Oakland: post mortem

That was a fun game.  Nerve-wracking?  You bet.  Even more so because of its importance to Georgia.  A loss to Oakland may very well have been a "bad" loss on a tournament resume, so consider that a bullet dodged.

But really, that was fun.  Those boys from Oakland can score, and defense would appear to be optional:

• It's not often you survive a 3-point barrage the likes of which Max Hooper put on Georgia last night.  The 7 makes matches his career high.  And just for perspective, that was a career high for a kid who pretty much exclusively shoots 3's.  He has taken 281 shots in his career.  270 were 3-pointers.
• Then there's Kahlil Felder.  And Jalen Hayes.  And Percy Gibson.
• Oakland deserves a lot of credit.  They played at 100 mph, and they were always ready with a big shot when it looked like Georgia might pull away.  Georgia's biggest lead of the night was the final margin: 4.
• Jalen Hayes was like John Brown, part 2.  Yante Maten was the only one with a prayer of guarding him, and he even made Yante look silly a time or two.
• But Yante definitely got his.  He's given Georgia everything they could ask for in the past two games, and yet he has so much room to improve.  Remember: he's just a sophomore.
• Oh, and he's shooting 78% at the free throw line.  You know that gets me excited.
• A solid performance at the line overall thanks to the team going 6/6 down the stretch.  That's how you close a game.
• After a Femi Olujobi foul in the first half, a frustrated Coach Kampe (who apparently forgot to pack the top half of his suit) yelled quite loudly, "32 can't score!"
• 32 is Mike Edwards, and he finished with 14 points.  Give the kid credit, he's been thrown into the deep end and he's learning on the fly.  Extra credit for the breakaway dunk.  His angle didn't look great and the defender was there and then boom he just threw it down.  Incredibly athletic.
• If Edwards isn't starting in place of Houston Kessler this Friday, Fox is seeing something I'm not.  The Kessler family is full of great Dawgs, but the gentleman next to me put it best after one of his many defensive lapses: "He's just not D-1."
• Georgia ceded 13 offensive rebounds again.  Still too many.  I'm more and more anxious to see Ogbeide.  I hope he helps cut that number down a bit.
• Our post defenders are leaving their feet too often.  Edwards and Kessler are particularly guilty here, and it's leading to a lot of fouls and three point plays.
• Welcome back, J.J. Frazier.  23/4/6 with 1 turnover.  That's winning basketball.
• And doesn't this team look better when they run?  Frazier led some masterful breaks last night, and while some credit has to go to Oakland's atrocious defense, ad libbing led to some pretty good looks.  Meanwhile, the half-court sets continue to bog down.  Fox may have to loosen the reins a bit.

Let's credit Georgia for playing well on a tough night.  Coach Fox remarked in the postgame presser that they were all shaken up over what happened to Coach Richt, and that makes sense.  The crowd was incredibly sparse (non-conference Tuesday night game after the head football coach is fired is not a recipe for huge crowds) and the opponent was game.  Despite all of that, they got a big win.

Next up is a good Kansas State team.  We are going to learn a lot about these guys Friday night.  If you can make it to Athens, do so.  These kids deserve our support.

Oakland: gut feeling

My gut says Derek Ogbeide gets a few minutes in this game.

My gut says Kenny Paul Geno has cooled off a bit since the trip to New Jersey, but I also don't think it was fluky.  His shot looks pure right now.

My gut says J.J. Frazier finally hits a few bombs tonight.  That would certainly be nice.

My gut says we see more zone defense tonight as Fox tries to adjust to the new officiating landscape.

My gut says Oakland wins the game with some good outside shooting.  I haven't seen enough from Georgia yet to feel confident about this one.  I sure hope I'm wrong.

Seton Hall: post mortem

That's a tough loss, but it won't go down as a bad loss.  This Seton Hall team isn't going to light the Big East on fire necessarily, but they also won't melt down like last year's version.  That would have been a great road win, but if Mark Fox can bring that same team home with him, there's a chance to win every remaining non-conference game on the schedule:

• Tonight you saw what Yante Maten can be.  Eventually, the shots were going to start falling.
• The Charles Mann roller coaster continues.
• Kenny Gaines only took 10 shots.  That's just not enough for the team's best scorer.  And yes, Seton Hall had something to do with that, but Fox has to find a way to get him more chances.
• Kenny Paul Geno: where did that come from?  If he can start hitting that long jumper consistently he becomes a surprise weapon for the Bulldogs.
• Where was this game lost?  The 13 turnovers weren't great, but Seton Hall's 13 offensive rebounds were killer.  Houston Kessler was handled on the boards all night.  Unfortunately, Fox doesn't have an answer until Ogbeide is healthy.  I sure hope the kid can clean the glass...
• Isaiah Whitehead is talented, but not always smart.  Two of the biggest daggers in the game were shots he never should have taken: the long three late in the first half and the long three late in the game.
• And since when is raking a guy across the face not a foul?
• But really, we'll just say Kenny Paul Geno's armbar evened that one out...
• The officiating was infuriating, and not necessarily because it was bad.  It was just totally inconsistent.  There were 41 fouls called in the game (a fine amount), but at least 30 of them were in the second half.  It's not fair to the players to officiate the first half one way, then come out and officiate the second half completely differently.
• And before I get off the officials, that offensive foul against Charles Mann was baaaaad...
• Ok, one more comment: Seton Hall took 9 more free throws than Georgia, but that's because they pushed the ball into the paint.  Georgia hasn't all year, and they didn't again tonight.
• Whitehead was the leading scorer, but Khadeen Carrington won that game.  He hit difficult shot after difficult shot at critical times in the game.  Impressive.
• And if those 4 sophomores stick around for another year, look out.
• E'Torrion Wilridge disappeared again.  Mike Edwards was over-matched again.  It's going to take time with these freshman.
• J.J. Frazier is ice cold.  The three that could have tied it late looked money, and I'd let him take it again and again.  He'll find his stroke soon enough.
• Maybe Fox should have gone to that zone earlier.   It had the Pirates flustered.
• I confess, I normally hate play-by-play guys and color commentators, but I really liked Donny Marshall!  That was a pleasant surprise.

So where do we go from here?  The problems Fox needs to fix seem obvious.  First and foremost, Georgia needs to rebound better.  They were outshot by 8 in this game (and by 9 at the free throw line).  That just can't keep happening.

If Yante Maten keeps playing like he played tonight, that will help.  It can't be all Kenny Gaines.  This team needs another scorer (or two) to emerge.

Next up is a scary Oakland team.  If Georgia can run off 6 straight wins in the non-conference, things will be looking downright rosy heading into conference play.  Lose one or two, and you can probably forget about a return to the NCAA tournament.  The fact that one seems just as likely as the other tells you all you need to know about these Bulldogs.

High Point: post mortem

Well, that happened.

It's hard to know how to feel about this team right now.  Take the fact that Mark Fox teams always seem to start slow, add in the loss of veterans Marcus Thornton and Nemi Djurisic, then mix in the loss of two potential starters to injury before the season even begins and you have a recipe for disaster.  But "disaster" is a kind word for what we saw Wednesday night:

• We have to start with Charles Mann going 8-8 from the FT line, and the team going 17-20.  That won the game, and High Point's 7-17 performance lost it for them.  It was nice to experience the other side of that coin for once.
• It could have been even better.  Two of the misses were by Kenny Gaines and J.J. Frazier.
• Gaines only took 8 shots.  That's not even close to enough considering he's the only Bulldog who can put the ball in the basket right now.
• E'Torrion Wilridge showed a little more aggression, at least in the first half.  I liked it.  8 rebounds too.
• Kenny Paul Geno missed two bunnies.  Houston Kessler was a defensive liability for most of the night.  Those two have to play better, or we have to hope Ogbeide and Wilridge start taking their minutes very soon.
• 15 offensive rebounds for High Point.  That's 2 out of 3 games in which Georgia has rebounded very poorly.  Mark Fox teams win when they defend and rebound, so that's not a good sign.  Derek Ogbeide hasn't even taken the court and there's already real pressure on the young man.
• High Point attempted 20 more shots than Georgia.  Through three games, Georgia has been out-shot by their opponents 189-149.  Yikes.
• Georgia had 16 turnovers and 13 made baskets.  Through three games, Georgia has made 56 field goals and turned it over 47 times.  Amazing.
• J.J. Frazier had 8 rebounds!  Need to get him shooting better, but that ain't too shabby.
• From the start, it looked like it was going to be Georgia's night.  John Brown's first foul came mere seconds into the game.  Him being stuck on the bench contributed to Georgia's big first half lead and was a major factor in the Bulldogs' win.
• I say that because John Brown is probably going to be playing in the NBA next year.  Once Yante Maten was gone, there wasn't a person in Stegeman who could have guarded him.  If I see High Point on TV, I'll stop just to watch him play.
• Some ridiculous calls on Yante, too.  With that said, the refs probably would have called it the other way as well if we could have gotten the ball inside.  And with John Brown on the bench, Maten could have and should have had his way inside.  The refusal and/or inability to feed the post was maddening.
• Mike Edwards, on the other hand, was completely over-matched.  That was a redshirt senior bound for the NBA up against a true freshman and it showed.
• Sincere congratulations to Osahen Iduwe on his first collegiate point.  Here's to many more.

Georgia is 2-1.  What does that mean?  I have no idea.  On one hand, we're a hot Kenny Gaines and a cold High Point team away from 0-3.  On the other, we're a couple made free throws away from 3-0.

Next up is a Seton Hall team that just knocked off Ole Miss and shut down Stefan Moody.  If Gaines is the only Dawg that makes the trip, 2-2 is a certainty.

High Point: gut feeling

My gut says High Point's John Brown throws down at least once during this game.  As long as Georgia wins, I'll enjoy it.

My gut says this is a good matchup for Georgia.  High Point doesn't shoot threes in high volumes, so a zone defense could be effective and help keep the Dawgs out of foul trouble.

My gut says Charles Mann and Yante Maten will score more than 9 combined points tonight.

My gut says this is going to be a small crowd.  Ok, that's as much common sense as it is my gut.

My gut says this game is close for a half, but that Georgia pulls away for a double-digit win.

Murray State: post mortem

You win some, you lose some, and Kenny Gaines puts you on his back and drags you to victory in some.  It's clearly not a sustainable strategy, but it was good for at least one night:

• If there was any doubt who the best player on the Georgia roster is, that doubt was erased against Murray State.  The combination of explosive offense and suffocating defense you get out of Kenny Gaines is unmatched in the locker room.  I've said it before: if Kenny was three inches taller we'd be talking about him as a late first rounder.
• Had you told me Maten and Mann would combine for 9 points, I might not have made the drive to Athens at all.
• Their nights felt different, though.  Charles was a victim of his own shot selection (that is to say...it felt poor).  Yante just couldn't get anything to roll in.  I liked the looks, though, and they'll go in more often than not.  Remember, he's just a sophomore.
• The rebounding was so much better than in the Chattanooga game.  Maten, Mike Edwards and, surprisingly, Houston Kessler were all strong on the glass.
• I wonder how often J.J. Frazier has missed two consecutive wide-open threes.  The whole arena thought the second one was going in.  Keep shooting J.J.
• The free throw story was better, largely due to who was taking them.  Maten and Mann still have work to do, and they're going to be at the line a lot this year.
• Kenny Gaines: 10 field goals.  The rest of the team: 7 fields goals.
• Lots of missed bunnies tonight, too.  This game could have easily been a 20 point win for Georgia.
• E'Torrion Wilridge had an incredibly quiet 16 minutes.  He's going to be really good once he gets more comfortable, but he just wasn't assertive at all against the Racers.
• It helped that Murray State just isn't a high volume 3-point shooting team.  They had some nice looks but didn't knock them down like the Mocs were able to.
• Brilliant spin move by Wayne Langston that made Yante Maten look silly on defense (hard to do).  Then he tried to go to the well again and Maten blocked it easily.  Fun to watch.
• Osahen Iduwe needs to keep his feet on defense.  He tends to get himself in the air.
• Only 10 turnovers.  Much better.
• The defensive strategy against Georgia is going to be pretty obvious from here on out: blanket Kenny Gaines.  Can guys like Mann, Maten, and Frazier take advantage?  If they can, Georgia becomes a very dangerous team.
• Traffic-wise, these Friday games are brutal.  Just brutal.

Another scary game next Wednesday.  The crowd will be light, and High Point is no joke.  So if you can, bring the family to Stegeman Coliseum and make a little noise.  These guys are fighting hard.

OK then

My gut was right about at least one thing...