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Friday, January 7, 2011

This and that: Recruiting, hoops, pro guys

A smorgasboard of information, notes, links and all that good stuff for your Friday morning:

- A day after cutting ties with one receiver recruit, Georgia replaced him with another, Lee County High School's Sanford Seay.

(Zach Witchett, who had been committed to Georgia since the summer, had his scholarship offer revoked when the Bulldogs decided to go in a different direction.)

Seay may not be a "big-name" recruit, but he helps depth-wise. He's also the first Lee County High School player to commit to play football at Georgia. (That high school, by the way, is the alma mater of reigning National League Rookie of the Year Buster Posey.)

Meanwhile, all the recruiting web sites, including this one, are reporting that Mark Richt and several assistants spent Thursday with junior college nose tackle John Jenkins. He's still officially committed to Oklahoma State, but Richt and Todd Grantham have made clear they want/need a physical nose tackle, so they're putting on the full court press.

- We interrupt your recruiting news to report there's a pretty big basketball game on Saturday. Georgia opens SEC play with a team named Kentucky, which is supposed to be pretty good.

Here's my breakdown of in Friday's paper on the NCAA tournament chances of each team as SEC play opens. It could be another rough year for the SEC, which is top-heavy with teams like Kentucky and other East teams, while the West is terrible. That will help Georgia in its NCAA tournament hopes if it can get some wins against division foes ... like Kentucky.

But speaking to Bulldogs head coach Mark Fox and players on Thursday, they want to avoid using this game as a be-all and end-all for their season.

- Speaking of Kentucky, there's a chance - but only a small one - that it could get a huge addition in time for Saturday's game. Center Enes Kanter, whom the NCAA ruled permanently ineligible for accepting money in Europe, is expected to get a ruling on his appeal on Friday.

Even if the NCAA relents, and that's not considered likely, it's hard to foresee Kanter suiting up at Stegeman. But with John Calipari, you never know.

- Finally, an update on Georgia's juniors considering going pro. Here's what I know as of Friday at (looking at watch) 8:56 a.m.:

- Brandon Boykin tweeted on Thursday night that he hadn't made any decision.

- A.J. Green and Justin Houston's high school coaches each said they hadn't seen their former players and weren't aware of any decisions.

- The official deadline to declare is January 15, while the unofficial deadline is Monday or Tuesday, the start of classes at UGA.

Meanwhile, Andrew Luck is staying in college, Arkansas' Ryan Mallett is declaring, as are Alabama's Mark Ingram and Marcell Dareus.

So it leads you to wonder what's taking the Georgia guys so long, especially Green, who has seemed a foregone conclusion. And the decision by Luck enhances the chances that Green could go No. 1 overall, or close behind.

I suspect a Green announcement is coming soon, while the others may just be legitimately torn.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not getting too overly excited about the game with Kentucky because I think they will bring us back to reality. Lets face it UGA hoops havent been too impressive against these Mickey Mouse schools so far. just saying.....

DawgInVA25 said...

Getting Jenkins could be huge. Hopefully the "full court press" will actually work this time. As for hoops, I am with Anonymous, I really want to believe in our boys, but not until we beat a quality team.