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ATHENS - It was an excellent year for Kirby Smart and UGA Football. Again.
It was an excellent athletic season all around for the Dawgs. LSU’s lopsided win over the Gators Monday night concluded the 2022-23 athletic year in NCAA sports, and of the four so-called TV titles (football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball), the Dawgs and Tigers won three of the four.
That Georgia is pretty well starting over in both basketballs and baseball means it is possible that this is the “worst” season Georgia could have in a while. I will stop here to say that LSU, with all its passion and wild fans, had an outstanding year. The Tigers won it all in baseball - a sport they really care about - and in women’s basketball - a sport they seem to really want to care about.
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Georgia has spent the last decade failing at baseball and men’s basketball. That should end coming into 2023. I’ve written about this for a long time - Georgia should be good at pretty much everything is plays outside of volleyball, which doesn’t have a strong presence in the state.
The failure of basketball is astonishing to be honest. It is a failure of imagination. We’ve all seen what Stegeman is like when the Dawgs are good. There is no shortage of elite basketball players in the state. The SEC has become one of the premiere brands in college ball. I never thought I would see a day when the SEC was better than the ACC in basketball... and yet here we are.
There is no excuse to be anything other than powerful in a sport where talent is all around you.
Baseball is the same exact thing - Georgia should be a national power in baseball. I’ve been out to Omaha three times in my time covering Georgia. It wasn’t “that” hard to produce a winner in a sport that is hemorrhaging talent around the state.
What this gets down to is the will to win. Josh Brooks should have never given Scott Stricklin an extension when he did, but he corrected that problem this spring by dismissing him. It was the right move.
Tom Crean seemed like the right hire, and he probably was, but it didn’t work. We are going to see what Mike White, who has had exactly zero losing seasons in 12 seasons of coaching, can do with Georgia’s program in the coming years.
Sweet 16s and Super Regionals are not asking too much for either program.
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If Kirby Smart (who very well may be the best coach in his sport, but is certainly not walking on water) can win back-to-back national titles, baseball and men’s basketball can approach that sort of success.
Imagination is the problem - at least it has been for a long time - at Georgia. That and hiring the right coach. For the record, it is the coach who has to drive the institution to care about their spot by winning and pushing.
Five of the last six Men’s College World Series have been won by different SEC schools. Nine of the last 14 have been won by an SEC team. The plan should be simple for Georgia - Win the national title in baseball in the next five years.
Period.
South Carolina and Auburn have been to a Final Four since 2017. South. Carolina. The plan is simple: Get to the Final Four in the next five years.
Think those goals are too lofty?
Adjust your imagination and expectations.
