Dogs’ opener shows good and bad side
November 16, 2009 by NICK PARKER
Filed under Sports
Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox has frequently described his team as a work-in-progress.
Fox’s sentiment perfectly epitomizes Georgia’s season-opening 67-59 victory over New Orleans Friday night, as there were many positives from the Dogs in Fox’s first game, with equally as many areas for concern.
“I was extremely pleased with parts of our play and disappointed with parts,” Fox said following the game.
The positives
The question of how Georgia’s Trey Thompkins would react to being the main defensive focal point for opponents with Terrence Woodbury gone was answered with a definitive, just fine, thanks.
Thompkins, who was named preseason second-team All-SEC, proved the preseason praise was justified, scoring a career-high 25 points and securing 12 rebounds for only the fifth double-double of his career.
Rebounding. Georgia out-rebounded the Privateers of New Orleans plus-14 over the final 20 minutes for a 41-27 advantage over the course of the game. Georgia’s starting post players hit the boards hard, with center Chris Barnes snaring a career-high 11 rebounds in only 24 minutes of action. Thompkins added 12 rebounds as well.
“I knew I had to rebound to help my team win the game,” Barnes said. “And we started out kind of slow, but we really picked it up at the end.”
Poise. As Barnes said, the Dogs “picked it up at the end,” and for a team that repeatedly crumbled in the final minutes of games last season, Georgia held their composure during crunch time. Georgia received clutch plays from guards Ricky McPhee, Drazen Zlovaric and Dustin Ware to pull away, outscoring New Orleans 9-3 over the final two minutes.
“I’m very pleased that our kids played well in the final four minutes, and we were fortunate to get the win,” Fox said.
Win. It can’t be understated just how important a win is for gaining the kind of confidence this team needs, which only a win can provide.
The negatives
Margin of victory. Georgia struggled to pull away from New Orleans, who was picked to finish last in the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference by the league’s coaches preseason, and needed clutch plays at the end to secure the win. That, in itself, is concerning.
Who will help Thompkins out? Though the sophomore power forward carried the bulk of the offensive load Friday night, someone will have to step up to help Thompkins for a team that “is not as offensively gifted as some,” according to Fox. Outside of Thompkins’ 7-for-11 shooting, Georgia shot 39.4 percent as a team and received little offensive punch from its guards and perimeter scorers, with their post players accounting for 45 of the team’s 67 points.
“Trey needs help scoring the ball. He certainly answered the call tonight, but we need to develop other people who can consistently score,” Fox said.
“It might be by committee, won’t necessarily be the same second person every night … But we do need that extra scoring punch if we’re going to be a good team.”
Turnovers. Fox has emphasized taking care of the ball in the offseason, following last season in which they led the SEC in turnovers with 17.5 a game. The turnover problem still exists, as they turned the ball over 10 times in the second half, continuing a disturbing second-half trend from the North Georgia exhibition in which they had 11 second-half turnovers.
“To win against big teams, we need to cut those down to 10, maybe 7,” Barnes said.
