Filed under: athens, championships, College Basketball, College Football, NCAA, SEC, Sports, UGA
We ran out of gas and could do nothing but foul and foul and foul as the lead slipped away and grew to a deficit. We showed fatigue and got beat by a team that we clearly out-athleticized for a half. Do the math. We were a .500 team this year when the dust settled. We barely survived the loss of our top 2 scorers at season’s start, had a shabby regular season, won the SEC Tournament by defeating Mississippi, Kentucky, Miss State and Arkansas in 3 days (not 4 days as CBS routinely misreported throughout today’s broadcast – do your homework next time CBS). We had enough heart to win the SEC. WE ARE SEC CHAMPIONS for the first time since 1983. I am proud of the fact that we will hang a banner, but we just did not have enough experienced depth to play well beyond a half in the Big Dance. Overall: We overachieved. Gaines was clearly not himself in the 2nd half today, but he will go down as one of the hoops greats from UGA. That short list includes Dominique, Alec Kessler, L. Green, Willie and Shandon Anderson, Jumaine Jones, DA Layne, Jarvis Hayes and my homeboy, Ezra Williams. I love UGA and see no reason the program can’t rise in the next few years. Thanks for everything you did, Bliss and Gaines. Coach Felton: We will see you next year. A live report on G-Day Game is next at http://www.bighairyblawg.com
UGA is a FOOTBALL SCHOOL!!!
Filed under: arkansas, athens, BBQ, College Basketball, College Football, food, SEC, Sports, tennessee, travel, UGA
M2M2M © 2008 Hanish Vance
One
And that moment:
The moment that you “really” start a trip is not the moment you depart. The pre-planning of the trip is also not the real start. A trip really starts when the planning has been done and you are sure you are going and the waiting time is over – all that is left to do is in dedication of the trip.
And the moment when I really started this trip just happened. From here on out, in the trip, it is just the trip. And I flip the script while you sit back and enjoy. Away goes your boy, finally, tomorrow. The waiting time has become past. The minor calamity that involved a defective U-lock, a broken key, a lost set of keys and a found set of keys and a locksmith, that minor calamity, it has passed. Departure is imminent.
As soon as that final whistle blows tomorrow, at the end of the Georgia-Xavier game, we go. I go Ozarks, and I’ve never been. The Missouri-Arkansas border. Indian Oaks Farm near Heartland in beautiful Theodosia, Missouri. Hard work on the house there will be broken by Branson. Bustling Branson: one part Nashville, one part Gatlinburg, one part Vegas. An entertainment Mecca, that Branson; that’ll be something to see. And Arkansas. Rural ass Arkansas. A few cool little enclaves in Arkansas, in Missouri. And the poet will speak and be heard. Hard work will feel good. Nature will feel good. It’ll be good to read some poems to people, to edit my novel, to breathe the mountain air, to see the middle, to help my father.
Here is something not all of you know yet: Dad has a tumor. Contained by his bladder wall, it is not spreading…and not getting any better so far. The attempts to break it down have failed so far…so, realistically Dad may be going under the knife soon. He admittedly has “not been doing that well.” And we got us a ranch home to fix up.
So after I help Daddy and do my Missouri/Arkansas thing, we will be hitting Memphis. The Mighty Mississippi. BBQ. The birthplace of one great King and death place of another.
Then I’ll be back in Marietta. I will have gone M2M2M, from Marietta-to-Missouri-to-Marietta, not to mention Memphis. And then I will be off to ATHENS, GA, the Classic City, for the G-Day Game. Georgia Spring Football and a little 5-Star Day Café, you know, say Hey.
And that moment the trip started. As James Blunt likes to sing while a cash register rings in his mind, “We shared a moment…” This is the start of the trip. Welcome to the trip.
Two
Pre-Dawgs (vs. Musketeers):
Big Dance and it’s been 6 years and they are a 3 seed. We won 4 total regular season SEC games all year, then 4 in 3 days. We are the SEC Champs and a 14 seed, and I gave up smoking David Greene, but I think we can win this game. We are a 14 seed in 1 of 4 brackets; they are number 12 in the country. We can win this game. It’s 1:30 am; the game is today; it is game day.
Three
The Dance:
Dawgs are up by 9 at the half…
Hoops. March Madness. We are in!
Dawgs welcome a battle with The X Men. For the first time in 6 years (still stings for Ezra and Jarvis and the rest of us), UGA is in the NCAA Tourney: Georgia (14) versus Xavier (3), Thursday at 12:20 pm on CBS live from Washington, DC. Xavier is a Jesuit, Catholic University in Cincinnatti, Ohio. They play in the Atlantic 10 an are huge rivals of The Cincy Bearcats. The Musketeers are ranked #12 in the nation; they are 27-6. Senior Guard, Drew Lavender, is their best player. Lavender is one of 6 hoopsters selected for the covers of regional issues of Sports Illustrated now on the newsstand. If we beat them, it’s the Purdue Boilermakers or the Baylor Bears next. We could upset Xavier and 6th seed Purdue. Remember upsetting a Glenn “Bog Dog” Robinson lead Purdue team the last time we made a real tourney run anyone? Tubby Smith and Shandon Anderson and them – we eventually lost to National Runner Up Syracuse. (I played with Shandon by the way, in the offseason – Peace). We are the SEC Champions and need to play like it to survive round 1.
GO DAWGS, Han
ps GATORS did not make the NCAA Tourney
Marcus Washington is out for the season. He is listed as 2nd on the depth chart at Middle Linebacker behind Dannell Ellerbe. Charles White moves up to 2nd on the “MIKE” Backers four deep, with Benjamin Boyd moving up to 3rd. In a redistribution of Washington’s playing time minutes missed, I suspect more playing time for backup playmaking “WILL” Backers: Akeem Hebron & Darryl Gamble and athletic backup “SAM” Backer, Darrius Dewberry. We will be fine, but losing solid playmakers with experience like Marcus always hurts.
And then theHan went on the road. They loaded the trailer – the one I stained – with hard wood flooring and floored it. And I have rarely, very rarely, been to the Middle. The middle of America. Land-locked states and miles and miles of middle of nowhere. Never as an adult have I driven or been driven all the way out of the Southeast – I fly. But we shall ascend and go westward, a father with his special lady friend and his son. His son helping to settle Dad at Indian Oaks Farm in Theodosia. Ranch hands we aint but we will get that house in order. And we will get in that fresh air and clean and purify our lives, our relationship as father and son. Then it’s off to Branson for excitement. Branson here we come. That’ll be a neat look around – for you. We will poke around Arkansas too. And then back to the farm; back to work for us before saddling up to visit The King. That’s right. We goin’ to see The King. Memphis, TN: Elvis, BBQ at Rendezvous, the Pyramid, the place where you bastards shot MLK Jr, the mighty, Mighty River. That’ll be a neat look around – for you. Then back to the Rhetta, with a new perspective just in time to hit Athens, GA for the G-Day Game. And if Athens aint the middle of nowhere, I don’t know what is. Love ya. See ya soon. Thank you…thank you very much.
How ‘Bout Them Dawgs. Felton goes from the first pre-season of promise since his first year with the team, to another rebuilding year with our best 2 players kicked off the team, to about to get fired after winning only 3 SEC games, to winning 4 SEC tournament games in 3 days. Harrick and Tubby were strategic game coaches that had strong Georgia teams – neither won an SEC title. Give the man a raise and praise the job he has done. We are 17-16, not a great record…BUT WE ARE THE SEC CHAMPIONS!!!
Not to sound lame, but it makes me teary to think ’bout them dawgs in the title game, today 3:30 vs. Arkansas. How lame is Arkansas? They was all like: This is Our Kansas. Who wants a Kansas? We sound more gorgeous than you, and aint spring so beautiful, boo? Flowers, sunshine and madness. MARCH MADNESS – we win and we are in. Lose and Gaines’ stellar career is over. He fouled out again, setting the SEC record for fouls in one day (10). Two games, one day, two wins. One game today, DawgFANS, and we need the win. Not many SEC Basketball banners around the campus of the Nation’s Oldest State Chartered University. We started this…you know, public college thing. Without us, there is no March Madness. LET’S DANCE: GO DAWGS!!!
Only 1,000 of the teams’ families and school officials watched in person. But Look: There is a hole in the roof and the whole Kentucky fanbase – on their annual pilgrimage to The ATL for the SEC Hoops Tournament – aint fitting in the little thriller dome at Tech. Surreal scene: DAWGS BEAT KENTUCKY at GA TECH today after the game was postponed last night because a tornado ripped The GA Dome roof up. Before that, Georgia had beaten Ole Miss in overtime. This time, it was overtime for Them DAWGS again. And Big Blue, you can pack away your CATLANTA signs and other goofy wildcat paraphenalia until next year. This time, it is over. Zac Swansey is a freshman that would not have been on the floor save for the fact that our best player, Gaines, fouled out. Swansey would not have shot that shot, but the clock was winding down, and he could not get rid of it, so he turned around, Dawgs down by 2, and buried you, Le Bleu. That 3 dotted your eye-socket and I rocket when I talk it, yelled: YES ZAC…YES ZAC…YES ZAC. As response art to my urgings felt through the television, he lifted a single finger in the air. WE: ONE. Next, We play against the Maroon Pups from Miss State that also go by dogs. WE MUST WIN THIS DAWG fight tonight at 8 pm and the SEC Final to enter the Big Dance. Gaines deserves to step his Senior Year, and that is our only chance to make it happen. Come on, two-step. Two games away, two games away from March Madness. One loss would equal sadness and maybe a new hoops coach next season. DAWGS MUST PLAY FOR THOSE REASONS GREAT, AND PISS ON MISSISSIPPI STATE.
LATE,
HAN
First things first: God is good. God Bless and Glory to Ol’ Georgia. Pretty nice rebuilding year last year was it not. Number 2 in one poll after LSUcks and number 3 in another behind them again and USC (no not you, Chickens – you went .500). We would have been favored to win a playoff. There are no playoffs. We play LSU this year, maybe twice.
I just joined a team last night and will be playing this spring, so you will see me in the end zone, over the middle running slants, on the out, etc. I may just add the “d” to the end of my first name…I am that good at receiver. YOU can’t cover me (period).
G-Day is April 5th at 2 pm in the Classic City on the campus of the Nation’s Oldest State Chartered Public University. Nice chance to sit on the shade side for the “other half.”
On Special Teams: Brian Mimbs will punt – not very often we hope. A new kicker arrives in the fall. He aint no Coutu yall, but he needs to play very well for us to do what I think we can do this year: WIN IT ALL!!!
On Offense: Matthew Stafford is a junior; time to shine, gunner. Moreno is a sophomore who sat out a year. He will be SEC player of the year instead of Tebow this year and will be headed for the pros. That is one huge reason that 2008 is the date. Caleb King is a Reggie Bush-like athlete that sat out last season. He plays this year a whole lot, but we learned the beauty of feature back, finally, again, last year. We Knowshon! Receiver is a little tougher to figure. Only Mohammed Massaqui returns as far as solid producers go. He will be a senior. Kris Durham is tall and dependable. I trust none of the rest and incoming freshman AJ Green may be our best. We may miss Sean Bailey’s leadership and solid play and Mikey could really stretch the field and is gone too. Tripp Chandler is a senior Tight End that stunk up the first half of the year and then turned it on and played well. Brannan “WHITESTUFF” Southerland is a simply awesome fullback entering his senior year. The line will all be underclassmen, and we must pray for no meltdowns. (Tennessee was not so good last year.) Vince Vance is like a big, black VAN at one Tackle and Trinton Sturdivant is also huge at the other. Chris Davis slides over to Center from Guard, replaced by Kiante Tripp. Clint Boling is back at the other Guard spot. The line and receivers’ production are the absolute keys to us doing what I think we can do this year.
On Defense: Roderick Battle and Jeremy Lomax are back at Defensive End and have to prove they can get it done or they will lose playing time to Wynn, Dobbs and Lemon among others. Geno Atkins is a great D-Tackle and Jeff Owens and Kade Weston are pretty good ones. They rotate and are upper classmen with experience. Dannell Ellerbe is a senior in the Middle who makes plays, and he will be flanked by the speedster, sophomore Rennie Curran. The other Outside Backer is a sophomore named Akeem – his last name is DENT. Asher Allen and Prince Miller are solid, speedy junior Cornerbacks. Reshad Jones is an athletic sophomore Safety who reminds me of Sean Jones. CJ Byrd is on a wire and back for his senior campaign at the other Safety spot. Our defense is solid enough for us to do what I think we can do this year.
2008 is the date…GO DAWGS!!!
