Er, what happened here?

So, that last post turned into a warzone - quite honestly I don't even feel like reading all of the comments now - if you feel like wading into it, go ahead ... but I'm warning you in advance.

What I did want to do was give a quick rundown on the Georgia debacle two nights ago, where a couple of ugly things really showed their head, and I think these are going to be problems for us most of the season.

• Zam is the only PG, West and Clinch aren't going to be able to really fill in that role. Zam had probably his worst game so far this season, but even with that we were still in the game until he picked up his 3rd foul ... and as soon as he hit the bench, UGa went on that huge run at the end of the first half that really put the game away. We simply cannot afford to not have him out on the floor, our offense is beyond bad when he's out. This is going to really hurt in ACC play and at the end of he season when his legs are gone from playing 35 minutes a game. Critty can't get here fast enough.



• Dickey has got to show up every game, and he's got to rebound better than he does. We barely outrebounded UGa, a team with much less interior strength, and a large part of that is that Dickey doesn't put a body on guys as much as he tries to rebound with pure athleticism. That isn't going to cut it, we give up too many offensive rebounds and that's killing our defense. Our guards are culprits in this as well, outside of Morrow none of them are rebounding well either.



• Our help defense is too slow, and we don't stop dribble penetration well. We keep letting opponents guards get into the lane, help defense comes slow, and we leave open shooters. This is a broken record with this year's team, and it's mostly a result of just being young and not used to the speed of the game. In the second half we rotated out on shooters much better than the first, but still allowed too much dribble penetration. West is by far the best on the ball defender, but Zam, Clinch and Morrow are struggling a bit right now.



• Morrow is going to be First Team All-ACC before his career at GT is over. The guy is turning into an assassin, and I love it. 28 and 24 in his last two road games? I dare you to find me a guy with a prettier stroke anywhere in the country. One of two bright spots on the night.



• Jeremis Smith is a hardcore mofo. I'm not sure what about 9 for 21 from the FT line impresses me more ... that he could miss 12 FT's, or that he played so hard he got fouled that often. He's the best rebounder we've had in years, and there are very few PF's in the country that can contain him with his ballhandling skills and pure strength.



• Overall, UGa is a pretty good basketball team this year - they have a chance to play in the tournament, and have returned all 5 starters from last year. Mercer and Humphries have been solid additions for them. Did I mention that even our Final Four team lost in Stegamen? In the end, it's just another loss in a season where we'll have a bunch of them, this is a very young team with some huge holes, and we'll make plenty of mistakes. On the bright side, everyone is back next year, and more talent coming in ... experience gained this year is going to pay off down the road.