Scott Howard: UGA improved to 12-4, 4-1 SEC, with an 85-79 win over
Auburn before
the 4th consecutive sellout crowd at Stegeman. Next up, Vandy, Wednesday night
in Nashville.
JH - can't say enough about our students. Those two games were probably
the loudest crowds we've had. They're our 6th man.
Jarvis couldn't play much defense .. couldn't slide .. because of a
pulled groin. That left Jarvis on Robinson and he went off. We put Chris Daniels
on Marquis Daniels and we held him to six points in the second half. We were
at our best yesterday with Daniels on Robinson and Damien covering Marquis Daniels.
Damien played his best game since the early game against Texas. We've moved
him around so much that he really hasn't been able to get into a comfort
zone. This week, he contributed offensively and has also been a shutdown defensive
guy. We put him at the top of the zone against
Tennessee and their two little
guards couldn't see to get the ball inside. By comparison, Jarvis came in
as a transfer and played one position only. He's a medium range jump shooter
and may be his best on the wing, once he learns the position.
JH also expressed a preference for the balanced scoring against Auburn - five
players in double figures, over two guys carrying the load like Ezra and Jarvis
did against Tennessee. JH sat down with Jonas, Daniels and Thomas after the
Tennessee game, and explained that they needed to take advantage of opportunities
that came their way. They had been getting lost in the game in recent outings.
Yesterday, each of them hit key "continuity" shots. They just need to
be patient; some days the ball comes to you.
Jeremy from Memphis is concerned about defense, since Vandy generally shoots
the ball well at home. Also, should we try to force the ball inside to Thomas,
Daniels or Jonas more? We got some breakaway layups, but so did Auburn. Wright
took a shot out of the corner once and no one got back on defense. Neither Jarvis
or Damien is really used to rotating back as the safety in that situation.
Last year, Vandy hit 15 threes in Memorial and beat us by two. We've been
able to get by rebounding for a year and a half.
In response to my (seemingly constant) concerns about depth .. When
JH won the national title at UCLA, he played seven guys most of the year ..
and only 6 in the title game. Damien played 17 minutes yesterday and Jonas played
20. They each want more. Against a triangle and two like we saw yesterday, JH
will probably use Wehunt more. But JH needs to play him every game and not just
bring him off the bench every couple of weeks or so. The five starters have
such chemistry and play well together, it would be nice to let them play all
the time, but it just isn't possible.
JH mentioned he was thinking about guys like Al from Knoxville this week. As
for odd rules, JH says the NABC is trying to convince the NCAA that 8/5 rule
is idiotic. We only get 13 scholarships as it is. JH estimates about 300 student
athletes have lost chances at scholarships due to that rules. Since we're
bringing in 5 guys this year, we can only bring in three next year (when
we lose the Hayes twins, Daniels, Thomas and Wilkins).
Ferrall wonders if we're able to replace Michael Dean's scholarship.
JH will have to check the rulebook since they change it so much. JH also likes
the ¾ court trap, but abandoned it yesterday since Chris Daniels got two early
fouls. We needed Chris in the game to cover Marquis Daniels. Later, JH explained
that ¾ court trap (code 4) to Scott, in its different variations. But
the basic fundamental is still playing defense from the top of the key to the
baseline. You spread the court only when you're already confident. When
we had to take Daniels out at
Florida with four fouls, we had them beat, leading
by 10, then Bonner goes nuts. JH thinks he should've put Wilkins on him,
but is afraid Bonner could take him inside.
Should have redshirted Wayne Arnold? JH told him not to go too far with the
idea that a guy can redshirt if only playing non-conference games.
JH thanked a caller from Statesboro .. a little league team and the mayor have
been recent guests. That is Rashard Wright's hometown. He finds what works
in the offense during the game, and goes to it. Sometimes during a timeout,
JH will ask Wright what he wants to run, based on what he sees. Wright called
a play yesterday that resulted in a key basket by Thomas coming out of a timeout.
The biggest reason for our success this year is that only one of our regular
players has more turnovers than assists .. and that not by much. Last year,
five of our seven regulars were deficient in that category. JH added that all
of Florida's regulars can dribble, pass and shoot the ball. That makes them
very difficult to guard. And we should've beat them anyway.
JH and Scott think yesterday's game was called tighter because of how last
year's game went. Burr is from the East and Lopes is from the A-10 (JH
remembers him from 1995 Final Four), Chapman is from the SEC and stepped
his game up. Yesterday was a great athletic contest between two excellent teams.
Auburn deserves their ranking, now that they have their playing rotation intact.
If they had a better point guard they would really be something. JH has charted
the first half and didn't have many notes since both teams were shooting
well. And JH had to get on himself, for going to a "brilliant" zone
late in the game only to have a walk-on drill an NBA three.
Jim from Hartwell asked about recruiting, and also wondered about Tennessee
getting threes off when we had fouls to give. Recruiting is done. And JH said
that even his wife asked why we didn't foul. We had a timeout,but decided
not to use it and risk letting Tennessee set up their offense without a timeout.
JH mouthed to the players that we had a foul to give, but obviously didn't
do well enough. He will rethink how he wants to handle that situation.
ViningsDawg44 (Joy from Smyrna) made her first appearance of the year
on the call-in show and was very impressed with the free throw shooting. We've
shot foul shots well except for a three game lull recently. Then we went back
and shot about 100 per day in practice. Yesterday's game (hitting 17
of 18) should get us back into the SEC lead.
Max from SC wonders who'll beat Florida and UK. Unless it is us, maybe nobody.
Each look like a couple of the top 5-6 teams in the country. Florida was all
over Vandy until Vandy made a late 13-0 run to cut it to 8. JH jokes that he'll
call Brady at
LSU and ask for help. We tried that with Gottfried at Bama, but
they couldn't get it done against UK last night.
Phil thought we looked tentative at times on both offense and defense. JH said
we looked tentative at times against the triangle & two as well as the box
& chase defenses. We will work on that in practice since Vandy used those
last year and we expect them to again.
Comments