For such a time as this

You may assume otherwise because of this blog, but I am a huge Georgia football fan as well.  From kickoff to final whistle, you would be hard pressed to find someone more invested.  This past Saturday left me as disappointed as many of you surely were.  It got me to thinking, though - does Georgia basketball have a window?

If you choose to be intellectually honest, you probably didn't expect a national championship out of the football team this year.  There was way too much attrition on the defense, and the offense lost one of the best quarterbacks to ever strap it up between the hedges.  The end result is probably going to be a good-not-great season that ratchets up expectations for 2015.

So here we have the basketball team - forever the step-child of UGA athletics.  Expectations are modest, but higher than we're accustomed to.  The team is experienced and should be primed for at least two consecutive tournament runs.  Mark Fox seems to have gotten the message on recruiting and is starting to get some real talent committed to the G.

In a healthy athletic department, football and basketball should feed off of one another.  There's no rule that you can only be good at one or the other.  A challenging (but manageable) non-conference schedule means the Dawgs have a real shot at creating some buzz before SEC play rolls around.

If the football team beats Kentucky, that creates a monster matchup in Athens against Auburn on 11/15.  You know what happens the night before?  Georgia vs. Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

Wouldn't it be nice if some of the tailgate conversation was, "Hey, did you see what the basketball team did to the Jackets last night?"  Fox and company have a chance, right off the bat, to convince folks that they are worth watching.

Slow starts in non-conference play have dogged Mark Fox since he got to Athens.  If he's going to change that narrative, now would be a good time to do so.  A 4-0 start heading into the game with Gonzaga would surely turn some heads - and some of them might even be in Athens.