Hopefully this is the start of what we all are hoping for?
Go Dawgs!

Great day for dawgnation it's going to be a crazy basketball off season with Coach Crean talking about players
i will be interesting to see who besides the 4 seniors leave or is released this off season.

It's a start of something. What that is depends on how we go on from here.

I was thinking the same thing twenty years ago then Jeremy Schaap jumped out of the bushes.

This is how you start to get the train rolling and Crean is aware. You get one top talent to believe in your program, it builds confidence in the program being built. One and done or not, this shows the top kids that this potential top pick in the 2020 draft felt strongly enough about Tom Crean and his staff to sign here instead of what most of the top kids do which is sign with UK, UNC, Duke, or Kansas. Kids already like the style he plays, he is a smooth talker with a past success rate. He coach DWade and Victor, two players that Edwards specifically mentioned today. We already had two solid players in the class to join him, we have at least one spot left and I would bet we find another spot as well. We need a solid/consistent PG, and we need a solid big if you ask me. Clax and Hammonds, along with Edwards and a PG, the two other kids signed are wings, so we need a big.

People need to also realize that one player CAN make a big difference in basketball more than in football. That is one of 5 spots on the floor, and Claxton and Hammonds make up 3 of the 5, but we really need a point so Edwards to can play SG.

This is a GREAT day for UGA Basketball!! This is a commitment NOT A SIGNING!! We have to keep Ant Man on hold till Mid April!! Hopefully the Kesler kid will come and maybe another friend of Anthony!! We could potentially bring in 6 new players this year!! We could have 2 FIVE STARS and 2 FOUR STARS in one class!! Go Coach Crean and STAFF !! Go Dawgs!! BUILD A FENCE AROUND THIS STATE!!!

I wouldn't count on Kessler. There's always a chance, but he seems to want one of the high academic institutions, despite the fact that UGA helped his dad and uncle to be successful orthopedic surgeons and helped his older brother get to law school.

That said, there are other options in this class:

Precious Achiuwa
Harlond Beverly
Lester Quinones

grad transfers, too, but they won't be known until after the season.

Getting Anthony Edwards (sounds solid, but you never know until he signs) is awesome, and it'll be great to watch him play next year. It should boost ticket sales, attendance, and passion for the team. I'm excited. But the amount of long-term impact a one-and-done (and make no mistake, he is one-and-done) can make is limited, so let's keep an eye on the players Crean gets to play with him.

Achiuwa and Quinones are exciting names. Add guys like that to Claxton, Hammonds, Camara, and Walton (and maybe, please a grad transfer PG) and you're talking about a pretty good foundation.

Hopefully this 5-star jump-starts recruiting. Then maybe the next one or two will put us over the top. It's fun to think about.

How is Edwards team 14-14? I'm gonna temper my expectations of him single handily turning us into Championship contenders the (expected) one season we have him. I don't see Walton or Camara playing much as freshmen. Walton hasn't had the greatest season for an 11-12 team.

After Crean's remark about deciding to keep these kids in the spring he can't get overly mad at them now, since he decided to keep these (sorry) players around... I expect we'll have several more spots to fill, be that a positive or negative. One or two will leave on their own and Crean will ask one or two to leave. I'd put the o/u at 6 signees when it's all done. Could be a very exciting season next year but it ain't guaranteed. Claxton, Hammonds and Edwards are 3 damn good ones, we'll see what we can put around them and see how Crean can coach them up.

SidViciousDawg said:

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we'll see what we can put around them and see how Crean can coach them up.

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Yup. No real way to know at this point. We can hope...

Edwards's commitment means UGA basketball got a commitment from America's number 1 prospect two years in a row. Let's hope we actually sign this one.

Judge,who was the other No 1 basketball prospect that committed to UGA!! Was that Haggens and was he No.1 in GA??

Yes and yes. Some felt Hagans was #1 nationally, not just in Ga.

It would obviously be hypocritical for me to blame anyone for being human.

Therefore, I can't blame some of our fans for being exasperated with our performance this year. I can't blame Tom Crean for uttering a candid, and brutally blunt, statement about the members of the team, even though he later regretted how mean it sounded. And I can't blame our players for not being able to thrive in a fast paced, free form system.

Our guys have basically been chess pieces for years, moved carefully from place to pace, on pain of severe bench time, if one found himself at the wrong place on court. That has been drilled into their brain stems.

That ponderous system depended on the slowest possible pace, to hold down the score, a tight man defense, and a superb scorer who could score against double teams, to make sure our points were more than our opponent's at the end of the game. Yante, JJ, KCP and to a lesser extent Mann, Gaines and Robinson filled that function.

We don't have that scorer now. We would be having a horrible year under Mark Fox. We probably don't need to have a Superman under Crean's transition offense, but asking our guys to jump right into that system is like asking emaciated prisoners of war to feast and immediately bulk up.

From comments others have made about Tom Crean, I was concerned when he came whether we would have an effective defense, and half court offense, that we could call upon when needed. I hoped before the season that our Assistant Head Coach could help in those two areas. We have perhaps seen some evidence that he has, in that I have seen a little full-court trap, and some back door cutting in our half court offense. I love to see that, all of that. I've been hoping to see some real basketball out of us for many, many years.

These players are being asked to unlearn everything they have known at Georgia, and to learn many other things instead. That it is excruciatingly slow just means they're human. That there have been some glimmers of hope that things are changing and improving, is enough for me at the moment. I've suffered through a lot of bad teams over my many years. I'm easily heartened when the tide seems to start to turn.

Hagans was definitely not the #1 prospect in America. GA, maybe. Zion Williamson and Garrett of Duke were #1 and #2 in the country.

We do have the #1 football prospect and arguably the #1 basketball prospect committed however.

No way Hagans was #1 in the country.

Yeah, my mistake. Perhaps he was the top uncommitted guy when he reclassified last spring?

Rossville, I agree with you completely!! You can tell at times that the slow-down Fox system is not totally gone especially when Turtle dribbles around for 10-15 sec before distributing the ball but he has gotten better as the season has progressed!! It is like a kid that cannot go from crawling to running without learning to walk then pick up the pace and start running!! At times they run Crean's system nicely and it results in good passes and lay-ups or slam dunks!! Nice to see!! The last 3 games against good teams like LSU. Miss State and today Ole Miss has shown how much progress they have made!! I really look forward to next year with the new 4 and 5 stars coming in and our returning players with a year of experience under their belt!! I believe we will see some exciting Basketball and a lot more wins and hopefully a trip to the NCAA Tournament!! Go Dawgs!!

No such thing as moral victories in the SEC, BUT we can see reason for hope next year.

I agree, Judge. I think fans can see the future is bright. The level of talent we are about to see come through Athens is going to take a big jump.