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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Live Blog (cont.): UGA vs. Arkansas

OK, I'm utterly fried from signing day, but I've had a lot of coffee and Diet Coke, so we're going to keep this live blogging going into tonight's hoops game.

Not exactly a killer crowd tonight -- maybe about 3,500 here so far -- but perhaps it'll fill out.

Anyway, I've got a few notes from football to finish up (plus I have to paint myself in peanut butter)... but I'll be back with a litany of snarky quotes in the next few minutes.

Start of First Half

-- I'm digging the new uniforms. Gray with red trim. It's no black helmets, but it's nice.

-- No Peanut Butter guy tonight... but our pal Tyler Estep does have a story on him in the Banner-Herald. My favorite line: "I was thinking about doing a whole suit made of meats." Yes. Please. Balogna.

-- Call me crazy, but Trey Thompkins looks 10 pounds lighter in these new uniforms. That's it... I'm wearing nothing but gray with red trim from now on. So much easier than the gym.

-- By the way, I've taken to calling the trainers at the gym, "Gym-ocologists." I find immaturity amusing.

-- We're 3:50 in and Georgia is up 7-5 thanks to two buckets by Dustin Ware.

FIRST HALF, 16:10 REMAINING

OK, recapping a few of my favorite signing day moments....

-- The random guy in his 70s who was sound asleep on a folding chair in the Butts-Mehre atrium with about 100 Georgia fans chatting around him.

-- Stacy Searels making his first comments to fans in forever, stepping to the microphone, then having almost no voice. Best of all, in answering a question about Trinton Sturdivant, he explained his raspy voice like this: “My voice is gone because I was hollering at somebody else this morning.”

Way to keep up the image, CSS.

-- Sprinting from my house to Butts-Mehre in time to hear Grantham talk only to realize I could have just watched it on my laptop. Then not being able to get on my laptop and jogging back home. Then driving back to Butts-Mehre an hour later, realizing I left my camera in the car, sprinting from the Coliseum to the Butts-Mehre parking lot, sprinting back just in time for the Richt interview. Oh wait, all of that actually sucked.

-- A fan asked Mark Richt why Kathryn wasn't at many games this year. Here was his reply: "She felt like she needed to be at my son's (Jon)games. She felt she needed to be there as a mother. But he's supposed to get married May 8th. So I'm telling her, he's got a wife now, and she needs to be back on the sideline with us. Hopefully that will be the case."

I won't name names, but here's the response of one other person on site: "Getting married halfway through college? He needs to de-commit from that."

Of course, as my pal Paul said (and I'm paraphrasing here), an engagement ring is really more of a soft verbal than a letter of intent.

FIRST HALF, 11:45 REMAINING

-- Georgia's up 18-9 behind seven apiece from Jeremy Price and Dustin Ware.

-- Congratulations to the winners of the Papa John's delivery of the game... But really, can you trust a pizza company that doesn't reveal in their commercials that focus groups think their crust tastes like cardboard?

-- And seriously, is charging $12 for two large pizzas supposed to convince me that you're using better ingredients now, Dominos?

-- And also, where are these chefs in white coats individually lathering the crust in spices and butter? I've been in a Dominos. It didn't look like that.

-- You know who I haven't seen at the games in a while? Red-and-black checkered sweater guy. Maybe he's mad that Peanut Butter Guy is getting all the hype these days. Come on, Checkered Sweater Guy! You don't become a fan at a D-1 school like Georgia without wanting to compete!

-- If this game were to be decided by hair length alone, Courtney Fortson could take on every other guy on the court and win in a landslide.

-- I asked Fletcher Page what his thoughts on why Georgia was playing so well tonight were and he offered this: "I was reading about Jerry Rice." He's not the best color man in the business for nothing, folks.

-- You know, I've noticed that Mark Fox is fond of a particular light gray suit he wears a lot. Now the uniforms seem to match. Quite an eye that Mark Fox has. Like a young Heidi Klum. Except not married to Seal.

-- It's time to get Drazen'd.

-- Georgia's bench is, um, not great. And Fox doesn't have a starter on the floor right now. It's 23-16 Georgia.

FIRST HALF, 6:38 REMAINING

-- Nice follow by Jeremy Price, slamming home a miss by Thompkins to give Georgia a 25-18 lead. Price has nine.

-- Did you know they still do Bud Bowl? I saw something about this the other day and was absolutely shocked. I assumed once Bud Dry retired from athletic competition that the whole ad campaign had ended.

-- I've seen fans here tonight resembling all three different lead singers Van Halen has had over the years. Odd.

-- What do you think Jeremy Price's high for the season is? Fletcher says 12. I'm guessing 14. Either way, he's at 11 now, and Arkansas seems unconcerned with guarding him near the basket.

-- I want a t-shirt gun. Seems like it could be so useful in so many aspects of my life.

-- Here's my guesses for impact players from today's signing class in 2010: Hamilton (he'll start at safety), Ogletree (he'll get some PT but won't start... maybe similar to Branden Smith last year), Stripling (maybe at OLB) and Garrison Smith (wouldn't surprise me if he bulks up and gets some time at D end). We'll probably see a bit of Ken Malcolme, too, with Samuel moving to defense. But my best guess is that this class isn't going to have a ton of immediate break-out stars. Plus, even last year's stellar class only had four or five guys playing major reps.

-- More likely, I think we're going to see some big impacts from last year's red shirts.

-- Oh, and one more of my favorite aspects of today's signing day festivities: Jakar Hamilton's family.

Hamilton's oldest brother plays for the Carolina Panthers and another brother plays basketball at Gonzaga, so you'd think all this fanfare around signing day would be old hat for them. Instead, they were thrilled about the whole thing, soaking it in with Jakar, walking around the Coliseum and taking pictures with him... it was obvious how proud they were. Really nice to see.

-- Oh, right, I'm supposed to be writing about hoops. Well, we're at halftime, and it's 37-25 Georgia. Price leads the way with 11. Thompkins has 8 and Ware has 7. More after the break.

START OF SECOND HALF

I feel like a guy who is a mile short of finishing a marathon before twisting his ankle. I'm gonna have to call it a day from live blogging... Had to throw together a story during halftime and now due to some deadline issues, I've got to have my gamer done immediately after the horn for the hoops game.

I will, however, leave you with this great interview with Mark Fox from the Reno newspaper. (h/t Left to Right)

I'll have lots more signing day stuff tomorrow, and be sure to check the Telegraph for tonight's game story.

7 comments:

Dawg '85 said...

While flipping back and forth between Dawgs game, Hawks, and Jeopardy... the first image was Courtney dribbling upcourt... and I thought it was women's bball for a split second. Yeah I think my cable company charges me extra when I make the mental leap from Josh Smith to Alex Trebek.

Left to Right said...

Great interview with Fox from the Reno newspaper:

http://www.rgj.com/section/blogs16?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&U=cf54a7c3-6850-4148-9710-effa04ad5005&plckPostId=Blog%3acf54a7c3-6850-4148-9710-effa04ad5005Post%3af8496aca-0561-43a7-b209-6c030ee451cd&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

Dawg '85 said...

And the Jeopardy! judges just lowered my score... it's ALEC Trabek... and Merv Griffin is spinning in his grave... but that's another story...

Anonymous said...

zo, David kills the live blog and the game turns sour. Obviously, David is responsible. Maybe Felton, too.

Anonymous said...

I love the blog man. Keep up the good work.

I stumbled upon this online. Looks like the final coaching slot will be a DE coach.

http://www.insidehighered.com/career/seekers/search?post_id=105006&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed

Anonymous said...

David, I thought you would comment on the Unicycle girl and the bowls at halftime. That was spectacular.

Anonymous said...

Did you know that they actually still MAKE Bud Dry? I haven't seen it here in Georgia for years, but when we were loading in "supplies" at a grocery store in Shreveport for the Indy Bowl, we discovered it in abundance. I guess the people of Northwest Louisiana refused to give it up? Either way, we decided that we could pass up the opportunity, and bought a 12-pack. It was much less swill-ish than regular Bud or Bud Light. Not that that is really a ringing endorsement...