Sunday, January 18, 2009

I Have Given Up. You Have, Too.

Well, folks, I didn't think we could play any worse than we did against Vanderbilt. But lo and behold, we are doing just that.

Got home from church and checked the score. Ughh. Not even going to turn the t.v. on.

As of right now, Georgia is shooting less than 30% from the floor, less than 10% from behind the arc, and right at 30% from the line. Kentucky is good, but they're not so good that they can defend us from the free throw line.

I entitled the recap from the Vandy game, "We Stink." I was going to call today's game against Kentucky, "We Stink, Part Deux," but my feeling today is not so much disgust, but rather, resignation.

At least at Vanderbilt, you could blame poor performance on Vandy's oddly designed gym. We shot right at 40% there and 0% from the line. We attempted free throws just twice, so that is some explanation for the foul line statistic. But when we scored 40 points total for the entire game, it's hard to come up with a conclusion, other than just saying, we are a bad basketball team.

Well, against Kentucky, the stats are even worse. As I write, we're stuck at 36 points, with just a couple of minutes to go.

No excuses can be made.

Georgia is 0 and 3 in the SEC, in firm possession of last place. We have lost 5 or 6 games in a row. We are 9 and 9 on the year with just one quality win, the 1-point victory at home at Virginia Tech. In my opinion, maybe we shouldn't even count the Virginia Tech game as a true quality win, since in my opinion, Albert Jackson walked before he put in Georgia's last basket.

Georgia is so bad, in fact, that I wouldn't be surprised if we finished the year with no SEC wins.

Anything can happen, but the practical reality is that there will be no miracle run this year. No SEC Tournament championship. And as much as I hate to say it, no saving Felton's job.

I like Felton's efforts. He works hard at his job. Goes at recruiting in the right way. No cheating. No summer coaching jobs or questionable payments to relatives of recruits. I like Felton's focus on academics, on toughness and on doing the right thing. I even appreciate his efforts to get the Lettermen together. I really, really wanted him to be successful.

But the facts remain that we missed out on Derrick Favors, perhaps the best recruit from Georgia in 10 years. UGA has a less than stellar signing class for fall 2009, and we are going down fast in this season's performance.

There's no joy in saying this, but as athletic director, Damon Evans doesn't have much choice. The influential fans and donors will demand it, and we will be starting over with Georgia basketball, perhaps sooner, rather than later.

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