Live from UGA-Washington: It’s late night at the Big Dance!
Mark Fox coaches free throws at Thursday's practice. (Photo courtesy of the Charlotte Observer)
Charlotte – To borrow from the Kenny Loggins song that served as NBC’s theme for the 1980 NCAA tournament — yep, NBC once had the Big Dance — this is it. Georgia and Washington are about to meet, and ’round midnight we’ll know if the Bulldogs will be halfway toward the Sweet 16. And now you ask: Who in his/her right mind would pick Georgia to make the Sweet 16?
I haven’t had a very good tournament, forecast-wise — and we’re only in (Full) Day 2! — but I have made a bit of a comeback from yesterday’s misdoings. I had Arizona over Memphis, George Mason over Villanova, Florida State over Texas A&M. (I also had Tennessee over Michigan and came within 31 points of being right.)
As we speak, I’m seated courtside at Time Warner Cable Arena, and you will be shocked to know there are about 12,000 folks wearing powder blue in the joint. (North Carolina play Long Island in the early game.) But before we begin our live-blog thing, I must pass along a snippet of news both good and bad.
Owing to the late start of UGA-UDub, no print edition of Saturday’s AJC will include an MB column reflecting the outcome of the game. This is my 31st NCAA tournament, and it’s the first time I’ve never had a print deadline to meet. But what that does mean is that I won’t have to switch from the live-chatting to write an actual column. I can offer the usual wit and insight — “Yeah, right,” you’re saying — until the final buzzer, if and when it arrives.
With that, we’ll tip off the digital festivities, and I hope you’ll join me in saying: Thank goodness for AJC.com. And, once again, away we go.
By Mark Bradley
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877 comments Add your comment
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
8:58 pm
LIU is simply playing like it’s their last game.
Wait a minute, aren’t they all?
Brian Brannock
March 18th, 2011
9:00 pm
LIU has been a blast to watch….some of their transition game is the best I have seen all year!
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:01 pm
If LIU could get it under 10, the couple of thousand folks here who aren’t wearing baby blue would go wild.
Brian Brannock
March 18th, 2011
9:02 pm
add the kid from Morehead State to this bunch and watch out!!!!
Worm
March 18th, 2011
9:02 pm
Bradley, I hope you get to spend more than tonight in Charlotte..Should’ve invited you to Lake Norman..80 and boating weather.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:03 pm
Long Island U. has lost one game since Dec. 13. Went 16-2 in the Northeast.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:04 pm
Three-point play cuts it to 11.
Michael
March 18th, 2011
9:04 pm
Huskies have a crap road record and have to travel 2,869 mi to play in the Dawgs backyard. I’m thinking we’re playing the Tar Heels in a few days.
Brian Brannock
March 18th, 2011
9:04 pm
lots of time left……Carolina had better finish them off-anything can happen!
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:04 pm
Mark, turn around, i think i found your seat…
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:05 pm
Down to 10. And Barnes and Henson are on the bench.
Worm
March 18th, 2011
9:05 pm
Bradley, hope you spend more time here per Dawgs victorious..Should’ve invited you to the lake-80 and boating..Julius Peppers is my neighbor.
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:06 pm
Made you look……
Bring on UGA,are the fans present?
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:07 pm
Tyler Zeller. Second-best Tyler in Tar Heel history.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:08 pm
Thanks, Worm. And I remember covering Mr. Peppers in this sport. Good basketballer.
Paul in RDU
March 18th, 2011
9:08 pm
Mark,
Don’t go to Lake Norman – go to T-Bones on Lake Wylie – just over the Buster Brown Bridge in SC
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:09 pm
Some fans, WestOfAthens. One section is red-clad
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:09 pm
One should look toward Indiana to find the other? Or the brother thereof?
MP in Athens
March 18th, 2011
9:11 pm
Mark,
Are you seeing red? Does it appear that UGA travelled better than, worse than, or about the same as expected?
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:12 pm
About like I expected, MP in Athens.
Johndawghoopster
March 18th, 2011
9:13 pm
Enter your comments here
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:15 pm
Blackbirds had a three to cut it to nine and air-balled it. Then Kendall Marshall hit a trey for Carolina to push it to 15. First Carolina jumper made by anyone except Harrison Barnes.
Johndawghoopster
March 18th, 2011
9:15 pm
Dawgs take it late 56-59. We need to fly and all the big names need to play their game tonight. I do not want to see the passes fly out of bounds and floor slapping defense. The dawgs begin the journey tonight. 6 WINS. There is no reason why it can not happen!! Its the big dance
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:16 pm
Three UNC players — Henson, Barnes and Zeller — have 23 or more points apiece
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:17 pm
Zeller has 27.
Major size differential.
Brandon from Warner Robins
March 18th, 2011
9:17 pm
I like Jim Nantz but only when he covers golf. i’d much rather have Gus Johnson calling the game.
UW Dawgs by 20!
March 18th, 2011
9:20 pm
Let’s go H-U-S-K-I-E-S! Let’s go H-U-S-K-I-E-S!
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:21 pm
Ed Hightower just anticipated a foul that wasn’t.
reed johnson
March 18th, 2011
9:21 pm
i think they’ll do like they always do which is find a way to lose in the second half.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:22 pm
Setting for this game will be odd. There might not be 7,000 folks around by halftime of the UGA-Udub game.
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:23 pm
Tech fans have descended, smooth
Retro
March 18th, 2011
9:26 pm
Dawgs lose tonight. No way they win a big game.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:29 pm
Blackbirds within 10. Scrappy team.
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:32 pm
LIU needs not prolong the agony
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:33 pm
Georgia won’t tip off until 10 at least.
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:34 pm
first crack at 100 this tourney?
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:35 pm
Carolina has had to work. And it’s not a deep team.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:35 pm
Tar Heels 102, Blackbirds 87. Not the worst game ever.
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:36 pm
Udub had the longest trip to take in all of the NCAA’s, later start time, advantage: UGA
Dory Funk
March 18th, 2011
9:37 pm
There is a hotel room on Charlotte that smells like MB’s stinking feet…I KNOW that…Will the dawgs prevail..?? no clue
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:38 pm
Tipoff in 27 minutes. At 10:08.
Dory Funk@ West
March 18th, 2011
9:40 pm
I gotta disagree…for the Huskies it’s 7pm….that’s way this game started at 10pm..the Seattle folks…
JSS
March 18th, 2011
9:41 pm
LIU’s actually not the best team in their Northeast Conference League. Robert Morris and Central Connecticut have been stout the last 4 years. That was the 2nd best game of Championship Week, RMU-vs-LIU at LIU was an overtime war. It maybe online somewhere
WestOfAthens
March 18th, 2011
9:41 pm
bring on the Huskies! Food run for now, hopefully the upset for dessert.
JSS
March 18th, 2011
9:42 pm
Dory Funk said it, this is almost a normal start Pacific time.
JSS
March 18th, 2011
9:47 pm
@ Mark Bradley…
What exactly do you think of Harrison Barnes’ game? I krrp hearing all of these Charlie Scott comparison, I think more of a poor man’s Walter Davis…
JSS
March 18th, 2011
9:48 pm
“keep”
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:50 pm
My 31st NCAA, and I’ve never covered a game starting later in the Eastern time zone. (In the Central, yes.)
Rich Black
March 18th, 2011
9:50 pm
No one cares about this.
Mark Bradley
March 18th, 2011
9:51 pm
Harrison Barnes scored 24 points and had 16 rebounds. But he made only two of 10 three-pointers. He’s a talent, no question, but he’s not quite Kobe Bryant.