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.