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.

Georgia’s full football depth chart (with injured players).