Car Modern 2011

I didn't see the recap from Mark Richt and Mark Fox's visit to the Macon Bulldog club yesterday morning. David Hale wrote a couple of detailed recaps. The piece in the Macon Telegraph focused on the basketball team, and the article on his blog covered both coaches.

One thing I found interesting about the articles was Coach Fox's comment that he's having more trouble this year than last year building a schedule because teams know we're going to be tougher.

I know Miami Hurricane's coach Frank Haith said a few weeks ago that he was trying to book UGA, Auburn or South Carolina for a home and home series. I also know Nevada, Colorado and Southern Cal are schools with quite a bit of scheduling flexibility that are looking for games.

The 2010-2011 hoops schedule should be pretty intriguing. So far, we only know about GT (Away), Saint Louis (Away), UAB (home) and the three games in Orlando for Thanksgiving.

PWD

...and it's not an on coming train. The Georgia Basketball team made Andy Katz's preseason Top 25. We debut at #25. This comes on the heels of Marcus Thornton's visit over the weekend.

When you look at the NBA early draft entrants across the SEC as well as the senior departures, it looks like 10 wins for Georgia is very possible. Arkansas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kentucky all took massive personnel hits while Georgia returns almost everyone and adds Williams and Brantley who could both make a meaningful impact on the team.

Marcus Thornton's four finalists for his signature are UGA, GT, Alabama and Texas. It's worth noting that only Georgia is ranked among those four teams heading into next year.

This is the most optimistic about basketball that I've been in 8 years.

PWD

Sherrard Brantley committed to play basketball for the University of Georgia last night. The 6'2" sophomore shooting guard from Northwest Florida C.C. announced the commitment on his Facebook page. Brantley picked UGA over LSU and Creighton. Spring signing period begins April 14th.

The remaining big fish for Coach Fox is Dwayne Polee of LA.

Additionally, the AJC had a pretty strong profile of Fox yesterday on the one year anniversary of his hiring. Here are some excerpt quotes:

"When I interviewed, I believed Georgia could be a place you could win. Now, after being here, I know you can win here."

The past year has affirmed, he said, what he perceived to be the advantages of the job: high quality of life, rich recruiting region, a strong and respected league, a supportive administration. And he believes the year brought enough success, including signature wins over Tennessee and Georgia Tech, to build upon, particularly in recruiting.

"We needed to create some momentum for our program and we needed to win a few games and we needed to establish credibility," Fox said. "I think people can see a future for our program. I think we have momentum. I think people see how our players have developed. I think there are a lot of positives we can use in recruiting."

I had a great conversation yesterday with someone that follows the program very closely. We were discussing whether or not Hewitt sticking around helps or hurts UGA given that he's such a dynamic recruiter.

During the conversation, I asked aloud..."I wonder if Hewitt will recruit so well now that there's finally a viable alternative in state? It's not like Felton was a viable option." There's so much upside to this program. It really excites me.

See Also:
-- Georgia gets hoops commitment -- AJC
-- Fox's first year on the job: Fast and Promising - AJC

PWD

Coach Fox last year was notoriously tight lipped about things in and around the program. Particularly when it came to scheduling. That's why it's so curious to me that he's openly discussing the possibility of playing UNC in some sort of home and home series starting next year. Maybe it's because it's recruiting season.

I know Roy Williams was going to throw former UNC alum Jeff Lebo a bone and come to Auburn to open the 2010-2011 season and the Tigers' new arena. I would assume that series is off with Lebo's termination. Maybe that's why the interest from the Tarheels? That and everyone wants more exposure in front of Georgia high school basketball players.

Getting the Heels in Athens next year with a newly renovated arena and *on paper* our best team in 6-7 years would be pretty exciting.

Marc Weiszer's article also indirectly confirms that there won't be a game at Gwinnett this year. That's not a shocker given the attendance in last year's game against Illinois.

Basketball Schedule 2010-2011:

Home:
UAB
Hawaii (rumored)

Neutral:
3 big games at the Old Spice Classic

Away:
Georgia Tech
Saint Louis

As we reported a few weeks ago, Georgia is looking for as many as 2 more home and 2 more away BCS caliber opponents for next season.

PWD

UGASports.com has an update on Sherrard Brantley's (JUCO shooting guard) official visit to Athens.

Per the article, it doesn't sound like his April 8th visit to Creighton is a done deal. If I'm a kid from Dublin, Ga., and I can get boat loads of playing time at LSU or UGA, then why would I consider going to Creighton to play in Omaha?

As for the scuttlebutt around this kid's recruitment...We heard a solid rumbling a few weeks ago that the coaching staff felt they had a JUCO shooting guard in their sights who could start for us next year. Thus, giving us the flexibility to play Robinson at PG. We've now heard that Brantley is that kid.

For all the crap that Dustin Ware gets on the message boards, he's a stable point guard for the type of system Fox runs. If we've got a personnel grouping that is strong enough to send Ware to back-up status, color me impressed.

As I stated last week, Brantley made 105 three point field goals in 31 regular season games for his JUCO team while shooting 43% from beyond the arc. As a point of comparison, Ricky McPhee and Dustin Ware (our two most frequent makers from beyond the arc) combined to make only 108 shots from downtown in 31 games. Ricky shot at a clip of 38.4% which was best on the team among those with more than 15 attempts.

In basketball, every recruit doesn't have to be a McDonald's All-American to win. But they all have to be very good at at least one thing. This kid is a shooter. He may be a lot more, but we at least know he can shoot from outside. And, that's a massive gap in the current line-up.

See Also:
-- Fox waiting on Thompkins - ABH
-- Fox discusses Thompkins' process - AJC

PWD

Rumors of Polee committing to UNLV this week were overblown. He told the Las Vegas Sun last night that he's about two weeks away from committing, and his final schools are Oregon, UNLV, UGA and New Mexico. The four-star, 6'7" highlight reel has officially visited Athens already. (Ht - CedarDawg)

PWD

Donte Williams returned from his visit to Athens over the weekend, pondered his future and gave Mark Fox confirmation that he'll be a Georgia Bulldog next season.

Sites differ on his offer list pre- and post-Jeff Lebo's termination at Auburn, but it looks like he had offers from UGA, Auburn, UAB and a variety of other mid-majors. Over the weekend, we listed 5 Reasons Why Donte Williams is a good commit for Mark Fox.

PWD

Sherrard Brantley is a 6'2" 170 lb freshman shooting guard at Northwest Florida Community College. The former Dublin, GA native is holding offers from Georgia, LSU and a variety of mid-majors. I'm pretty sure the video above is from his senior year in Dublin. According to the TheBlueJayCafe.com (Creighton site), Brantley is at LSU this weekend, UGA next weekend and Creighton the following weekend.

According to TigerBait.com this is why UGA and LSU are interested in the kid

Brantley, who helped Dublin (Ga.) to the Class 2A state championship as a senior, enrolled at Northwest Florida last fall after failing to qualify academically. He would have three years of eligibility remaining with whatever Division I school he signs with.

Brantley, who has played in all of his team's 31 games, has shot 42.4 percent from two-point range and 78 percent from the free throw line.

But the true eye-opener with Brantley is his presence from the perimeter with his 43-percent shooting from the 3-point land with 105 makes on 246 attempts. (Emphasis added)

If Trey Thompkins comes back next season and Gerald Robinson, Jr. is the combo guard he's billed to be, Georgia will take a nice healthy step forward. The type of season where you make the NCAAs as a low at-large seed.

However, if Georgia adds a legitimate starter at the Shooting Guard or Small Forward position, it has the potential to take a huge leap forward. The candidate to give us some big time minutes at Small Forward is Dwayne Polee out of Los Angeles. If Travis Leslie improves his handle, he could move to the two guard spot with Gerald Robinson taking over at point guard.

But even in that scenario, Georgia still will need a bomber to replace Ricky McPhee and bust open the suffocating zones that Trey Thompkins will face every week. A kid that can hit 40% from three point land at the two guard spot is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Sign them both, and you've really got something potentially. That would give us a primary rotation of:

PG - Robinson / Ware
SG - Brantley / Robinson / Leslie
SF - Leslie / Polee / Ebuka
PF - Thompkins / Barnes / Lalanne
C - Price / Thompkins / Barnes

By the way, Mark Fox has an exceptional story to tell JUCO recruits. Fox played JUCO ball, and graduated from Garden City Community College before getting his bachelor's degree. Assistant Coach Kwanza Johnson also graduated from junior college before playing for Tulsa and going on to get a Law Degree. They respect the JUCO game, and their story resonates with JUCO players.

It's also tougher for the admissions committee to give Fox a tough time about JUCOs when Georgia is paying a JUCO grad over a $1 million to teach on campus.

See Also:
-- Fox's eye for talent - AJC

PWD

Per UGASports.com and DawgPost.com, Donte Williams (2010 class) is on his official visit to Athens this weekend. He's a 6'9"+ long, rangy kid with a raw offensive game, and good defensive quickness/instincts. He plays at Miller Grove High School (DeKalb County) with 2011 Top 150 recruit Henry Brooks and 2012 alpha male recruit Tony Parker.

His other offers include Auburn and several mid-major programs. Georgia is out in front on Williams per the sites above. Here's why we should sign him:

1. We're down to 8 scholarship players right now. Nine including signee Cady Lalanne (PF).

2. We have the scholarship flexibility to take a project. We have 8 open scholarships (including Lalanne) to give over the next two seasons and possibly nine if Travis leaves. We have never in our history signed 9 legit high-major recruits in a two year period. It's not like the next Michael Jordan was going to use this scholarship.

3. Can he really be worse than Drazen? Therefore, signing him won't send us backwards.

4. He's at an elite HS program with multiple quality teammates in one of the better basketball counties within a 200 mile radius. We need a pipeline in that area.

5. Fox put several unknown recruits into the NBA. He's got an eye for this exact type of scenario. This isn't Dennis Felton with zero track record in this area bumbling into signing Troy Brewer...who's other offer was from a Baltimore Church League. This guy has a good track record with unknown signees.

We lose Thompkins, Barnes and Price in the next two seasons. We need some big men on campus.

PWD