Archive for the ‘Georgia State/CAA’ Category

Oh, woeful me. (Photo by Ben Gray; illustration by Mandi Albright)

The annual Accountability Scoreboard reflects, I’m afraid, a bleak House of Bradley. I was wrong about pretty much everything in 2010. Usually I’m only wrong about most things. A partial recap:

• Wrong about Georgia Tech beating Iowa in the Orange Bowl and beating Georgia in basketball. When your year starts with you being wrong about the same school twice on the night of Jan. 5, you should know you’re in for it. Though I was too stupid to know any such thing.

• Wrong about Texas beating Alabama in the BCS title game. Though I might have been right if not for Mack Brown’s SHOVEL PASS.

• Wrong about the Braves finishing third behind Florida and Philadelphia in the National League East.

• Wrong about Duke getting beat by Louisville in Round 2 of the NCAA tournament. Wrong also about three of my Final Four, being right only about West Virginia.

• Wrong about the Hawks beating Orlando in Round 2 of the …

Continue reading The 2010 Accountability Scoreboard: Wrong about everything! »

Does this look like real football? It sure as heck felt like it. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)

If Georgia State never wins another game or scores another point, the Panthers and their fans can say this: On Sept. 2, 2010, a start-up college-football program outdrew a first-place big-league baseball club head to head. On its first time out of the box, GSU served notice that there’s enthusiasm in this city for this brand new team.

And that wasn’t always a given. Indeed, there were those — that’s my hand you see raised — who feared GSU would unveil its football team to an intimate gathering of friends and family beneath the cavernous Georgia Dome. But there was nothing small about the crowd Thursday night, and there was nothing intimate about the setting.

The Dome’s lower bowl was full, and the overflow spilled upward into the second tier. Cheryl Levick, GSU’s athletic director, reported that there were 11,000 students on hand, and certainly her estimate didn’t seem fanciful. The …

Continue reading A boffo opening night for Georgia State football and its fans »

Living proof! An actual picture of actual Georgia State football fans. (Photo by M. Bradley)

I’ve been a bit of a skeptic about Georgia State playing football — OK, more than a bit — but I have to admit: If you’re going to start a program in a crowded pro market in a state that already has two programs of Top 25 pedigree … well, this is the way to do it.

I’m here at the Georgia Dome for GSU’s Inaugural Game, and I’m more moved than I thought I’d be. I just shook hands with Bill Curry, whom I’m covered at three previous stops, and he’s moved by this moment. He just posed with his family under the goalposts at the Panthers’ end of the field — sounds odd to say, doesn’t it? — and hugged and kissed everyone in sight. (Full disclosure: Curry and I settled for shaking hands.)

Marc Becker, the GSU president, just marched past the student section and was greeted by a bigger cheer than Michael Adams has ever generated at a Georgia game. (Full disclosure: I’m not sure if Dr. Adams was …

Continue reading Live from Georgia State’s inaugural game: It feels like football! »

The president of Georgia State University gave his baseball coach a new car Tuesday morning. Two hours later, Greg Frady showed a visitor the fruits of his team’s victory in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament – a snazzy red-and-white convertible about six inches long and two inches high.

OK, so the gift of a model car wasn’t quite like winning the showcase on “The Price Is Right,” but it was a nice gesture by Mark Becker, the president who got so pumped he sent his coach text messages between CAA tournament games. And this week has the potential to be better still: The Georgia State Panthers are going to what their coach calls “baseball heaven.”

Friday night will mark GSU’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament, and it will come in a ballpark two miles from Panther headquarters. Georgia State plays Georgia Tech at Russ Chandler Stadium, and Frady knows a grand opportunity is at hand.

“The Atlanta community will be paying attention to this game,” …

Continue reading The Georgia State itinerary: Two miles to “baseball heaven” »