A little basketball
Not that I'm saying anything here that I haven't before, but I agree with PWD on this. It's come time for a change with Georgia's basketball program for exactly the same reasons, and I propose that we don't stop with just Dennis Felton but also Andy Landers.
While I know the latter is heresy to some in UGA circles, Landers's time has come and gone. He's squandered a good bit of talent the past 10 years, and we've watched as Georgia has fallen from the ranks of the elite teams in women's basketball to a middle-of-the-pack team in the SEC.
There's no enthusiasm for either program and no hope of either one improving based on their current course.
While I know the latter is heresy to some in UGA circles, Landers's time has come and gone. He's squandered a good bit of talent the past 10 years, and we've watched as Georgia has fallen from the ranks of the elite teams in women's basketball to a middle-of-the-pack team in the SEC.
There's no enthusiasm for either program and no hope of either one improving based on their current course.
posted by Jmac at 8:50 AM
7 Comments:
I have to call you out on this one, JMac. It is not as if we have a huge line of people who are better coaches than either than Felton or Landers. Sure I have had my differences with some of the decisions both of them have made over the many seasons of being a Georgia hoops fan, but we can expect Pat Summitt and Bruce Pearl (or someone of their caliber) to shed the orange and come sit on our side of the bench once we sacked these two great coaches. That much said, there will come an end to both these coaches' considerable tenure at UGA but not this season and not under these circumstances.
And I'll handle the call-out on the "no enthusiasm" thing. Maybe there's no enthusiasm among the "Football Uber Alles" crowd but, as a board member of the Lady Bulldogs' booster club, I can tell you that our membership is up and donations are up. Season ticket sales have gone up every season for the past several years. Our attendance this year has almost already matched last year's total attendance...and that's with three home dates left. Seven of our last eleven games are being televised. The enthusiasm is there.
As for Andy Landers, I'll disclaim right up front that I'm nowhere near objective as I've had the honor of knowing him and working directly with him on and off for the past fifteen years. But, at any rate, there's no coach in this nation for whom I'd trade him. And there's no other mentor, teacher, and life coach with whom I'd entrust my own daughter more.
Sorry the three-game losing streak has the football message board crowd all in a firin' mood. Those things happen here once every decade or so. You will not find one authority on women's college basketball anywhere in this country who shares your dire assessment. Not one.
I still say Landers's time has come. He does less with more year after year.
Felton, however, should have been gone yesterday.
Well, I'll jump on the disagree with JMac bandwagon and say that I think Felton should stay. I think you and PWD are both over-reacting and are expecting too much.
Yes, we hoped for a little more by this point, but the truth is that this is Georgia basketball and that's just the way it is. Felton is a good coach--still very highly regarded up here in Kentucky for instanct--and we're five years in now. Might as well ride it out and see if the long term stability pays some dividends. Think Frank Beamer from football. Va Tech stuck with him for several crappy seasons.
Trigger fingers are too itchy these days. Explain to me what Georgia should be doing without cheating on the court right now that Felton is failing to do.
After watching the awful performance last night and hearing of the underage alcohol charge of Billy Humphrey this morning, I am now sadly and reluctantly beginning to realize Jmac might be correct, no matter how good a coach Felton may or may not be. No students are showing up, increasing numbers of the wealthy alumni are not attending games either
I don't agree that we should fire either.
a) cycles, people. we have up seasons and down seasons.
b) Felton is bringing an essential character to the men's program that it hasn't had in at least a decade. Men's basketball has never been all that impressive at UGA, anyway. But until recently it was felonious and not that impressive. I'd like to see Felton continue, at least for now/
c) Landers is the winningest basketball coach in the country not to have won the national championship. He's built a highly-successful team environment in which many of his players go on to bigger and better things. Unless we can afford marquee talent, there is no reason to release him.
d) You know why no one's at games? Money, and the related issue of non-attendance. Games used to be free on a space-available basis for UGA faculty and staff. Which means that the arena was usually full. These days the seats go at a premium, and that means they tend to go empty. Unfortunately UGA basketball doesn't yet have the following sufficient to support that. Particularly for casual fans like me who are interested, but not interested enough to shell out $15 a pop to see a team that rarely makes network television. Keep in mind that to a casual fan, there are many less expensive diversions, and even less-expensive, better-credentialed UGA-sports diversions.
I got your back on Landers Jmac. Think about who does less with more talent, and how much in state talent is leaving the state now. Why didn't Maya Moore consider UGA?
Look on georgiadogs.com and see how many of the accolades have come in recent years. Very few. We don't settle for mediocrity in a lot of sports, and it seems like that's where we're headed in women's basketball. Sweet 16s are nice, but how about some SEC titles, wins over LSU, Tennessee, and others.
Someone's comment that he "is the winningest coach not to have won a title" says it all. I wonder how many coaches have won fewer games and a few more NCAA titles.
Lets get a new coach while we still have a tradition left to sell to a new coach.
Post a Comment
<< Home