Player Profile: Nemanja Djurisic

Previously:  J.J. Frazier 
Previously:  Osahen Iduwe 
Previously:  Cameron Forte 
Previously:  Kenny Paul Geno 
Previously:  Houston Kessler 
Previously:  Dusan Langura 
Previously:  Brandon Young 

Nemanja Djurisic

Height:  6'8"
Weight:  230
Position: F
Year:  Senior
Role:  Big Smooth

Overview:  Today, we finally preview a senior.  Nemi Djurisic was a spring signing that turned out A-OK, and that's not always the case.

His game has always been raw, but he has shown potential from early in his freshman season.  It has been fun watching him grow and improve, and there's no reason it can't pay off with a big senior season.

Nemi can do a little bit of everything.  He flashes occasional moves in the post.  He can be a tricky passer.  He has developed into a deadly 3-point shooter.  He'll even show some nifty dribbling moves on occasion if you keep your eye on him when he's inbounding the ball.

Nemi can also frustrate at times.  He is not great at creating his own shot, so defenses can take him out of games.  He also tends to set up very deep, though he mitigated that last season to some extent by hitting those deep shots.  Also, if his post moves aren't decisive enough, he tends to turn the ball over more than he should.

Expectations:  Nemi's numbers may not be gaudy when it's all said and done, but that is probably ok.  The senior needs to be a steadying influence willing to take and make some big shots when called upon.  More than once last year, as things started to spiral downward during games, it was Nemi stepping up and hitting a huge 3, or getting to the line, or finding an open man.  Most nights, Djurisic won't have to carry the scoring load, but there will be games where he'll be leaned on.  We've seen steady improvement out of him every year, and it's not unreasonable to expect more of the same.

The loss of Brandon Morris also means more open minutes at both forward positions.  Expect to see Djurisic eat up a lot of those.

Areas for Improvement:  Nemi needs to get better at creating his own shot, either by running himself open, or by beating opponents off the dribble.  He was absolutely deadly when set last season, and there's no reason to expect that to change, but it's not a coincidence that his shot attempts dropped as the year went on.  Teams began to game plan around his distance shooting, and Nemi didn't have much of an answer (and, to be fair, a foot injury may have played a part as well).

His defense may need to tick up a notch as well.  Defending effectively at both forward positions is no small task, and it requires a good mix of quickness and strength.  I do believe the talent is there, though.

Thing I Learned About Nemi From GeorgiaDogs.com:  His favorite beverage is Coca-Cola.  God bless you, Nemi.  We can go out drinking together anytime.

2014-15 Stats I Could Get Excited About:  8.1/4.1/1.2 points/rebounds/assists per game.

Let's go Nemi, and let's go Dawgs!

Friday musings

A few things floating around in my head as the weekend approaches:

1. Can Cameron Forte or Kenny Paul Geno improve enough to soften the blow of Brandon Morris' dismissal?
2. Are the freshmen going to play well enough to take some pressure off of Marcus Thornton at center?
3. Can Juwan Parker shoot like a SG and defend like a SF?
4. Is Charles Mann working on that jump shot?
5. Is Kenny Gaines ready to assert himself as one of the best scorers in the SEC?

We need at least two or three of those questions to be answered in the affirmative.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

A modicum of respect

Sorry for the light posting.  I've been traveling a bit for work.

Interesting to come home to something like this:

14-15 SEC Preseason Power Rankings 1. Kentucky 2. Florida 3. Georgia 4. LSU 5. Arkansas 6. Texas A & M 7. Ole Miss 8. South Carolina 9. Bama
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 21, 2014

Interesting, but not surprising.  Third seems right, and while I don't believe the gap between Georgia and Florida is as large as many people do, there is still a very real gap.

Also...South Carolina 8?

Enjoy your weekend

SEC media days has sucked the wind out of any basketball news this week, which is good considering the news Georgia has been dealing with.

So, instead of getting all serious, let's spend the weekend watching this video:

The following things are worth remembering:

• Georgia was occasionally clutch last year
• J.J. Frazier can really shoot
• Kenny Gaines can really defend
• Marshall Henderson lost to Georgia twice this calendar year

Have a great weekend.

Excuses, ranked

One knock against Mark Fox is that he always seems to have an excuse for why the team didn't make the NCAA tournament.  With news of Brandon Morris' dismissal from the team, many are probably left wondering if that will be 2015's excuse.

Along those lines, here are Mark Fox's excuses for missing the NCAA Tournament, ranked:

1. 2011-12:  Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie leaving for the NBA.  In retrospect, Thompkins and Leslie weren't ready to make the jump.  That's what makes this hurt even more.  Georgia is easily a top 25 team if they both come back...maybe even top 15 (yes, really).  Even if only Leslie returns, they're probably a fringe top 25 team and an NCAA lock.  This excuse was totally valid.
2. 2009-10:  New coach, no depth.  The cupboard wasn't necessarily empty when Fox took over, but it was certainly thin.  This team had nice pieces like Trey Thompkins, Travis Leslie, and Jeremy Price.  It also had effective role players like Dustin Ware, Albert Jackson, and Chris Barnes.    But can you guess who led this team in minutes played?  Ricky McPhee!  If you guessed that, take a little something from petty cash, because I sure wouldn't have.  The starting 5 on this team showed flashes of near-brilliance, but the depth was very suspect.  This excuse was valid.
3. 2012-13:  Young team.  This was absolutely a young team.  Of the 11 guys who played significant minutes, 7 were true freshmen and sophomores.  Young or not, though, Fox had a sophomore Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (SEC player of the year).  There were a number of head-scratching losses - Youngstown State, Iona, Mississippi State.  There was also some bad luck (remember KCP dribbling a ball off his foot?).  Add it all up and you get a team that could have finished on the bubble instead wrapping the season below .500 with an RPI of #127.  This excuse was probably valid...but could have been overcome.
4. 2014-15:  No Brandon Morris (pending).  So here we go.  As of a week ago, the absolute worst-case scenario for this team should have been bubble contention.  Despite being thin in the post, the group is veteran all over and even deep at both guard spots.  Some poor decision making by our starting small forward may have changed that.
   
   In a previous post, I said this:
   

   I haven't reached my Brandon Morris preview yet, and I don't have him slotted as the most important player for Georgia this year, but he may end up being the key to a successful season at Stegeman.  The stronger Morris is around the basket, the better the results are going to look for the Dawgs.

   The idea was that a more mature Brandon Morris would not only slot in nicely as a SF, but would help compensate for some of the lack of depth in the post due to his size and athleticism.
   
   Morris is gone, but this team still can - no should - contend for an at-large NCAA tournament berth.  The SEC is still way down, and Fox has plenty left to work with.  If we're hearing this excuse in 8 months, it's baloney.
5. 2013-14:  Learning to play without KCP.  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope bolted for the NBA, and it caught very few by surprise.  Surely Mark Fox knew it was coming.  Why, then, did the team look so unprepared in non-conference play?  After a sneaky-nice home opener win over Wofford, the wheels came off.  In gut-wrenching losses to Davidson, Temple, and Nebraska, Fox just couldn't settle on a rotation and it showed.  There was a direct correlation between guys like Mann, Gaines, Thornton, and Morris getting more minutes and the winning that happened in conference play.
   
   If this team had won 2 out of 3 in Charleston and erased an inexplicable loss to Vanderbilt at Stegeman, odds are good they're in the tournament.  This excuse is no excuse at all.  The team should have been dancing.

Player Profile: J.J. Frazier

Previously:  Osahen Iduwe 
Previously:  Cameron Forte 
Previously:  Kenny Paul Geno 
Previously:  Houston Kessler 
Previously:  Dusan Langura 
Previously:  Brandon Young 

J.J. Frazier

Photo Credit:  AJC

Height:  5'10"
Weight:  150
Position:  PG
Year:  Sophomore
Role:  Spark Plug

Overview:  J.J. Frazier's offseason didn't get off to a great start.  However, in light of recent events, we'll take an arrest for minor traffic charges any day of the week.

His freshman season, on the other hand, went quite well.  Frazier, despite being considered by some the best point guard in the state of Georgia, was fairly lightly recruited out of Faith Baptist Christian.  His size (likely exaggerated in the official listing) is probably the primary reason.  There is no way around it:  he's really small.

Despite that, Frazier was a pleasant surprise by the end of last season.  Early in the year, Taylor Echols was often first off the bench (or in the starting lineup) in relief of Charles Mann, but J.J.'s ability to run the offense steadily improved, and by the end of the year, he had almost entirely supplanted Echols in the rotation.  He also showed, in late games against Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Louisiana Tech, an ability to score in bunches.  His final 3-point % of 32.4 includes a 4/23 start to the season, so hopefully that number is a tad misleading.

Any commentary on Frazier's game seems to start with his height, but it's not something that concerns me.  If you've made it to the level he has, you've learned to play with the body God gave you.  Does it limit some of what he can do?  Sure, especially defensively.  But I'll take talent and tenacity over size in a backup point guard any day.

Expectations:  Here are J.J.'s minutes played numbers for the last 10 games of the season:  18, 9, 8, 18, 9, 21, 21, 16, 17, and 17.  He clearly earned Mark Fox's trust, and he'll definitely be first off the bench when Charles Mann heads for the pine.  That could be fairly often, too, considering Mann's aggressiveness and propensity for charging fouls (not necessarily a bad thing, mind you).

The release of Morris may even see Frazier playing some shooting guard if Georgia is forced to go smaller.  In that case, I'm anxious to see what he can do as more of a spot-up shooter.  If the offense can get him looks, he will likely knock them down.
In the end, I suspect J.J. Frazier will be in the running for "most improved" Georgia Bulldog.  If there is even a slight uptick from what he gave Georgia in those last 10 games, that's great news for the Dawgs.

Areas for Improvement:  First, if the assists edged up ever so slightly and the turnovers remained steady, that would be wonderful.

Second,the more J.J. can get in the gym this summer and shoot, shoot, shoot, the better.  If you haven't figured this out about me by now, I'm a big believer in the college 3-point shooter.  It's not my favorite feature of the game, but it's a necessity.  Georgia has struggled to score under Mark Fox, and the more shooters there are knocking down outside shots, the easier it will be to turn that corner.  Hitting threes creates space all over the court.

Thing I Learned About J.J. From GeorgiaDogs.com:  He plays the piano.  Kenny Gaines also plays the piano.  Thus, until I see a video of he and Kenny playing the Chopsticks duet together, my life will not be complete.  Huge bonus points if it is on a piano mat.  Let's make this happen.

2014-15 Stats I Could Get Excited About:  6.5/1.1/2.3 points/rebounds/assists per game.
Let's go J.J., and let's go Dawgs!

Morris dismissed

Brandon Morris is gone.

Keep your phone on, Brandon.  I'm sure Bruce Pearl will be calling.

h/t Seth Emerson

Player Profile: delayed

Today's player profile will be a tad delayed due to recent events.  The guy who I had as my 9th most impactful player just rocketed up the scale thanks to Brandon Morris and his big weekend adventure.

I'll give you some hints.  He's a freshman, he's from Michigan, and he just became a lot more important to Georgia's season.

The write-up on my new 9th most impactful player will be posted sometime this afternoon.

Brandon Morris ruins a nice offseason

This is not good.  But it sure had been a nice offseason until today, right?

Fox dropped hints about Brandon Morris' maturity last year after benching him for a few games.  Looks like there may be more maturing that needs to happen.

First, to state the obvious, this is not good for Brandon Morris.  Not many details have been released, but any day that ends with you being found with enough drugs to earn an "intent to distribute" charge is not a good one.

Second, this is not good for Georgia's depth chart.  I mentioned in a previous post that, if a few things fell Mark Fox's way, Georgia could be a team with real depth heading into the 2015 season.  What I didn't say, and what was probably understood, is that Georgia does not have great depth right now.

We will have to wait and see how everything shakes out, but even if Morris stays on the team, he likely won't be available until SEC play.  There are options at the 3 and the 4 (the spots you'd be most likely to find Morris on the court), but his raw athleticism and some of the unique things he brings to the court (an ability, in a pinch, to bring the ball up the court and run the offense, for example) will be tough to replicate during any sort of suspension.

h/t Seth Emerson

Preseason NIT scheduling

The Preseason NIT may have a problem.  If a couple of the host schools - who each host two games before moving on to Madison Square Garden if they win both - lose at home, the tournament field may not be big enough to compensate.

Not that Georgia would ever lose two layup games in a preseason tournament, but all possibilities have to be considered.

It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, this has on Georgia's home schedule.

h/t ESPN

Will Jackson: time to wildly speculate!

To say the commitment of point guard Will "Turtle" Jackson to play his basketball at Georgia yesterday was surprising might be an understatement.  Even more surprising is the position it puts Mark Fox in:  perhaps having to turn away a very good player who wants to come to Athens.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Before yesterday, most with any insider knowledge (and I am not one of those) thought Georgia had a decent chance with three elite class of 2015 prospects (all star ratings taken from Scout.com):

• Jaylen Brown - 5* - Shooting Guard
• Tevin Mack - 4* - Small Forward
• Malik Beasley - 4* - Point Guard

Brown remains a bit of a long shot, but has Georgia on his short list.  If he says he wants to come, Georgia will make room.  Period.

Mack and Beasley have long been considered strong Georgia leans.  You'll notice, though, that Beasley is listed as a point guard.  Some services have him listed as a shooting guard, but he is on the smallish end a la Kenny Gaines.

Georgia now has two scholarships remaining for the class of 2015.  Those will be freed up by the departure of Marcus Thornton and Nemi Djurisic.  With that in mind, let's assume Mack and Beasley commit to Georgia and project a 2015 depth chart:

PG:  Charles Mann, Will Jackson, Malik Beasley, J.J. Frazier
SG:  Kenny Gaines, Juwan Parker, Dusan Langura
SF:  Brandon Morris, Tevin Mack, Kenny Paul Geno
PF:  Yante Maten, Cameron Forte, Houston Kessler
C:  Osahen Iduwe, Yante Maten

When I look at that, two positions look really thin:  shooting guard (pending the development of Juwan Parker) and center.  If Jaylen Brown were to commit, of course, that would immediately solve the depth problem at shooting guard.

So what is Georgia to do?  I see a few options:

1. If all three commit, you're forced into some roster management.  One option is to push Kessler back into preferred walk-on status.  That frees up the scholarship, but the Kessler name makes this a dangerous PR move.  More likely, we'd see at least one transfer.  A guy like J.J. Frazier may no longer like how the depth chart looks and choose to play somewhere else.  The bottom line is this:  if all three want to come to Georgia, Mark Fox will make room.
2. If Beasley wavers because of the commitment of Jackson, Fox may try to convince him he's a shooting guard, a position with a lot thinner depth in Athens.  Look back at the depth chart above but move Beasley to SG...looks nice, right?
3. If only two out of three commit, there may still be some roster management necessary as Georgia could use another big body in the post.  Daniel Giddens is off the table, so this probably wouldn't be a splashy recruit, but that's ok.  Center is dangerously thin, so a guy like John Florveus who can eat some minutes may have to do.
4. If only one commits, Fox better hope it's Jaylen Brown, or else the muttering about his inability to close will gather steam yet again.

Stop and think about where Mark Fox and the Georgia Bulldogs find themselves today.  Against all odds, Fox closed on the exact two guys he needed to close on for the 2014 class.  If he repeats that performance and closes on any two of the above players in 2015 (and keeping in mind that college basketball is a guard-heavy game), he will have a roster capable of playing for an SEC championship.

For now, at least, there is hope in Athens.

Will Jackson switches to Georgia

Athens Christian guard William "Turtle" Jackson has switched his commitment from defending National Champion UConn to the University of Georgia.  Depth chart concerns likely spurred the change.

More on what it means later, but Will is almost certainly the biggest get for Mark Fox since KCP came to Athens.  He is rated as a 4-star prospect on most recruiting sites.

Congratulations to the staff, and welcome to the Dawg Nation, Will.  We're excited to have you!

Taking stock

Mr. Sanchez takes one last look at the basketball team before the bright lights of football make all of us most of us forget about the hardwood for a while.  There is a lot of information in there, and I'd encourage a full read-through.

His conclusion?  It's Kentucky, Florida, and everyone else.  That's hard to disagree with.  The good news is, Georgia has a real chance to be on top of the "everyone else" pile, and that would have to be considered success in Athens right now.

One of the things that stood out to me:

Both Morris and Geno are strong athletes and with improvements in their game could become very useful tools on both ends of the floor.  If either can show a good scoring touch, prospects for this team improve considerably.

I haven't reached my Brandon Morris preview yet, and I don't have him slotted as the most important player for Georgia this year, but he may end up being the key to a successful season at Stegeman.  The stronger Morris is around the basket, the better the results are going to look for the Dawgs.  Add a jumper?  Then he gets downright scary.

Another:

Marcus Thornton made great strides getting finally healthy last season, leading the team in rebounding and blocked shots inside.  Having a summer to work on his body instead of rehab it, and finally found a permanent position in the paint, I expect a good year from our only other senior on the roster.

Thornton had a really, really nice campaign last year, and it came on the heels of multiple seasons of rehab.  The above point is a great one:  he has a position, he has his health, and he has momentum.  Even marginal improvement gives Georgia one of the best post options in the conference, and that's exciting.

Finally:

So there we go, Georgia looks solid with veterans but nothing special.

I'm a card-carrying Disney Dawg, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think this team could end up special after all.  National Championship?  Of course not.  SEC Championship?  Highly unlikely.  But if they won 20+ games, knocked off Florida in Athens, and went dancing, would you call that special?  I would, and I think the potential is there.  It's up to Fox to tap it.

h/t Mr. Sanchez

Butts in the seats

Mark Fox wants the Gators in Stegeman every year.  And he should.

He beats around the bush a bit:

“Those are the games that our fans will traditionally come out and see,” Fox said. “To not have any of those games at home, that’s an issue that all teams run into. Maybe with more partners that you play every year you can avoid some of that.”

What he's actually trying to say is, hey, we get 3,000-4,000 more fannies in the arena for that game, and we desperately need that.  The fact that it's either an OK loss or a great win is icing on the cake.

I've said on this blog that I think (and hope) the Gators will be one of the Dawgs' new permanent opponents.  Quite frankly, almost every team in the league is hoping to draw Florida or Kentucky, so Georgia isn't alone there.  Fortunately, there is some tradition that may give us the edge.

h/t Nicole Saavedra