What We've Missed at UGA So Far
ATHENS - We knew Anthony Edwards’ career at Georgia was coming to an end this spring. We just didn’t know how sudden it would happen.
The freshman scored the final points of Georgia’s athletics season on March 11 - an alley-oop dunk to end Georgia’s 81-63 win over Ole Miss in the first game of the 2020 SEC Tournament in Nashville. That’s the last game Georgia, as an athletic department, has played since the coronavirus shut the sporting world down.
If it seems like its been longer than a month that’s understandable. In that time we’ve been measuring success in six-foot intervals. Tens of thousands of people have died, and we are not done on that front, yet. Areas like Albany have been particularly hard hit. The tragedy of this pandemic knows few boundaries. It attacks all of us.
Still, a month in social distancing has been working. It turns out my wife was correct - we should say at least six feet from one another at all times. An end to this first wave of coronavirus seems in sight, but its still a long way away. It is harder to know when the sporting world will get started again, and under what circumstances.
ESPN has gone to the extreme of broadcasting NBA players playing a video game. FOX has put on NASCAR drivers racing one another virtually in a video game. I wish I could video game all of the things I have to do.
“I NEED ANOTHER SNACK DAD,” she screams.
Georgia won’t have an athletic event of any sort any time soon. And there is uncertainty on that front. For years coaches have wanted athletes to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Here is our chance, as a society, to do just that.
Folks are going stir crazy (or just confirming they are crazy) with the things they are doing and saying. Football coaches are leading the charge on that front. Dabo Swinney is flying his family to Florida for Easter (so much for stay-at-home orders that were issued in South Carolina last Monday). Mike Leach moved on from discussing pirates, and made a mess for himself on Twitter. And Mike Gundy isn’t scared of no virus. That trio could use a break from microphones for a while.
Meanwhile, Nick Saban has discovered e-mail.
These coaches are amazing. A month without football, and they don’t know how to act.
What have we missed over this month?
We missed the remainder of conference basketball tournaments. That week is as fun as it gets on the sports calendar for me. Watching the jockeying for the NCAA, and the wildness of all of those basketball games is a ton of fun. Who are the last four out right now? Everyone - back to you in the studio.
We missed the start of spring football at UGA. We missed what most are assuming is the beginning of the season of Jamie Newman. We’ve missed pro day. We’ve missed the buffer that is created by spring ball getting us from the end of the season to the start of the hibernation that is the summer.
We missed the NCAA Tournament. It is one of the spectacles of sport - something uniquely American and seasonal. It was completely scrubbed from our TV sets as we were forced to rewatch classic games that were fun, but not the same as not knowing what will happen next.
“HELLO FRIENDS!” We missed The Masters, and the azaleas in bloom in Augusta. Since the end of World War II, only coronavirus has managed to prevent a spring Masters from happening.
We’ve missed a lot. What would have happened with Anthony Edwards during the rest of the SEC Tournament? Would Jamie Newman look good, bad or indifferent, and HOW WOULD WE REACT TO THAT? What tone would the message board take discussing his progression or lack there of? Who would have had their one shining moment in the Big Dance? Who would have made Augusta roar? Why does my mother-in-law love me so much?
Wait…
Those moments are gone this spring. Instead we’ve hunkered in our homes, provided care to those in need, been on the front lines or tried to do our parts - even if that’s as simple as gathering more snacks than necessary, watching Easter services on YouTube and cutting our own hair (Mark Richt - I’m starting to get worried about you).
This is the new normal for now. It won’t be normal forever. Stick with it. We can do this.
