Alan's Assessments?

The terms, almost and close apply well in horseshoes and hand grenades. Not so much in basketball or other parts of life. This time the dawgs came close. But again fell to the Wildcats 76-68. Even though we were trying to get a streak going against the Wildcats. Could we have won this game? Yes. Did we get outplayed? No. So why did we lose?

• Turnovers – 26. This is an ongoing issue that I’m hoping in not a tread. Most are mental and statistical (tipped balls can be counted as turnovers).
• Personal Fouls – 25. We sent Kentucky to the line 33 times for 22 points (66%). Good thing they couldn’t shoot from the line. The Dawgs also fouled out 3 players and all big men.

Those two areas continue to haunt the dawgs. This was an issue during the non-conference schedule and we continue to see it in the SEC opener. Notice what wasn’t listed above. Free Throws. Dawgs shot 80% from the line making 12-15. Yes that would be only 15 attempts. So you have Kentucky shooting twice as many. This can not continue to happen, granted this was played in Rupp, so who knows with these Refs these days. In most of the games this season, I have said if Trey and Travis shoot well, the dawgs have a chance. Well they did get the points. Trey put down 17 and Travis with a team leading 20. Hell, Ricky got 13. But notice, all 3 are starters. We only got nine (9) points from the bench. Nine points. This goes to show how lacking we are with the depth of our team. This will take time and is not something that will be fixed quickly. So look for Coach Fox and staff to deepen the bench. Even going into next year, we can see some depth. So that front is encouraging. So as a fan, do you look at this as a Moral Victory? This is up for debate. I like that we hung with the third ranked team in the country. I would have liked us to play better. Coach Fox had this to say on Twitter : This is the type of coach we now have. Part X and O part psychologist. The combination has a team playing well and buying into the concepts of a new offense and understanding the importance of the little things. So now we move on to Ole Miss. Another rankled team. Most would have thought that we would go 0-3 during this stretch, now we stand a good chance of going 2-3. Will we win games? Yes. Will we give many teams white hair? Oh Hell Yea. If we continue to make the continued improvement that I have seen in person (home games and on TV) from the time I saw them before the first game until now, we can, IMHO, make a nice run. I would like to think we could go 15-1 in Conference, but we are too young and don’t have enough scoring threats. But I do see us going better than .500 in the conference. So here are the stats and Goooooooo Dawgs

GEORGIA BULLDOGS
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Trey Thompkins, F	37	5-15	1-2	6-6	1	13	3	0	1	6	0	17
Albert Jackson, F-C	19	1-3	0-0	0-0	1	4	1	0	2	3	5	2
Travis Leslie, G	36	9-13	0-0	2-3	3	6	2	1	2	3	2	20
Dustin Ware, G	37	2-5	1-3	2-2	0	0	1	1	0	4	2	7
Ricky McPhee, G	35	4-9	3-8	2-2	1	2	3	2	0	3	2	13
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
DeMario Mayfield, G	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0
Chris Barnes, F	10	1-5	0-0	0-2	2	2	0	0	0	0	5	2
Ebuka Anyaorah, G	5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	3	1	0
Vincent Williams, G	4	1-1	1-1	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3
Drazen Zlovaric, F	5	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	1	2	0
Jeremy Price, F	11	2-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	2	5	4
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
		25-53	6-14	12-15	9	31	10	5	5	26	25	68
		47.2%	42.9%	80.0%
KENTUCKY WILDCATS
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
DeMarcus Cousins, F	25	5-10	0-1	6-10	2	7	1	3	2	4	3	16
Patrick Patterson, F	37	8-13	0-2	1-1	3	6	2	0	1	1	2	17
Darius Miller, G	15	1-2	0-1	3-5	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	5
John Wall, G	34	5-14	1-3	6-9	3	4	5	1	0	3	2	17
Eric Bledsoe, G	37	4-13	1-3	3-3	1	3	1	3	0	2	2	12
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Darnell Dodson, G	11	0-3	0-3	0-1	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
Ramon Harris, G-F	10	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	2	0	0	1	2	1	0
Perry Stevenson, F	9	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Daniel Orton, F	8	1-2	0-0	1-2	1	3	0	0	1	1	3	3
DeAndre Liggins, G	14	2-3	0-1	2-2	1	1	0	3	0	0	2	6
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
		26-60	2-14	22-33	13	29	9	12	5	14	15	76
		43.3%	14.3%	66.7%

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