The UGA notebook: Richt on turnovers, Fox on tournament and draft
Cleaning out the notebook:
- A couple of months back, while many college basketball coaches were pushing to swell the NCAA tournament from 65 teams to 96, Georgia’s Mark Fox argued for a much more modest expansion to 68 teams. As you’ve heard, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee last week recommended an expansion . . . to 68.
Didn’t realize how much clout you had, I said to Fox. . . .
“How about that?” he replied with a laugh. “I was the only one preaching that [a while ago]. I’m glad they expanded. Certainly, as you know, I supported 68 before people were talking a lot about it. I do think it eventually will go to 96.”
Actually, Fox said, his opposition to 96 has softened as he’s learned more about how it could work. “It will still preserve the magic of the tournament,” he said. But his guess is that March Madness will stay at 68 teams for “at least two years.”
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors is expected to approve the expansion to 68 at its meeting on Thursday.
- While Fox is pleased that Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie resisted this year’s NBA draft, he worries about how many underclassmen entered the draft from programs across the country.
“Our game has a problem because so many kids have the misconception that they’re going to go to college for one year and then go to the NBA and make millions of dollars,” Fox said. “And that’s not realistic, and it’s an issue coaches across the country are trying to address.
“There are so many guys jumping in this draft. Is it because of a fear of a lockout [next year]? But that doesn’t mean there are more spots in this draft. So you have so many guys jumping in this draft that shouldn’t be in it.”
- As big a problem as turnovers were for Georgia’s football team last season, Mark Richt notes that the shortage of turnovers forced (12) was at least as problematic as the excess of turnovers committed (28).
“We were probably worse at not getting turnovers than we were at giving them up,” he said in Columbus last week. “That’s one of the reasons Coach [Todd] Grantham is here. We expect to pressure the quarterback different. The one man who turns it over the most is the quarterback. . . . That’s the guy you want to harass; that’s the guy you want to put the pressure on. And you put the pressure on him by taking away what he really likes to do the most.”
If you missed it: On the Bulldog Club tour with Richt and Fox.
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202 comments Add your comment
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
1:56 pm
Delbert…a man must feel comfortable in his own skin. I have never seen you dog the dawgs and know that was not your intention. Unfortunately there are fans on every side who insist on showing their immaturity and they sometimes need a comeuppance. I understand.
Tech4Life
April 28th, 2010
1:56 pm
Another sweep to add to our overflow of sweeps we have bestowed to the mutts!!! Just more of the same!!!
Smack
April 28th, 2010
2:02 pm
I can honestly say that I have never commented on a YECH blog. You people are LOSERS on the field and especially off of it. Get a damn life! NERDS, NERDS, NERDS…
Spike
April 28th, 2010
2:02 pm
Is losing eight out of the last nine a overflow of sweeps? Perhaps we could dub it a losing sweep, or “Tech sweep”?
Tech4Life
April 28th, 2010
2:04 pm
Football isn’t America’s past-time, baseball is
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
2:05 pm
Spike – Like I commented before, just call it a “Gailey”. That pretty much says it all.
Spike
April 28th, 2010
2:06 pm
Tech4Life, glad you feel that way. I would also if my football team sucks as badly as yours.
Spike
April 28th, 2010
2:07 pm
Delbert D. Agreed. I will concede the point. A “Gailey” it is.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
2:14 pm
Tech4Life – “Football isn’t America’s past-time, baseball is”
I think that saying became popular back in the “Leatherheads” era. Can’t be positive, because I’m not quite that old. My 1st year in HS football, there were a couple of leather helmets still around in the locker room (smelled awful).
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
2:19 pm
Cap’n Kirk – Was all that fun for real, or was it on the holodeck?
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
2:26 pm
“I have sex every day, several times a day, with our hot cheerleaders and co-eds.”
Sounds more like you do LSD every day, several times a day. Is that in your hot tub in your Master bedroom of your Frat house that you are president of? Do you share with Lewis, Gilbert, Booger, Wormser and Lamar?
Spike
April 28th, 2010
2:28 pm
Jack, don’t forget Poindexter!!
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
2:28 pm
Cap’n Kirk, you sound like a pathalogical liar. You know they got help for that, just down the street at the Grady Memorial Hospital Psychiatric unit.
James T. Kirk
April 28th, 2010
2:29 pm
I am just chillaxing right now in our frat hot tub with some lady friends in between classes.
depressedinAthens
April 28th, 2010
2:35 pm
think i’ll start cheerin’ for UT. After all, they have a Dooley
not Richt (who’s glory days are long gone)
Maybe in basketball i’ll cheer for Valdosta!
Rex
April 28th, 2010
2:40 pm
Congratulations, Tech, you beat swept us at a second tier sport.
depressedinAtlanta
April 28th, 2010
2:41 pm
well, it’s official. I haven’t left my dorm room in 5 days now. I’m too afraid that I’ll get mugged, robbed or raped walking to class. This happens to 3 or 4 of my fellow Tech students every single day!!! Even the pizza delivery folk are too scared to come onto campus. I’m starving. Please help…..
James T. Kirk
April 28th, 2010
2:43 pm
btw, jack, I have 5 different majors right now. Might pick up two more next semester. How do you like dem apples, mutt???
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
2:47 pm
I say get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far.
Any unicorns in that fairy land you live in?
Rex
April 28th, 2010
2:48 pm
“chilaxing with lady friends”
Is that world of warcraft speak for hanging out with women that look like horses?
Cali Dawg
April 28th, 2010
2:51 pm
Man, UGA and TECH fans are a bunch of rednecks! I am UGA fan but ashamed of the crap that is written here…
The Big T
April 28th, 2010
2:51 pm
Give us a little credit, we’ve won 3 out of the last 5 football games when a guy not named Gailey is involved. Also, I think it is funny that if UGA swept us in baseball we’d never hear the end of it, but when we sweep you it is an irrelevant sport. Go tell that to your baseball team. Want to know a funny joke, try to name 5 famous major league baseball players from UGA without looking it up. Gordon Beckham and crickets, crickets, crickets.
jaxdawgfan
April 28th, 2010
2:51 pm
If you’re going to respond to them, you can’t really fault desperate Tech fans who post baseball scores on a UGA basketball/football story. If you took the bait, their strategy worked.
That should keep them happy until we sour another Thanksgiving weekend for them… in front of a much bigger audience.
SEASON SWEEP
April 28th, 2010
2:51 pm
“WE HOMERUN THIS STATE!”
bwahahahaa!
The Big T
April 28th, 2010
2:55 pm
Nevermind, 4 out of the last 6 even better.
the broom
April 28th, 2010
2:56 pm
SWEEP!!!!!
Gillislee
April 28th, 2010
2:57 pm
Scary stat for Georgia and Georgia Tech :
2010 Under Armour All Americans – 12 players from Georgia, 3 stayed in state. 1 to Georgia Tech and 2 to Georgia.
2010 Army All Americans – 3 players from Georgia, 1 stayed in state. 1 to Georgia.
bruce mac
April 28th, 2010
2:58 pm
Stinger and St Simon stayed up all night (just about to pee on themselves) waiting for the first UGA blog. Then they could post the Baseball score. What losers, you could at least post something that was a little bit clever. DUH DUH DUH, how would you like a College baseball score be the highlight of your life?
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
2:59 pm
Beckham? Didn’t they make a movie about him in India? The crickets made me semi-remember that, what with India being a cricket-playing country.
Maybe it was “Beckman”, and it was Indiana. “Bend it like Beckman”?
old yeller feller
April 28th, 2010
2:59 pm
Baseball: GT= Sweep
Basketball: GT= 2004 national title game (UGA= 1983 final four)
Football: GT= 2009 conference championship (UGA = 2004 conference championship), GT = BCS bowl bid (UGA= Shreveport bowl), GT = 1990 national championship (UGA= 1980 national championship)
In a world of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, it’s a white and gold world.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:02 pm
Gillislee – Good stats. It looks to me like we ought to pull the Army out of Afghanistan and put Under Armour in.
bruce mac
April 28th, 2010
3:05 pm
Good job old yeller feller, at least you put something into it. That actually is pretty good. Tech is on the upswing no doubt, at least in Baseball and Football. I ain’t so sure about BBall though. It looks like a train wreck is comin there.
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
3:09 pm
They’re lining these guys up for All Star games before the season has even been played. How legit is that? Plenty of players will have better seasons than the ones on the rosters.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:10 pm
I thought the “3 out of the last 5 when not coached by Gailey” gets the selective statistics award of the day. I think a lot of Ga. Tech folks would prefer a actual train wreck to Paul Hewitt.
curn
April 28th, 2010
3:16 pm
Big T.it,
We still count our losses to you guys when we had coaches named Goff and Donan. Nevermind the fact you tools were proven cheaters during your “wins” in the late 90’s. So I wouldn’t get too full of myself if I were you. And the fact of the matter is, college baseball is only relevant when your team wins. We had 13 boys drafted last year, a record Yech will never see.
Spike
April 28th, 2010
3:20 pm
Oldyeller.. Eight out of the last nine and counting. UGA-30. AccChamps-24. What have you done for me lately?
hmmm....
April 28th, 2010
3:21 pm
Old yeller,
1990 Colorado won the national championship, not Yech. When’s the last time Yech won a national title outright, pre-WWI? Baseball? UGA won the national champion in 1990, been to the college world series multiple times since then. Nerds, nothing. Basketball, we beat you tools EVERY OTHER YEAR. When’s the last time the tools were ACC champs during the season or tournament? Pretty sure UGA won the SEC tournament ON YOUR COURT just a couple of years ago.
suck it!!
Spike
April 28th, 2010
3:25 pm
Cap’n Kirk’s playmates are named right hand and her twin sister left hand. He is having sex with someone he loves.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:25 pm
hmmm…. – That would be “awarded”, not “won” for football. The lack of a real playoff thing from prehistoric times to the present.
gillislee Really???
April 28th, 2010
3:26 pm
The other guys that are supposedly leaving the state have not committed to anyone yet, well maybe the Pope High School kid. Is that the best you can come up with? LOL!!!
UGADAWGZ
April 28th, 2010
3:27 pm
saint simons – where is your wold series championship?
James T. Kirk Really???
April 28th, 2010
3:27 pm
Your comments make me proud to be a Dawg Fan!!! What a tool!
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
3:30 pm
You gotta admit Spike, he’s got one helluva imagination.
As my Grandpa would say, “That boy just ain’t right in the head.”
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:32 pm
“Richt on turnovers, Fox on tournament and draft”
My favorites are apple turnovers and Harpoon lager on draft.
I really hope there is another football blog coming soon.
SickandTired
April 28th, 2010
3:34 pm
Taking away what he wants to do most…in Staffords case they took away the keg toss and he was clueless. Mark Richt is an offensive genius. Now he’s hired a defensive genius….I expect the Dawgs to win it all…..Woooooof Wooooooof
Georgia: The Wisconsin of the SEC
Georgia deserves better.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:36 pm
1eyedJack – I ain’t right in the head today. I had a nickel-sized hole carved in my head yesterday (no, they didn’t find evidence of anything, yuk-yuk), and I’m cruising on the pain meds. I’m prolly posting with less lucidivity than Cap’n Kirk, but I don’t think I’m imagining anything.
Dorsey Hill
April 28th, 2010
3:36 pm
Delbert,
Check out Terry Hoage and Alec Kessler’s scholastic achievements at UGA and show me some Techsters with similar on and off the field achievements. I’ll be waiting….douche.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:40 pm
“Georgia: The Wisconsin of the SEC
Georgia deserves better.”
If we had Lake Michigan next door, there wouldn’t be all these fights with Alabama and Flarta over water rights.
Delbert D.
April 28th, 2010
3:43 pm
Dorsey Hill – Don’t leave out Tommy Lawhorne. I knew Tommy before he went to college.
1eyedJack
April 28th, 2010
3:45 pm
Delbert
Had a quarter-sized hole carved out of mine just last month. Mohs surgery. Got a really sexy jagged scar on my forehead. The ol’ lady says it reminds her of Frankenstein’s monster. I think she’s just jealous.