I never would have thought I could possibly see worse basketball than we saw under Fox, but here we are. This is the same lazy, uninspired, and just plain stupid basketball we've seen for years, just with ostensibly "better" talent. Just pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic.

The worst stand around and do nothing BB I have ever witnessed. Edwards is no superstar--he should sit on the bench until he decides he wants to play--the celebration to the crowd when he dose manage to score is over the top and embarassing. Hammonds has been a stand around player his entire time at UGA but showed signs of maturing early this season but that has changed. Back to passing the ball around the perimeter, and not that accurately, to see who will save us. Not encouraged by Crean--guarantee you Calipari doesn't leave guys on the floor with zero effort. If we are going to make college sports a professional business by paying these athletes, than make sure we can terminate them for such performance. Same old same old

This team is terrible. Crean is trash...over-paid...over-hyped trash. Whatever we paid to get Edwards at Georgia they need to take it back.

Crean is now 3-21 in the SEC, so by definition, yes we have regressed. The last six seasons before Crean we had one losing record in conference (7-11) and that got the coach fired.

Those teams with Marcus, Nemi, Kenny, Charles, Yante, JJ, etc., were far from the worst basketball one could see. Lazy, uninspired and just plain stupid don't describe the play and/or results of those teams either.

SidViciousDawg said:

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Lazy, uninspired and just plain stupid don't describe the play and/or results of those teams either.

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Yeah, that may have been a little heavy on the hyperbole. That bunch wasn't stupid and probably wasn't lazy. But they certainly weren't inspiring either. We underachieved as a program under Fox, to put it mildly, just as we are underachieving right now under Crean.

Yep, Fox had 5 or 6 teams that should have danced but only got two of them there.... that cost him his job and kept our program from advancing. Still, we had some good teams that competed consistently, at home and on the road, with anybody in this conference.

I know suggesting patience in an emotional thread like this is ill-advised, but I'll do so anyway.

But before doing that, I confess I came away extremely discouraged last night. The drive home from Stegeman was not pleasant. I thought we had a real chance to win out at home. From this point on, teams are going to take the lane away from Edwards, and the fact is we just don't have enough other weapons to open it back up. We have a couple shooters but not nearly enough makers.

I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that thinks there's something in the water in Athens that would make Coach K himself lose 15 games a year at UGA.

But the real test for Coach Crean comes in years 3 and 4. This was a total rebuild, not because he was left with 0 talent, but because he was left with 0 players who fit the system he wants to play.

I admit I bought into the class rankings, but it's more and more clear to me how badly this team lacks any sort of veteran leadership. Crump has been awful, Harris has played ok but spent half the season suspended (again!), and Hammonds lacks the toughness necessary to bang in the SEC.

It's also clear to me the difference that fifth star makes. I expect Edwards to be a stud at the next level once he's surrounded by NBA players capable of sharing the load. A class of four star players is nice, but taken by itself is not a recipe for instant success.

The lack of size is most concerning, and that's on Crean since he built this roster. He has no answers in the paint, and there's not much help on the way in the 2020 class either. He has to figure that out...quickly.

However, it was year 3 when Rick Barnes got UT rolling. It was year 4 for Bruce Pearl at Auburn. Years 4 and 5 were Crean's best at Indiana.

I'm as tired of waiting as the next guy (trust me...), but we may be waiting until 2021-22 for things to really start looking up. Crean is in the mix for some big time players, and this year's freshman class will probably still be together as juniors. Adding talent on top of seasoned talent...that's the winning formula.

I hope Crean can continue to sell Athens to players, and I hope the fans don't give up quite yet. And, I guess I should add, I hope that if Crean is still under .500 in conference in year five, the powers that be aren't as patient as they were with Fox. Long term, these results are unacceptable.

Crean had 3 winning conference records in 9 seasons at IU and years 4 & 5 were two of those. I'd expect if he goes
12-6 in year five followed by 11-7 and 10-8 in years six and seven, the powers that be will show the same patience that they did with Fox.

I've thought this was a 6-12 caliber team and we still may get there. Next years roster is really concerning. We have much work to do if we're to be competitive. Hammonds returning would help somewhat, maybe?

This team fooled me early with what I thought was a better basketball IQ than we have been used to at Georgia. It seems that no matter who the coach is Georgia can seldom score from the perimeter. Three point attempts are simple turnovers. Defensively the points allowed in the paint are most often the result of a free driving lane more so than low post play by the opponents. Fundamentally Georgia is miserable. Too many guys watching the game.

Year 3 is the B-Hole tightening year...Crean better produce or this program will look to rebuild again under new leadership. This team ain't going dancing this year or likely next year either. Who would of thought Crean could underwhelm my low expectations for this season but he has done that.

Crean's win progression at IU:

6-25
10-21
12-20
27-9 - Sweet 16
29-7 - Sweet 16
17-15
20-14 - Rd of 32
27-8 - Sweet 16
18-16 - fired

So you're hedging your bets that this team will suck for one more year and then make it to the dance...

StevieBuckets said:

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I hope Crean can continue to sell Athens to players, and I hope the fans don't give up quite yet. And, I guess I should add, I hope that if Crean is still under .500 in conference in year five, the powers that be aren't as patient as they were with Fox. Long term, these results are unacceptable.

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This is kinda the crux of the matter. If we finish at or near the cellar with Ant Man, it's gonna be reeeeal tough for Crean to sell Athens to the top guys - who have never come to Athens to start with. Particularly when our team just ~looks~ so poorly coached and totally lost.

Neither Pearl nor Barnes has ever lost 15 conference games in a season in their careers. Crean has done it 3 times now, and if this year makes 4, he's gonna have a tough row to hoe.

Dawg-E-Dawg said:

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So you're hedging your bets that this team will suck for one more year and then make it to the dance...

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I don't bet on sports.

So I guess the consensus in this thread is, after giving Fox 9 years, we need to fire Crean after year 2 or 3?

Sat was my second and likely last game to attend this season in person. First game was SMU, a game that went 3 OT's and the reason for that was rebounding which was HORRIBLE that day. We found a way to win but what a struggle. And then Saturday, it was Ole Miss and their shooting percentage, I don't know what it finished up being but in the second half it was over 50% and we were like 33. I looked and noticed rebounded we led, turnovers were even but that shooting was the difference.

To me there are a few issues-first of all, the rotations that Crean uses, I am not a fan of them. Jordan Harris was flat out carrying us on Sat and he takes him out. He plays Crump way too much, and Harris too little. There are times when he tries to steal minutes with Edward and Hammonds on the bench together-and speaking of Hammonds, he is so incredibly inconsistent, it boggles your mind. Edwards, he just continues hoisting up the long jumpers-he actually hit 2 very early on Sat which was encouraging but then struggled the rest of the day. His defense at times is just dreadful too, I get he is a young kid and he is feeling a lot of weight on his shoulders but he makes a lot of mistakes that I don't think he should be making this late in the season. Shot selection is not good, team defense is not good, just don't look to be a well coached team.

I thought the crowd once again was very good especially during our rally in the second half. We were up 43-42 around the 9-10 minute mark, and then got outscored 28-17 the rest of the way and we were down by 11 and then took that lead. Just a very frustrating game and I think the air is out of the bubble now, we have to go on one serious run to even sniff the dance, right now we are probably playing for NIT at best.


One last thing, what was was the deal with Crean at the half. He didn't make it out to the court (in a sprint too) until there was about 20 seconds left before the start of the second half-team was all huddled around and looking around like where is coach?? I don't think I have ever seen that before.

The most shocking thing is how poor the 3 point shooting is. Crean's worst team at IU finished 201st nationally in 3 point percentage. IU was top 6 in that stat nationally 4 times. This years Georgia team is 310th.

Sports is entertainment. Crean is not producing even with a lottery pick on the team. Watching these games is brutal. This day in age you either produce or get the boot. Just the nature of the beast. Not saying Fox should of been there for 9 years either but do you wanna sit through 9 years of sucking?

No, I certainly don't want 9 years of sucking, but what we're watching now isn't as bad as most of what we watched the last 9 years. Here's an update on what our old coach is doing at Cal:



(Ok, my image isn't showing up, but it shows Cal 407th in scoring, 353rd in rebounding, and 462nd in assists...numbers that can't actually be right as there aren't that many D1 teams, but you get the point)

There are stretches of basketball in every game (even the Ole Miss one) that show what Crean is trying to teach. Fun, fast transition basketball. I'm not trying to be an apologist here, but it's not like the guy forgot how to coach.

He's essentially in year 1 of the rebuild. Last year he had a roster of ill-suited players, and of the two he needed to come back, the most important chose to go to the NBA (and, briefly, the G League). You just can't win with all freshman unless several of them are elite, 5-star guys. Did you notice how quiet Maxey was against us last week? You know why it didn't matter? Because any number of other elite players on that team can pick up the slack. Georgia and Edwards don't have that luxury.

I've been waiting 20 years for consistently good basketball, and most around here have been waiting longer than that. Being told to wait another couple years sucks. But you just don't fire a coach in year 2. And trust me, if McGarity did that (he won't), you won't like the results. Who do you think he's going to hire? Calipari?

If you'd a told me then that Tubby's tenure would be the last stretch of consistent, SEC and NCAA quality basketball for .... now ever, I would have quit following right then and there. Cannot believe we have found ourselves in this state.

I'm trying, I mean really trying, to stay the course with Crean. We need to start showing improvement - real soon. Just like the Nevada folks with Fox, his IU detractors are saying "I told you so...."

That was straight up embarrassing.

Welp...we found another way to crap the bed. Crean has lost "his" team

StevieBuckets said:

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No, I certainly don't want 9 years of sucking, but what we're watching now isn't as bad as most of what we watched the last 9 years.


Crean going 3-22 in the conference... is somehow better than the 9 years of Fox where we had 3 losing seasons (5-11, 5-11, 7-11)?? Not even close. It was time for Fox to go and it's time to stay the course with Crean for a minimum of four seasons. The bashing of Fox and those teams that went 5 straight years without a losing record in the league is just ridiculous.

Playing fast offensively is easy and takes no discipline. We finished #197 in Defensive Efficiency last year and we're currently #205. Here is how last years Final Four teams ranked. T Tech #1, Virginia #6, Mich St #17 and Auburn the outlier at #86. Being #197 and even worse this year at #205 is just inexcusable and shows a lack of effort and discipline. This lies squarely on the shoulders of Crean & Staff.



(Ok, my image isn't showing up, but it shows Cal 407th in scoring, 353rd in rebounding, and 462nd in assists...numbers that can't actually be right as there aren't that many D1 teams, but you get the point)

There are stretches of basketball in every game (even the Ole Miss one) that show what Crean is trying to teach. Fun, fast transition basketball. I'm not trying to be an apologist here, but it's not like the guy forgot how to coach.

He's essentially in year 1 of the rebuild. Last year he had a roster of ill-suited players, and of the two he needed to come back, the most important chose to go to the NBA (and, briefly, the G League). You just can't win with all freshman unless several of them are elite, 5-star guys. Did you notice how quiet Maxey was against us last week? You know why it didn't matter? Because any number of other elite players on that team can pick up the slack. Georgia and Edwards don't have that luxury.

I've been waiting 20 years for consistently good basketball, and most around here have been waiting longer than that. Being told to wait another couple years sucks. But you just don't fire a coach in year 2. And trust me, if McGarity did that (he won't), you won't like the results. Who do you think he's going to hire? Calipari?

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I certainly wasn't intending to "Fox bash." I was actually quite supportive of Fox through about year 6 until it became clear to me that he had reached some sort of ceiling.

I also don't particularly want to revive the debate about how much Fox benefited from a bad SEC (I think a lot, others think differently).

I'm only saying, stylistically, I prefer the way Crean wants to play (which we only see now in brief stretches) over the identity Fox firmly established in his 9 years. Going 3-22 has absolutely sucked. Suck suck suckity sucked. And if it turns out it's not a precursor to better, more competitive teams, it will retroactively suck even more.

I think it is a precursor to better basketball, though, and I think as he fills out the roster over the next year or two Crean's ceiling, in a tougher league, is higher than our previous coach's ceiling. Hope is a drug...

We'll keep hope alive StevieB... Speaking of bad SEC years, this one's really weak top to bottom. Kentucky, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Ole Miss, Miss St and LSU were our bids, and every single one of them were better (to much better) last year. This league is mediocre at best this year but then again the NCAA as a whole is down as well.

You beat me to the salient point: there is more parity this year than I remember in a long, long time, and it's due to a general mediocrity across the board. Which will make it all the more painful to watch another Georgia-less tournament this year...

Out of curiosity, I looked up the Power 5 schools with longer tournament droughts than Georgia. As best I can tell, this is the list:

• Rutgers (28 years)
• Washington State (11 years)
• Boston College (10 years)
• Stanford (9 years)
• Georgia Tech (9 years)
• Penn State (8 years)
• Illinois (6 years)
• Nebraska (5 years)

Several of those are likely to end this year (Rutgers, Penn State, and Illinois all have a very real shot). Assuming they do, and assuming no miracle finish for Georgia, we'll be one of only five or six Power 5 teams (out of 65) that haven't made the tournament in the last 5 years. How is that possible?

Our talent is better than last year. However the longer this season goes on, the more I'm convinced, as I suspected last year, that talent is not the issue. Any coach that lets his team lose a 20 point lead and the game with 12 minutes left (vs Missou) has some coaching issues.

I agree!!! Crean left some skid marks on the court after that **** show

I didn't think it was possible to blow another 20 point lead (22 this time) and lose a game that we had in the bag. But when Florida scores 37 points to our 3 points in one stretch in the 2nd half, what do you expect? I see why we are one of the worst defensive teams in the SEC. Letting a team play pick up street ball doesn't work in the SEC, no matter jow good our talent level might be.