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Scott Howard opened with remarks about all the fouls called in the Vandy game yesterday, including various newspaper headlines which played on the excessive foul calls.

UGA is in 4th in the East, one game behind Tennessee and 2 ½ behind Florida. Kentucky remains unbeaten in SEC play.

JH - reminded Scott there is no such thing as a bad win. Teams really get after each other, especially on our eastern side. The refs started calling some fouls and it mushroomed. He also joked about the Duke-Wake game a few nights ago where eight guys fouled out. He & Scott agreed that the hard fall a Vandy player took may have prompted the officials to call it tighter. Both teams played hard and aggressive.

It is no disgrace to lose at Kentucky, Florida or Tennessee. The only one that really hurts right now might be at Vandy. We lost three early games without Steve Thomas that may have been winnable.

Jonas was probably the hero yesterday. Thomas got his fourth foul, and Jonas came in with two buckets and good defense.

We outrebounded Vandy by 10 after Vandy outrebounded us by one in Nashville .. but we outrebounded Tennessee in both games, so you see how far that goes.

Even with their recent troubles, playing at Bama is no easy assignment. JH figures we need three more wins to ensure a NCAA bid, but our remaining home games are Kentucky, Florida and South Carolina. South Carolina is now playing better. This league is really something. It's a challenge to come out and play well every night.

Special time again next week - 7:06 pm.

Robert in Midtown opened up - loved the bobblehead of JH given out. He had JH talk about the assistants and support staff. He discussed GA & AA duties, then talked about the assistants.

Jeff Dunlap - assistant coach, is head of the basketball camp. He coaches, recruits and scouts.

Jim Harrick Jr. - solid recruiter; 12th year as an assistant .. left early yesterday and watched several games in Florida, and still made it to our game. He handles guards on individual breakdowns.

James Holland is in his 17th year as a full-time assistant. He coaches and recruits. He handles inside players. This is the guy JH thinks is ready right now for a head job.

Wayne Arnold is coming along well in practice but still trying to get something together academically. When he does that JH will try to get him some playing time.

Jesse from Gainesville (young kid) wanted to know what JH thinks our record will be. JH said he used to do that at Pepperdine, but didn't seem to guess well in terms of which games we'd win or lose. JH hopes we've got 17 or 18 wins and/or are at least 9-7 in the SEC at the end of the regular season.

Regarding outside tourneys, we're in a period called the 4-2-4. We're in a period now where we have to take two years off. Four on (playing exempt tourneys), two off and four on. We'd like the preseason NIT, then Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. JH likes those because it helps develop team camaraderie and they get to play teams they might now otherwise see.

Roy asked about offensive philosophy. JH says that once you pass to the wing, the high post and triple post offenses are very similar. In the high post, you have people cutting, all kinds of screen & roll stuff, and every team finds its own little favorite thing to do. There is good rebounding potential and safety stuff to prevent other teams from running. JH even wrote a book on it. Teach what you know, and know what you teach. There is no originality; JH says everything he uses came from someone else. JH used a two-guard front until the shot clock went to 35. By comparison, Gottfried at Bama still uses a two-guard front to run a similar offense.

JH then went into a discussion about how guys used to crashing the boards their entire life have to learn to rotate back as the safety on defense. We've gotten burned several times this year when someone didn't rotate back when Wright drove to the basket to shoot or pass.

Lee from Atlanta is afraid UK can run the table and is just much better than everyone else. He went to his first home game in a couple of years and wonders if we're trying to create an NBA-type of environment.

JH says he wouldn't mind playing any team in the nation in a big-game situation except Kentucky. But he reminded the caller about an Indiana team in the 1970s that was rolling until Scott May was injured (then lost in the 3rd round of the tourney to UK), Phi Slamma Jamma (Houston) in the early 1980s and Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown falling to Villanova. Anything can happen between now and the tournament.

JH doesn't like the length of shorts, but says education is for kds .. and they like the light shows, length of the shorts, etc. UNLV started it in college and now lots of teams do it. JH knows some faculty and fans, especially his age, don't like it, but education is for kids. Maybe it's a little tinge of entertaining but still not close to the NBA.

John in Gainesville asked about scheduling non-conference games in the middle of the conference schedule. JH has done that in the past, but an opportunity has not come up. Sometimes, its difficult to find a game like that given the conference open date. JH says he'd do it only for a TV game. ESPN talked to us about a game with Notre Dame next year just within the last week. This year, we've needed the conference open dates as we've had some lingering injuries, particularly with Jarvis and Wright.

JH pointed out that even with the pressure on coaches to make sure players get to class, no one ever stops TV. And with the late game at Bama Tuesday night, we won't get home until 2 or 3 am then expect guys to get up and go to class.

UK looks like they can run the table, but they still have to come here and go to Florida. Hopefully at least one of us can stop them.

Doug from NC watches the team, reads the DawgVent (but doesn't "write in" as he says) and wonders about our rotations and how many we bring in. JH says we work on rotations every day, but you worry about the slippage from practice to gamedays. Against UK, we chose not to cover one guy based on his record, but that guy got hot. We tried double teaming Slay but he still got 33, and another guy hurt us in that game. We have a decision to make as to how we guard Dudley Tuesday night.

Only one recruit this year will be from Georgia; JH says it's one of those years. We hope next year to recruit several within the state. We're also in on two very good players from the west coast.

In closing, Scott & JH pointed out very good questions from all of the callers this afternoon.