball buys is one less player football can buy. So we know where the money is going.
From what I have seen they play hard and compete. The problem with this team is that they are not as talented as a typical SEC team and they lack size. UGA has a 5'9" PG and a starting shooting guard (#0) who would barely make the rotation on most SEC teams.
This is what UGA expects you to accept based on the amount of resources UGA commits to basketball. It says a lot about the program when a UGA legacy from the state goes to Clemson then transfers to play at UGA only to transfer back to Clemson the following year (RJ Godfrey).
CBB is one sport where 1 dominant player can carry a team deep into the playoffs and rankings. See BYU '25-'26. See '24-'25 Florida. Walter Clayton carried FU to a championship. UGA does not have those types of players.
@Gramster "doesn’t take an elite player to shoot a 3 point shot when your trailing by 3 with a second to go!" I saw that game. The D was set up to deny the 3. UGA had a play set up that wasn't executed because the D was set up to deny the 3. The UGA PG broke down the D but found no one to pass out to so he drove in to try and draw a foul. There was nothing left for him to do as time ran out. That isn't on coaching.
I have to respectfully disagree @DawgNole Every team needs pre-conference schedule cupcakes to fine tune fundamentals, execution and figuring out which player combinations give them the best chance at success. The hope is that a coach gets his players all on the same page by repetitive execution of the offensive and defensive sets in time for serious conference competition. Obviously what is going on in Athens isn’t working to the tune of a 24-37 SEC mark and a 25-41 overall record in Jan-Mar competition against more talented programs. Every new hire coach should be entitled to two to three years of developing their culture at the new program. This is year 4, how can anyone justify the fundamental execution breakdowns we are still seeing?
I harken back to the old Hugh Durham days.., tells you how ancient Iam…while most of his teams were low-mid level talent squads, they executed and competed to the end of every game. Maybe I am Mediocre Mike biased but I certainly am not seeing that tenacity and development in this squad. The closer it gets to the final buzzer the more they seem to come unraveled. And instead of a coolheaded this is what we’re going to do looking coach on the sidelines…well, I’ll just stop here. Enough character assassination today…cheers mate
@UGADad20 said “@Gramster "doesn’t take an elite player to shoot a 3 point shot when your trailing by 3 with a second to go!" I saw that game. The D was set up to deny the 3. UGA had a play set up that wasn't executed because the D was set up to deny the 3. The UGA PG broke down the D but found no one to pass out to so he drove in to try and draw a foul. There was nothing left for him to do as time ran out. That isn't on coaching.”
I also saw that game. What I saw was a coach call for a poorly designed play knowing full well his team trailed by 3 against a team that understood only a 3 point play could hurt them, and yet he went with that play call anyway because he had nothing else in his bag of design to call. I saw the difference between a fundamentally sound team (don’t foul inside the arc) and a poorly coached team (throw up a desperation shot and “hope” you get fouled). The latter is poor coaching regardless of budget…
@Gramster Actually, the play was for Blue to get a quick two, but Tennessee, one of the top defensive teams in the country, denied that look and the ball went back outside. Smurf panicked… happens. Georgia is a good team that has hit a tough stretch of games and lost a tight one in OT. It's basketball, and all but a handful of 360-plus teams have their ups and downs. Mike White is a good coach. The constant complaining isn't going to bring in the type of NIL money that would put UGA in the top 25 percent in the league — and that's what it takes if you want to look like a Final Four team every time out. Georgia is a power forward short of being where it needs to be, in my opinion.
@Gramster Georgia has two three-year players — Cain and James, and I think both have improved a great deal since arriving. I'd also say Somto's improvement is obvious, tho he can get even better. The freshmen are getting better but are clearly both works in progress … hard to judge a coach on the transfers, tho I do like the chemistry and the way they play together. But to your point, it's not a three or four-year process with teams. It's a lot of free agents these days getting stuck together. I think Mike White has done a nice job finding a way for this collection of talent to win, but they have to commit more to defense and assignment, as he noted. This will be a valuable week off.
Sounds like you're describing a "point shaver". Do you think that would explain the inexplicable backsliding and inconsistencies in playing fundamental basketball?
@MikeGriffith about that “but they have to commit more to defense and assignment, as he noted”…just wondering , fact that they aren’t committed, who’s that on?
I truly believe Georgia has upper 25% SEC talent on their roster, it’s the coaching that is at issue. Often talked about is financial backing issues in Athens, curious, in NIL spending and basketball program budget where does UGa rank in relation to last year’s sweet 16 teams AL-Ark-Ari-AU-BYU-Duke-FL-Hou-Ky-MD-MI-MIST-OM-Pur-TT-TN? And question 2, in that sweet 16 list name any coaches that are worse at teaching fundamentals and demanding player commitment to the process than Mike White?
I would think not. Point shaving would require actually trying to disguise bad playing. I see no disguises on this team, lol
Smurf & Blue would be covered by many sec schools if they were free agents so that’s just wrong. I agree we absolutely need a PF but that’s on MW. Roster construction isn’t his thing. Last year no PG. This year no rebounders other than Somto. And never any shooters. I’m starting to think @dazzledawg is MWs burner account lol. He always has an excuse. Facts are this. A&Ms roster isn’t as talented as UGAs. Some like Bucky or Beard or Byington do more with less….White does the absolute least with what he has. Maybe the majority of UGA fans are ok with that…I’m not.
🤣🤣🤣.…well said. Oh well....another typical UGA Basketball season. Smh...I can't tell you, how disappointed I am, to see them go back to their usual mid-season mediocrity.
We've seen this movie....and, I can't watch it again. They'll give Fans a little hope at the end of the season, by squeaking into the NCAA Tournament. Then....let us down again, against Subpar competition. That's the way the story goes.
Will it ever end? Are they experiencing the Atlanta Curse? They ARE pretty close to the ATL evil aura. Lol
I had high hopes for this team. They have all the pieces. But, lack the consistency and resilience of Champions. That's in the heart.
A locker room issue, maybe? I'd be willing to bet, it's got something to do, with NIL and recruiting....and jealousy. Lol....like watching Return to Peyton Place.
There is only so much you can do with inferior players against a team that knows what you have to do. And do it, successfully, in less than 8 (?) seconds makes it extra tough.
When you fire a coach the next question is who are you going to hire that is better? Who are you going to hire that is better than what White has done with what he has to work with? Who are you going to get that is better than White who knows the level of "commitment" that UGA is making to basketball?
Remember how Mark Richt begged for an indoor facility and more money for the program? He didn't get it but that is what it took to get CKS to take the job. Once UGA committed more money to the football program the program did much better.
With inferior players sometimes it is just not possible to pull out every win no matter how good the coaching is. Sometimes even superior coaches with superior players can't even pull out a win. (UGA vs MS #2) It happens.
White or no White. IF UGA wants to have a better basketball program there must be a bigger commitment financially to basketball.
@BigDawg61 "We've seen this movie....and, I can't watch it again. They'll give Fans a little hope…" Considering that UGA basketball is even remotely competitive given the amount of financial commitment being made to White's program leads me to believe that they are overachieving and being coached up.
Silas Demery UGA's best player 2 season's ago transferred to UConn. He is UConn's 5th leading scorer this season.