Crean has the team playing hard. Gotta give him a little credit. This team appears to have much more heart than last year's team.

Great win over a good BB team!! Just 2 turnovers in the 2nd half is AMAZING and Memphis was playing a pressure defense!! We made 3 pointers and shot FT very good!! GO DAWGS!! BTW where is SidVicious??

Wright only had one TO the whole game? Did I read that right?

Yes, even when they lose, they appear to be playing hard. The team did some really good things last night.

Just makes such a difference when we don't turn it over. Of course, shooting well helped, too.

Wow, there's Driller, the most consistent negative poster during our stretch of 42 SEC wins over a four year period.
Of course last night was an enjoyable win for the Dawgs. My prediction was that we would have five losses going into SEC play. If we can win out we will be 8-5. WCU and ETSU will be competitive but we don't face anyone in the Top 100 and we play the next 5 at home. 3-15 in conference is still my call. Could we go 5-13 or even 6-12…. sure. That'll place Crean somewhere between 17-55 and 20-52 at a school that had one losing season in the six years prior to his arrival. Call me crazy but I enjoyed the 42-30 stretch, with some memorable Dawgs, more than I have these four years with TC.

Odds are we are about to embark on a six game winning streak which will put us at that 8-5 I predicted. That doesn't change a thing as far as our expected finish in conference.

The irony of you complaining about some else's negativity....

Very enjoyable win. Impressive how enthusiastic the students were. I haven't seen that kind of stuff since Tubby was the coach.

Monkdawg said:

---

The irony of you complaining about some else's negativity....

---

It's very simple…. if we win more games (33) than anyone else other than Kentucky over a three period, I'm not gonna complain. If we win 42 games over a four year period, the most in UGA history, I'm not complaining. If we have the first graduating class in school history to not have a losing conference record I'm not complaining.

If the coach we bring in, after we had the first losing record in the prior six seasons, is 14-40 and picked to finish dead last, I'm gonna complain. It's simple logic not irony.

Well, go be a California fan then. But that won't last long, as Fox has continued his stellar coaching and will likely be fired after this season....

This win improved our RPI to 207. That's a jump of 35. I'm pretty sure this loss for Memphis will be classified as "bad loss" on their resume.

Fox was the most frustrating UGA basketball coach in my lifetime as a fan, granted I only go back to the Durham days.

He thought Kamar Baldwin was good enough to offer as a walk-on.

He thought Marcus Thornton was a wing player. When he finally moved him to the 4/5 position, Marcus played well.

Fox also couldn't even make the NCAAT with 2 years of KCP.

He played Brantley over Gaines, when Gaines was much more talented.

Monkdawg said:

---

Well, go be a California fan then. But that won't last long, as Fox has continued his stellar coaching and will likely be fired after this season....

---

Speaking of illogical, *** is that?? I haven't seen one second of Cal Bball since Fox took over and prolly won't. I follow and cheer for Georgia. We hired Tom Crean after one of the best runs in our admittedly sad history and he has been
an abject failure is the point that matters.

my complaint about crean is he let the entire team transfer after last season.
wouldn't it be normal for the guys that don't play to transfer and the guys playing starters minutes to stay?
our team was improving incrementally before that.
you would think at least one of the key players would've stuck around?
he recruited all of them.

he did manage to retain taylor and ned .
these guys must be ridiculously weak if they don't even get a look on this team?
you can say he retained horne, but he was a positionless player.
height of a shooting guard and speed of a high school big man.

sorry about this rant.
great win though.
i do like wright and oquendo.
hopefully they don't transfer.

That's the interesting conundrum that I too have brought up. The coach is always going to take heat when guys leave, particularly when it's your three best players. For a guy like Crean who has a reputation, fair or not, for rubbing some people the wrong way, the heat is amplified.

Ultimately though, today's environment engenders very little loyalty amongst players. Student athletes are transferring EVERYWHERE. We don't know exactly what transpired with Wheeler, Camara or KD Johnson. They gave Georgia and Crean a try and decided they'd rather try something else. All three went to schools with more likely immediate team success, or richer basketball tradition, or a greater chance at individual stardom, or all of the above.

Ultimately, it falls on Crean to find enough players who are good enough AND who are committed to being at Georgia. That's not an easy task at a school that has not been much of a national factor, let alone a serious factor within their conference, for a long time. The rise of Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, etc. in recent years makes Crean's job that much tougher.

The students were great last night. The fans that were there were loud and engaged.

The team was locked in. They got control of the turnovers and even hit some free throws. That said, even with two minutes left I thought we had no chance of winning. Memphis answered just about every second half basket...until they didn't.

Most fun I've had in Stegeman in quite some time. Aberration or the start of something better? Unclear. But I'll take it.

Some good points until…."let alone a serious factor within their own conference, for a long time". That's nonsense.
33 wins in 3 years, 42 wins in four years, three straight semi appearances in the SEC Tourney, one losing record over the last six years. We were damn near .500 on the road during that five year stretch, averaging 4 wins, ON THE ROAD!!

We hired Tom Crean to improve on that record and he has not come close to achieving that goal. Serious damage has been done.

The fans and students were unbelievable! We should win the next five at home so there will be a chance for that energy to continue. Still, it'll take a miracle for us to match last years 7-11. I'm sticking to my 3-15. Winning is always better than losing, enjoy every one of them.

No one took us serious when Fox was here.

I'm glad you enjoyed Foxy's great coaching style.

I am glad he's gone and couldn't believe Cal or any other D1 team would trust him to lead their program.

I bet if the portal was in play back then, most of those guys you mentioned would have transferred given the opportunity.

dawglegright said:

---

No one took us serious when Fox was here.

I'm glad you enjoyed Foxy's great coaching style.

I am glad he's gone and couldn't believe Cal or any other D1 team would trust him to lead their program.

I bet if the portal was in play back then, most of those guys you mentioned would have transferred given the opportunity.

---

Oh hell yeah they did take us seriously. I've lived in Bham area for 15+ years. I always traveled to Tuscaloosa & Auburn for road games and would choose between Nashville, Knoxville, Baton Rouge, Gainesville, for another one or two. I've been to 12 of our 14 arenas most multiple times (and 24 SEC Tournies) prominently wearing the G and had more conversations with opposing fans than you can imagine and that is just false as hell. For five years running we were damn near .500 (4-5) as a road team! We went toe to toe with everyone home or away. We were definitely respected.

Seriously does no one remember we had some really good teams during Fox's run? We should've had five tournament teams (year 2,5,6,7,8) during Fox's years but only got two. You know why…? Mark Fox screwed the hell up each year and we'd come up one game short in the end. He couldn't draw up an inbounds play if his life depended on it. He'd sh:+ the bed in November regularly. But all this "we've always been bad and no one ever took us seriously" is nonsense. We were pretty good just a short while ago and hopefully will be again soon. We made the move to hire Crean to go from merely respected and pretty good to being really good. Anyone who can't admit MarK Fox & Staff did a better job than Tom Crean & Staff have done is in an odd place psychologically.

The SEC of today and of the past few seasons is vastly better than it was six-10 years ago. That makes such a direct comparison extremely flawed.

For instance, Georgia's 2013-2014 conference record of 12-6 was buoyed by a weak SEC that produced just three NCAA Tournament teams. Granted, those three teams were quite strong (Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee). The Bulldogs lost by 22, 25, 19 and 12 in their four meetings with those schools that season.

The 2014-2015 SEC was extremely weak outside of a phenomenal Kentucky and a couple other schools. Only five SEC teams made the 2015 NCAA Tournament, with Mississippi sneaking into the First Four. Only three SEC teams made the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

By 2017-2018, Mark Fox's last season, the tide was already turning. The SEC sent eight teams to the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The following season, Crean's first, the SEC sent seven to the tournament.

Is Tom Crean a significantly better in-game coach / better recruiter / better developer of talent / better person, etc. than Mark Fox? I have no idea. Can Crean recruit, develop and maintain enough talent to compete in today's much more rugged SEC? I also have no idea. The evidence is mixed.

Crean is five years removed from beating Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina within a short span of games across two seasons at Indiana. Crean won the Big Ten conference outright twice. However, today's transfer culture and deep SEC make it difficult to know whether any of that matters.

Putting aside Crean's apparent flaws, asking someone to quickly turn a program that has made just five NCAA Tournament appearances (with one win) since 2000 into a steady force is highly challenging, if not unrealistic. Georgia has won four NCAA Tournament games since 1983. Four. Crean won six NCAA Tournament games at Indiana (two on three separate occasions), which was considered by many to be a failure.

If there's someone who can clearly provide Georgia with a better path to high level success, then Crean should go. I'm simply not convinced that there is. If people were put off by Crean's quirks and unconvinced that he could provide a vastly superior product than Mark Fox, then he never should've been hired.

Retaining a coach that's gone 14-40 and a unanimous pick for last this year and has virtually no one signed in this class??

What is your (and everyone else) # of SEC W's Crean needs for him to be retained. My number is 8. If we go 8-10 to get Crean to 22-50 for his time here. Let's keep him.

SidViciousDawg said:

---

dawglegright said:

---

He couldn't draw up an inbounds play if his life depended on it.

---

---

I will avoid wading into the Fox vs. Crean debate, but you gave me some very, very real PTSD with this right here...

Foxy was so awesome! Those "runs" he had at UGA were incredible! I'm sure he will be the top candidate when Brooks opens up the search. Remember all those great post season wins we had when KCP was here? Oh yeah, we couldn't even make the NIT with KCP.

Let's just hope Cal does the wrong thing and fires him.

Lastly, can we convince him to come back? Maybe if we tell him we are sorry and beg him to return?

I bet Foxy knows what's going on, and he will make a surprise appearance at the SEC Championship game Saturday when he reunites with the spike squad!

dawglegright said:

---

Foxy was so awesome! Those "runs" he had at UGA were incredible! I'm sure he will be the top candidate when Brooks opens up the search. Remember all those great post season wins we had when KCP was here? Oh yeah, we couldn't even make the NIT with KCP.

Let's just hope Cal does the wrong thing and fires him.

Lastly, can we convince him to come back? Maybe if we tell him we are sorry and beg him to return?

I bet Foxy knows what's going on, and he will make a surprise appearance at the SEC Championship game Saturday when he reunites with the spike squad!

---

That is a lot of crazy talk there…. why does it set people off to say that I enjoyed the 42-30 "run" and have not enjoyed
14 - 40. How could I ever conclude that the 42 - 30 Staff did a better job than the 14 - 40 Staff?? I totally get the Fox criticism. But if Fox deserves criticism, and he does, then Crean damn sure does. Difference is Mark Fox hasn't been here the last four years Tom Crean has.

And, I never mention KCP when listing my DGD's of the Fox Era. KCP went 5-11 and 9-9, Ant went 5-13. Who cares??