The little team that could...and still could...

For those that don’t follow college basketball too closely, something of such an improbable nature happened this weekend that I wanted to write about it but was also surprised that no one had yet done so.

This past weekend my beloved Georgia Bulldawgs entered their conference tournament in last place in the conference boasting an atrocious conference record of 4-12…and won the whole freakin thing.

Round one –Thursday night, they beat Ole Miss in an overtime nail-biter.

Round two – Their second round game against Kentucky, scheduled for Friday night, was rescheduled, seemingly by the hand of God, for Saturday morning setting them up to not only play a game in which they were a complete underdog, but also put them in a situation where a win buys them a second game against an even better team later Saturday night. They won…How? A freshman guard that doesn’t start and averages just over 4 points per game hits a turn around three with someone’s hand in his face and very little time left, once again, in overtime.

Round three – After having already played one game on saturday afternoon, they play a Miss. State team saturday night that had a better record than any other western division team and beat them in a game that was decided by fewer than 5 points and one in which had State been able to make anything in the closing 2 minutes, they win and I’m not writing this right now.

The Championship game – They draw an Arkansas team that was absolutely lights out the night before, establish an early lead, surrender early lead, and pull away at the end not only winning the SEC Championship but also getting a punched ticket to the DANCE!

Thoughts:

1. What makes this scenario even more absurd is the production that put them over the top in all four games was from guys that couldn’t do anything all year…They get in the conference tourney and all of the sudden Terrence Woodbury turns into about a 60% three point shooter, Albert Jackson develops and milks a little hook shot finally doing something to take advantage of his size, and Billy Humphrey and Corey Butler start drawing charges and making things happen in the clutch?!!!!!....Really?

2. The sweetest thing about this is the fact that you have a senior point guard (Sundiata Gaines) who has absolutely played his heart out and a coach (Dennis Felton) who was hired to clean the program up and has done so often at the expense of winning (i.e. the Mercer and Brown incidents) and they not only are pulled from depths of a wasted year (in Gaines’ case, a wasted last year) but are also Dancing!...How awesome is that? Two class acts winning in the end…I thought that sort of thing only happens in movies…

3. I’ve said it at least 35 times over this weekend, but I firmly believe this was a turning point for this program. The kids that are coming back next year, which is most of them, will show up to camp knowing that if they put it together they can beat anybody in the conference, and that goes a long way.

4. I’ve been fortunate to watch my Dawgs win two SEC championships in football over the last 8 years, but if you had told me that I’d see them win a conference title in basketball, I probably would have given you the blank-face (as I’ve been told it is) before betting you $100 that it wouldn’t happen before I turn forty (in 13 years), and it just happened.

5. This is why I love sports…because you never know. Sure 99% of the time we assume the outcome and are correct, but there’s always a Boise St. fiesta bowl, or a Sid Bream, or a David Tyree catching a ball against his helmet in the biggest moment of his career, or a Valparaiso, or a Jim Valvano, or a ’99 Ryder Cup team out there…and now, there’s the 2008 SEC Champion Georgia Bulldawgs.


So, they’re dancing, and they‘ve drawn Xavier in the first round…Thoughts?

And if they beat Xavier they’ll likely get Purdue…Thoughts?

And if they were to beat Purdue, they’d likely get Duke in the sweet sixteen…Thoughts?

zeius