I think the header of this post just about sums up everyone's thoughts on the Georgia Bulldogs basketball team at this point.
Saturday, a last-second 3 by Zac Swansey gave the Dawgs a miracle win against a bad team.
Monday, a last-second 3 by Kevin Palmer gave a bad team a miracle win against Georgia.
When a half-court heave is the difference in two games against two bad teams, I'm fairly certain that the transitive properties of mathematics dictate that Georgia, too, is a bad team.
Coming into tonight's game, Texas A&M-Coprus Christi had six more letters in its acronym than wins on the road. TAMU-CC had never beaten an SEC team. They had just come off a loss to Savannah State in which they scored a whopping 42 points.
I actually just looked up TAMU-CC's schedule so far on ESPN.com and their wins are against the following: AMKN, JSU, UNCW, SEU and AMI. I have absolutely no clue what those initials stand for for four of those five teams.
For Georgia, the past two games were at home against teams the Bulldogs should have beaten easily. Worse yet, they were after a nearly two-week break in which Coach Dennis Felton said the team was able to get healthy and focus on its offense.
I'm not entirely sure what they practice during that offensive focus, but free throws probably should have been a point of emphasis. Georgia was 21-31 for the game from the stripe, and had Dustin Ware drained the second of two free throws in the game's final seconds, this dreadful loss may have been avoided.
Here's the thing for Felton right now: The tourney run last season bought him some slack from fans, but not this much. Had the young Bulldogs made it to SEC play with three losses and improved as the year went along, he probably would have escaped the hot seat for most of the year.
This, however, is ugly. True, Terrence Woodbury has been sidelined with bone spurs in both ankles, but Georgia's first five guys off the bench are better than TAMU-CC's starting five. There is just no excuse for consecutive performances like Georgia has had the past two games.
I'm not saying Georgia needs to make a coaching change, but the temperature on Felton's seat is already through the roof, and if it's this bad now...
2 comments:
I'll say it for you David. Felton should have been out the door last year, but Evans couldn't make a move after the miracle run in Atlanta. Everyone forgets that had Georgia not won the SEC Tourney last year, there wouldn't even be an invite to the NIT because the record was so bad. I was of the opinion that Felton deserved to be sent packing even despite the miracle run last year. As an alum that was a student during the early Felton years, it's fairly evident that nothing about Felton coached teams has changed. They can't run the fast break, free throw shooting has been abysmal during his entire tenure, they struggle offensively, usually play solid defense, and are guaranteed to go on a 6-10 minute scoreless run in the second half that either allows bad teams back in games or good teams to blow Georgia away. It's a shame because I think Felton is a good guy and got put in one of the worst basketball situations in America at the time. I would argue though that many of the wounds in the last few years have been self-inflicted. Kicking Mercer and Takais Brown off the team last year, and Billy Humphrey with his off-court troubles have been program breakers. I don't know if Felton is recruiting the wrong guys or if he's too much of a hardass, but clearly it ain't working. I don't ever expect Georgia to be a perennial basketball power, but seeing what Bruce Pearl has done at Tennessee makes me wonder why Georgia can't at least compete for an NCAA tourney bid every year. They've only seriously been in the run for an at-large bid one year during Felton's tenure and nowhere close the rest of the time. Frankly, I think Felton's tenure has run its course, and this is one of those situations where I don't think a midseason firing is the worst thing that could happen. I mean, it can't get any worse, right?
Felton has never amounted to anything, and I am sick of him still being the coach. He should have been tossed out long ago. As long as he is there, the team will suck.
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