Howard: one up & one down for UGA this week, with another win at home. We're
off this week then play at
Tennessee on Saturday afternoon.
Florida leads
Kentucky
by a half game, and UGA by two games, in the East.
JH - we didn't play well this week. He saw a change in the team with 11
minutes left at Florida and thinks we haven't gotten our zip back since.
Hayes has his worst game in his career last night, and Ezra couldn't find
the basket for a long time, but we still won. That is quite encouraging.
Our defense was OK, but our offense was the problem. Against Pitt and
LSU we
were a top club. Maybe some guys have read their press clippings. Maybe also
Jarvis' injury has slowed him down. We've got a week to straighten some
things out. Wright, Daniels, Thomas, Wilkins and Jonas gave us a great lift
last night. JH also likes Wehunt in the game and may try to use Fred Gibson
a bit more. Against MSU, JH thinks our offense only looked like it should on
about 5 possessions the whole game. We played lethargic on offense, but still
beat a good Miss. State team.
JH thinks sometimes when we get confident, we get too carried away with looking
for the 3-point shot. But the right way is to run the offense inside, then outside,
and JH will emphasize that in practice this week. (The final caller, Bobby,
asked about us shooting too many 3s)
Vandy played a monster game against us then did it again to Ole Miss yesterday.
Give Kevin Stallings credit. Of our five losses, Vandy is the one who just beat
us. They controlled the game and deserved it.
JH wonders if it is just a midseason lull. He recalls Magic Johnson's Michigan
State team, which won the national title in 1979, losing four straight in mid-season,
including by 20 at Northwestern. JH sees
Louisville and Florida playing better
than anyone right now, but wonders if they can keep it together all the way.
Kansas also looks to be playing well. In general, Scott and JH compared this
time of year in basketball to the dog days in MLB.
We need calls tonite as Scott is a bit under the weather.
Robert in Midtown loved the crowd last night, going crazy for a game when the
opponent wasn't Kentucky. He remembers when it used to be only the UK game
was sold out, and gave props to the promotions group. With JH's record here,
what about improvements to facility?
JH again thanked the students who come early, go crazy, and have been our 6th
man. JH and Damon Evans met yesterday, and are in agreement we'd like to
see a new building. It would be a statement and it could possibly last 50 years.
We could get a lot of new people into the program. Step two would be two practice
facilities with a weight room in the middle. We're going to try to take
those black seats out of the bottom and put some new seats in. We're also
working on our conference rooms, etc., and JH thinks the administration will
come around and help us.
Bill - When does the coach decide to sit a guy down when he's not 100%?
JH thinks only the player knows, and Jarvis is very closed mouth. JH has learned
that a guy, once he's reached a high plateau, has to build himself back
up mentally and thinks Jarvis is going through that now. JH is convinced Jarvis'
injury caused his game to drop off and now he's trying to get it back. It's
not automatic, like flipping on a switch, though.
George from Memphis was proud of the team for gutting out the win last night,
and JH congratulated George on the new baby (dressed appropriately in Dawg
baby clothes). How did JH grade out how we did in the zone? JH said we played
more zone to keep the ball away from Mario Austin and it largely worked. The
zone also helped against Tennessee, keeping the ball away from Slay while we
tried to get it together on offense.
Jeremy in Memphis thought Thomas did a better job of looking to score last night.
Will we be working to get the inside guys looking to score? Also, Jonas seems
to get lots of rebounds in a few minutes. He also asked about the schedule (Jeremy
threw out Kansas, Duke & UNC as examples).
There is talk of playing Kansas in San Diego but we may end up playing San Diego
State instead, in addition to Gonzaga, Tech, and bringing in Miami, FL for the
Chick-fil-a Classic.
Both big men had good nights all the way across the stat sheet last night, and
we're a very good team when they play well.
One caller (Ron) notes we've been looked at favorably by the NCAA
Committee since Tubby's second year. JH suspects the winner of the SEC East
may get a #1 seed. To get a high seed, JH thinks we've got to get back to
doing what we've been doing for a couple of years and of this slump we've
been in. Once you get to 16 or 17 wins, with a good RPI, you're playing
for a seed. Scott & JH note we're still #1 in strength of schedule and
we were #2 in the RPI after the loss at Vandy. Okla. State moved to #1, but
they lost yesterday.
John in Villa Rica was glad we used fouls to give on the floor late in the game
yesterday, as opposed to in the Tennessee game. JH noted a couple of mistakes
he's made this year where he has called the same play back-to-back and the
opponent was waiting on the play the second time.
Any surprises from Tennessee, as we just played them four games ago? JH just
thinks we need to do a better job on Slay. He has a lot more one-on-one moves
than, say, Mario Austin. Austin will just power you down, while Slay is very
smooth. JH doesn't want guys like Slay or Austin to beat us. He was very
pleased with our zone in the final minutes against Miss. State. JH would not
have bet on Tennessee to win at
Auburn. JH read where UT led from start to finish.
JH thinks Auburn is for real, but now thinks MSU will win that side, and they
already have four losses. The west is a jumbled mess.
Tennessee has lost three games - Florida, UK at home by three at the end, and
to us here. JH thinks UT can be an NCAA team because of Slay. Despite what everyone
thinks, JH says Slay makes his teammates better. Austin is a great player, but
does not necessarily make his teammates better. Scott & JH talked about
how Slay backs it up .. our crowd gets all over him, then Slay goes for 29.
JH thinks we ought to be quiet to guys like him.
What about the SEC-Big XII challenge? JH thinks it will happen. Slive, the new
commissioner, wants to take hoops to a new level. The Big XII has one guy in
the commissioner's office that does nothing but promote basketball. We've
got nine teams that are candidates for post-season play. JH thought we had 11,
but LSU & SC may not win enough to warrant it.
Ted from Savannah checked in, and is excited about getting a win when shooting
the ball so poorly. He also reports that we're again #1 in the RPI, per
Collegerpi.com, with Texas & Louisville 2 & 3. JH & Teddy discussed
seedings - JH thinks being seeded 1 or 2 is huge. His UCLA team was the #1 team
in the nation in the final pre-tournament polls the year they won the tourney.
He notes that Kansas was a 6 in 1988, Villanova was an 8 in 1985 and each won
the tournament, but JH can't think of another high seed that did. You consistently
see 1 & 2 seeds in the Final Four. JH still thinks about losing that 19-point
lead in the second round last year.
Joe - he watched a tape of UCLA-Arizona recently, and said he's never seen
UCLA play so poorly. He also wondered about Lavin talking about how troublesome
the job is. JH says his problem at UCLA was no support from the administration
and that Lavin has the same problem. They just won't come out and give the
support needed. JH says this is the first job he's had where basketball
wasn't the #1 sport - but he gets lots of support from Dooley and the administration.
JH always felt at UCLA like he was on a ship in the middle of the ocean. He
also compared it to Tubby Smith at UK. Matt Doherty will find it out at UNC
and eventually also Mike Davis at Indiana.
Comments