How they really stand, from Braves (1) to Weasels (12)
Hey look, the Braves have new uniforms. So how about a new finish? (AP photo)
Welcome to this year’s edition of “How They Really Stand,” my ranking of all area sports teams, taking into account wins, losses, direction, potential, coaches, general managers, owners, recruiting coordinators and whether anybody provides us with more civic pride than, say, The Big Chicken (the bar is low).
I’m unveiling this a month earlier than usual because it seemed like a natural break in the sports schedule with the Braves getting ready to start spring training and the Hawks taking an off day between personalities. Two tweaks this year: I’m adding Georgia State football and basketball and replacing the Thrashers with a new entry. (Last year’s ranking in parenthesis.)
1. Braves (1): The best team in town lost 20 of its last 30 games. How about a nice embalming smoothie to go with those chicken fingers? But the Braves looked like a potential World Series team on paper last season until the paper caught fire, and they still seem closer to a title run than anybody else. Then again, that assumes everything that went wrong last season goes right this year.
If you're wondering what the faces of a franchise that is 0-3 in the playoffs look like, well, here you go. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
2. Falcons (2): We know the good (three playoff appearances). We know the bad (three playoff losses). Here’s what I don’t want to hear: “But they’re so much better than they used to be!” The Falcons’ measuring stick should be the rest of the NFL, not franchise history. The heat has been turned up on Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith.
3. Dream (8): I still have not been to an Atlanta Dream game. I’ve either had something else to do that day or I didn’t want mess up my perfect nothing-to-do-today day by watching women’s basketball, or stabbing myself with a fork. But I can’t ignore a franchise that has been to the WNBA finals two straight seasons, which I again must note is a long way from getting displaced from Philips Arena because Sesame Street Live was already booked.
4. Hawks (3): Al Horford’s injury should’ve doubled them over, but coach Larry Drew has done a nice job holding things together (save the occasional bizarre out-of-body experience like the Miami game). The biggest problem: duh. Joe Johnson’s contract means little roster flexibility. On a related note: Johnson, the All-Star, scored six points at Phoenix. Josh Smith, the non-All-Star, went for 30 points and 17 rebounds. What’s wrong with this picture?
Mark Richt has been a popular guy on national signing day. Now it's about carrying that through the season. (AP photo)
5. Georgia football (6): Mark Richt will go two straight years without having to face Alabama, LSU or Arkansas in the regular season. Nice lottery hit. Last year’s 10-4 season was a nice bounce-back from 6-7. But losing to Michigan State in the Outback Bowl after getting slammed 42-10 in the SEC title game wasn’t easily digested by BowWow Nation. Celebrations need to extend from signing day to January.
6. Georgia Tech football (7): The Jackets started 7-2 and upset No. 5 Clemson. Then they dropped three of their last four, including blowing a two-touchdown lead to Utah in the last seven minutes of the Sun Bowl. Next season will be an interesting tipping point for Paul Johnson, who went 20-7 in his first two seasons, 14-12 in the next two. And then there’s the matter of trying to win with his recruits.
7. This Space For Lease (5): Our annual dividing line between the general population and ICU.
8. Georgia basketball (4): The Dogs drop four spots from last year. But that’s less about coach Mark Fox as a coach than it is how this season has exposed just how weak the talent base was after the departures of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie. Fox needs a gravity-defying, 360-slam in recruiting.
9. Georgia Tech basketball (10): The Jackets won in Athens early this season. They probably should’ve stopped the season then. Brian Gregory is ahead of Paul Hewitt in that people like him, but he’s behind Hewitt in that he needs to prove he can recruit in the ACC. It’s not easy selling kids on “potential,” especially when your arena site is a construction zone.
It all seemed so promising back then for the Thrashers-- and then Don Waddell started picking players. (AJC photo)
10. Georgia State basketball (new): The early euphoria of an 11-game winning streak has faded (the Panthers are 7-6 since), but State could make things interesting in the CAA tournament. Worth noting: Rod Barnes did a nice job cleaning up a mess before getting fired, prior to Ron Hunter’s hiring.
11. Georgia State football (new): It’s impossible not to like Bill Curry. But he took on a difficult job, and going from 6-5 to 3-8 in Year 2 with a slight step up in competition speaks volumes. Next season the Panthers start playing conference games. Buckle up.
12. Team Weasel (surrogate): This entry replaces the Thrashers, now of Winnipeg, or some place on the dark side of the moon, and the three people primarily responsible for the franchise’s floundering and eventual move: Gary Bettman, Bruce Levenson and Don Waddell. If you golf and all of your associates consider you spineless, devious and a general tool, the three will be looking to round out their foursome at the Eternal Damnation Country Club.
By Jeff Schultz
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250 comments Add your comment
oldfart
February 16th, 2012
5:12 pm
I only wish I could afford to take a week or two off and go hit Florida for some Spring training games. Nothing in the world it seems breeds the optimism of Grapefruit League baseball.
Therut
February 16th, 2012
5:17 pm
Scroll back up and read Herschel talker. That says it all. If I live 20 more years (not likely) I’ll still have nighmares of FG sending D. Lowe out to the mound in such a critical situation.
2012 Preseason Fulmer Cup Champs
February 16th, 2012
5:20 pm
“UGA has actually done a good job of scheduling harder teams”
HAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAAHAH!!!!!!!!!
SSIgator
February 16th, 2012
5:25 pm
Jeff -
“But it’s premature to base anything on a team recruiting “ranking.”
Obviously you have not kept up with the chest-thumping in Athens that begins in February and lasts until September when the DWAGS actually have to play the game.
Steve
February 16th, 2012
5:28 pm
What was I thinking? I have no clue what I am talking about!
2011 – Boise St, top 10 team.
2010 – at Colorado
2009 – at Oklahoma St AND Arizona State.
2008 – at Arizona State
2007 – Oklahoma State.
2006 – Colorado
2005 – Boise St.
Please feel free to list Tech’s non-conference tough teams. Kansas? HA HA
Smoove Criminal
February 16th, 2012
5:30 pm
Steve, I’m just telling you what 99% of ACTUAL UGA FANS have told me from the own mouth. You’re just like alot of other UGA fans but more like ND and Ohio State fans in the you read, hear, and believe what you want to and your opinion is the only one that matters.
“UGA has actually done a good job of scheduling harder teams”………….I wouldn’t exactly say that were true because the only halfway tough teams that have scheduled in recent years were Okie State and Boise State, both of those last 2 game they got spanked like an unruly child on National TV respectively by each. And even if that statement were, “has” should be replaced with “had.” For all the flack former AD Evans rightfully took in his tenure the one thing he did that some people can respect was that he wanted to broaden the OOC schedule by scheduling teams from other big conferences (although some were the bottom feeders in those conferences). You can’t say the same for McGarity because he almost immediately yanked Oregon off the upcoming schedules when he was hired, most likely for fear of being humiliated by top notch competition they normally don’t play out of conference.
Felix
February 16th, 2012
5:35 pm
The Dream? I didn’t even know Atlanta had a women’s pro basketball team. It is a pretty sad day in Atlanta when the all time champion chokers are #1.
Steve
February 16th, 2012
5:38 pm
Sorry but you simply cannot put the Hawks number 1.
Quite frankly, I don’t care how many playoff series they have won .. does anyone here really believe they have the team to win it all? Not even close. Just because the NBA let’s almost half of it’s teams into the playoffs when only 4 per conference should get in doesn’t mean teh Hawks are close to winning. It just means they get to play and occasionally beat other teams that also have next to no shot of winning.
If the NBA playoffs were structured like baseball the Hawks would only make it about half of the last 10 times they got in, and then they would lose the first series EVERY time.
Braves > Hawks.
Actually, I would put UGA football ahead of the Hawks as well. While they have been in purgatory the last couple of years, I still think they could put together a string like their #2 and #3 finishes in the polls a half decade ago. All it takes in either of those years is not losing to Florida or SC and they are in the NC game most likely. That’s much closer than the Hawks.
2012 Preseason Fulmer Cup Champs
February 16th, 2012
5:38 pm
“Please feel free to list Tech’s non-conference tough teams.”
It’s not just Tech fans that laugh at UGA’s schedule. EVERYONE does.
BIG-D
February 16th, 2012
5:39 pm
There is no true #1 Jeff, but the Braves are the closest.
DogStyle
February 16th, 2012
5:46 pm
It is NOT impossible to dislike the phony, self-righteous Bill Curry.
2012 Preseason Fulmer Cup Champs
February 16th, 2012
5:52 pm
“iami – Overrated basketball team who can’t win it all with the dream team. A baseball team who get 3,000 a game and when they do win (it has been a while) they blow up the team. A football team who has done nothing in forever.
You can nit pick them all you want but it will NOT change the fact that Miami, as a city, has MORE championships in every sport than Atlanta.
Marlins – 2 WS
Dolphins- 2
Heat – 1
So, if you can do simple math you know that 5 is greater than 1.
2012 Preseason Fulmer Cup Champs
February 16th, 2012
5:53 pm
“Actually, I would put UGA football ahead of the Hawks as well.”
Which doesn’t add up to much at all. UGA’s last championship was in 1980.
2012 Preseason Fulmer Cup Champs
February 16th, 2012
5:55 pm
I like little boys.
Paul in NH
February 16th, 2012
6:06 pm
Pretty depressing looking at the Atlanta pro sports scene right now. Every single local professional men’s team up here is better than their counterparts in the ATL and I am getting tired of the comparisons.
JSS
February 16th, 2012
6:07 pm
You women haters kill me… The Dream are No. 1!
“Gimper Jones,” if I hadn’t gone to see Fishbone last night (show didn’t end till 1:30AM) and not had to read the daily trash spew from BugKiller this morning; I’d be laughing so hard I would have pulled oblique!
What’s the over and under on Old Gimper hitting the D.L.? Has anybody put the walker with the tennis balls out in Orlando along the 3rd base yet?
TD has no clue!
February 16th, 2012
6:14 pm
Is the Dream a real sports team?
Big Crimson 75
February 16th, 2012
6:21 pm
1. Braves — still not that far removed from 14 straight division titles.
2. Hawks — only team winning anything related to a playoff series/game.
3. Dream — back to back trips to finals is impressive — I guess?!?!?!
4. Falcons — Petrino, Vick, & Moron Jr are definitely behind them.
JSS
February 16th, 2012
6:21 pm
The Dream is more “real” than that recurring nightmare that pulls the opportunity for victory and possible post-season glory from our collective hopes on the calendar like clock work in the last week each September or in the Division round each October! Has “Gimper” gotten out of the batter’s box yet?
DamYankee
February 16th, 2012
6:27 pm
Where’s the REAL Sonny Clusters? This one’s weak.
Let's talk about UGA!
February 16th, 2012
6:34 pm
Jeff,
The most important events in the Atlanta area are as follows:
1) Dawg Football!
2) Romance with immediate family members (or livestock).
3) Tractor pulls.
Please review your priorities.
Go Dawgs!
Sic ‘em!
Woof! Woof! Woof!
jerry
February 16th, 2012
6:48 pm
Jeff, thanks for knocking down the Dimitroff/Smith apologists before they ever get into the ring.
dan
February 16th, 2012
7:55 pm
In regards to the Falcons: Smitty and Dimitroff are on the clock. They got one year to figure it out. Arty Blank is losing his patience!
In regards to the Dawgs: What’s the benefit of not playing LSU, Bama, or Arkansas in the regular season, winning 10 or 11 games, and then get hammered by one of them in the title game? It just reinforces the fact that the SEC East and consequently UGA are second tier. Until UGA beats one of those teams, second tier is their reality.
DetroitBraves
February 16th, 2012
8:36 pm
I had a comment but can’t get past the image of a deer beating Chipper on a quiz show.
Mike
February 16th, 2012
8:37 pm
Jeff, not sure how you rate the Hawks above UGA or even Ga Tech for that matter. At least UGA and Ga Tech can refresh their rosters and possibly have a more exciting season next year, especially UGA who seems to be on the mend. The Hawks as you pointed out are in a roster deadlock due to the Johnson contract. There’s little hope in seeing them do anything more. In fact, the East is looking stronger this year. They might not even get to the second round.
Jeff Schultz
February 16th, 2012
8:42 pm
Ima Hogge — Academics.
Jeff Schultz
February 16th, 2012
8:47 pm
SSIGator — Oh, I’ve kept up. As anybody would tell you, I don’t drink the recruiting koolaid. I’m into more basic stuff, like wins and losses. THEN I’ll judge how good the recruits were. Any coach will tell you the same thing.
Gimper Jones - Disabled Vet
February 16th, 2012
8:49 pm
Gimper Jones – the has been Disabled Vet – Wish he would retire and just go away!
Jeff Schultz
February 16th, 2012
8:50 pm
Mike — I hear you on the Hawks, but they have the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference and are playing without their starting (Al Horford) and backup (Jason Collins) centers. I like their bench, I like Josh, I like Teague. But yes, Joe’s a big problem.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 16th, 2012
8:53 pm
Hey Jeff,
On the NFL Network a few hall of famers were saying what I have been saying for 4 years…..
Flacco is more valuable than CHOKE…………………..
Any comments?
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 16th, 2012
8:54 pm
“Matty Ice aint too Icee in the playoffs” – Warren Sapp
Quote of the day…………….
HA HA HA
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 16th, 2012
8:57 pm
@Larry
Double digit would never be words that would be associated with your I.Q.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 16th, 2012
8:59 pm
C
February 16th, 2012
4:00 pm
Falcons. They will play with a chip on their shoulder the size of Stone Mtn. this coming fall
_________________________________________________
Unfortunately those chips are bird droppings………………….
HA HA HA
Jeff Schultz
February 16th, 2012
9:52 pm
Choke — My position has never changed: Ryan has to win playoff games — we agree on that. I think where our opinions diverge is I think he can and you think he can’t. But I can’t predict the future.
Lee
February 16th, 2012
10:05 pm
Does anyone besides me notice that Schultz writes more about the Thrashers AFTER they left Atlanta than he did when they were actually in town? Remember that when you get your 3rd NHL franchise, oh wait a minute, that’ll never happen!!
SH
February 16th, 2012
10:31 pm
Schultz idiolizes this cretin
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-movies/sean-penn-meets-with-1351954.html?cxntlid=thbz_hm
Najeh Davenpoop
February 16th, 2012
10:59 pm
Sage of Blueland, you make me sick. Don’t boycott the Hawks, ASG is going to bring us a championship. The Hawks are already the best sports team in town, but they need you to buy tickets so we can afford to lock up Joe Johnson for life. The Thrashers were overrated, and people that like hockey are either communist or gay.
James Adams
February 16th, 2012
11:11 pm
The Braves should be no higher than 4th on that list. That is a joke.
I don't much like hockey, but....
February 17th, 2012
12:14 am
What about the Gwinnett Gladiators???
Waffle House or Bust
February 17th, 2012
12:25 am
And this…. is why we are known as Loserville.
BooBoo
February 17th, 2012
12:52 am
Which way to the crossword puzzle?
bsaff
February 17th, 2012
1:15 am
The Braves are the best on the list, you got it right and they are the closest team to a championship. If they stay healthy this year the will win the east and make a deep playoff run. As for the falcons, well wake me when they actually compete in a playoff game because they were a joke against the packers and giants. Also for all of you that are going to say well the packers and giants won the superbowl, uhh yea but all the other teams they played were close and well the Falcons yea not too close.
MattMD
February 17th, 2012
4:14 am
Braves #1? You have got to be smoking rock.
The Braves haven’t been relevant since Clinton was in office. I’d put the Falcons #1, then UGA FB, then Tech FB. Both programs would pimp slap Georgia Southern, for whoever brought up those clowns.
No one cares about women’s/rec league sports.
Stinger2
February 17th, 2012
4:58 am
I am a GT fan but have to rank UGA football No. 1 on this list. I cannot see any other team coming close to a championship at this time. The Braves have done nothing but get rid of Lowe to improve the team. The Falcons are stuck somewhere but cannot get into high gear. The Hawks are stuck with Johnson`s contract
Paddy
February 17th, 2012
6:44 am
ND……more than half the folks in this town never heard of the Dream. Once they find out,they don’t .care. You have a point with the Hawks but NBA basketball has lost its place in the buying publics heart and they are not coming back any time soon. Too bad it used to be a great game!
Really?
February 17th, 2012
6:48 am
Nice call out to GSU Jeff… thanks… long way to go though…
need for speed
February 17th, 2012
7:02 am
The Falcons have lost the past three playoff games to the team that went on to win the superbowl. Saints, Greenbay, and Giants. Now, fix the d-line and fix the O-line, squirt some glue on whites gloves so he will quit droping passes (when the pass hits his hands…some hit him on his head and chest) but point made. QB time and protection, and catched balls go a long way toward winning games.
Birddroppings
February 17th, 2012
8:08 am
I think you can add the word SUCKS to all the above mentioned teams. Way to many excuses for Sucky teams
Big Un
February 17th, 2012
8:24 am
Time to shut down the good old Altanta Urinal & Constipation….the writers are becoming like the talking sports fools on TV…time was writers didn’t act and write like they knew it all, that they actually enjoyed sports….sad
don
February 17th, 2012
8:48 am
At best, with all the moves made by division opponents, the Braves are a 3rd place team. More likely 4th.