Your FREE-view UGA hoops preivew:
December 5th, 2009 by bourbonstreet#171 R.P.I. Georgia @ #55 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:
TV Coverage: none
Tipoff: 3:30pm Sunday
Vegas Line: VT-11, O/U=124.5
After a uplifting road win in our made for TV A.C.C. Big-10 Challenge over a lower echelon Iowa hoops squad; our beloved Hokies return home to face a Georgia Bulldog hoops squad that packs some bite indeed.
For the visiting Georgia fans. God Bless on the loss of your dearly departed mascot UGA VII; that from a 3-time Bulldog owner.
4-2 UGA invades Seth’s Cassell Guard this Sunday afternoon. Georgia has been beaten by 7-1 very good University of Alabama (UAB) team and then got upset by a very vanilla Worford hoops squad.
Since then, the Bulldogs have tamed 3 very middle of the road team’s; to wit, one could deduce that these Bulldogs lack a quality early-season win; which makes getting a good read on them a tough measure at this stage of the game.
Georgia at a glance:
- UGA is scoring 65 per game. (VT is scoring 65 per game; both right at 260th overall)
- Pretty solid defensive team due to their physicality. (63rd in Points allowed; 93rd in FG% allowed)
- Very strong (pun intended) on the Defensive glass at 41st in Defensive Rebounding. i.e. do not expect many second-shots for us/VT
- 0. As in UGA lists zero injuries at this time and appear to enjoy 100% of their Roster for this one.
- UGA is only 324th in 3-point makes on the year. This is a hint and a half. (more below)
- UGA is 50th in Blocks (5 per game)
- UGA is 20th in Fouls (i.e. do not expect many Hokie FT-attempts)
I’m not here to tell you that Georgia is a great basketball team. They are however a very problematic match-up for Seth and company which to me will foreshadow some real live A.C.C. conference-game foibles for the 2009-2010 Hokies. UGA has the look and feel of a N.I.T. team that has underachieved a bit thus far on the year.
Clearly they have an Association caliber talent in one 6`9“ 252 lb. #33 Trey Thompkins who is listed as a true-Center or Power-Forward combo in varying publications. Trey is athletic and highly skilled either way. Trey leads UGA in scoring (15) and in board work (8) this season. However, Trey has been in a rebounding slump of late; only pulling down between 3 and 7 boards in his last 4 games. Trey also has extremely nice range for a Big as his 46% 3-ball stroke suggests. In fact, Trey is sitting at 47% from the Field and a sizzling 94% from the FT-stripe. It is very unusual to see a guy with a 46% to 47% 3-pointer to Field ratio folks! Trey obviously has the skills to play the bills and you have to wonder how much longer he will stick in Athens Georgia if you are a Bulldog supporter?
All the UGA 3-headed backcourt does is net about 30 points, pull down 10 boards and drop 9 dimes (assists) if you need ‘em. Travis Leslie (#22 below, #1 this year) is the best of the bunch. Not bad work for a team that rarely shoots from beyond 20`9“ as trifecta attempts go; which tells you where UGA gets their points. They get them inside off of dribble-drive penetration from their 3-Guards who though a bit slight of build are indeed lightening quick.
The heart of these 2009-2010 Georgia Bulldogs is found in their frontcourt; where nobody stands less than 6`8“ and nobody weighs in under 247 lbs.! “Where’s the beef?” You and the 1980’s Wendy’s commercials ask? It’s up-front across an altogether bruising UGA front-line that will be a very combative physical match-up for Coach Greenberg and in particular Bell and Thompson to attempt to handle. This means more minutes for Witcher and possibly extended debut minutes for Raines.
However, the UGA front-line production drops off beyond Thompkins and Jeremy Price who nets 8 points and pulls down 4-5 boards per game. The rest of the Bulldog frontcourt is barely averaging 3 points and change and barely cleaning the Glass for 3-4 boards per man.
Nevertheless, the key is the number of bodies that1st-year Head Coach Mark Fox of UGA will run at Seth as the Bulldogs have a whopping 11 different guys logging 9 minutes or more per game! That means that fatigue could be an issue as Georgia has a very deep playing rotation right now. That favors UGA; though my research did uncover that Trey is a bit foul prone at times as he has experienced foul troubles in 50% of his games this year. Ergo, Allen or whomever must challenge Trey early on offense and try to draw charges on defense. This would in effect sit almost a quarter (24%) of UGA’s offensive production this campaign.
Pocket Bulldog Scouting Report:
- #33 PF-C Trey Tompkins: rare blend of skills married to quicks and athleticism. NBA player, ’nuff said.
- #1 2-Guard Travis Lesile: leaper with springs for legs; gets to the Line.
- #10 Pt.G Ricky McPhee: former Walk-On, senior, good range, team leader.
- #3 true-Point-G Dustin Ware: undersized play-maker, leads UGA in Assists.
- #4 PF, Chris Barnes: athletic-4, bouncy, 46% FT shooter!
- #34 C-PF Al Jackson: dropped 15 lbs. for senior year, 2nd in blocks, 67% shooter.
- #50 PF Jerry Price: all-SEC freshman, gives you 9 points and 5 boards off the bench.
- #41 SF Drazen Zlovaric: Import baller (Serbia) with range and fundamentals.
- #11 G Vinny Williams: Top recruit last year; defensive stopper this year.
As both teams average 65 points per game; that strikes me as a reasonable jumping off point for what appears to be another hotly contested hoops game; and one in which points will be at a premium for both squads. Seasonal analysis raises some O&M flags. Though we/VT are a thrifty 23rd in Scoring Defense; we are a lowly 311th in FG% Offense! Both teams are highly ranked in Blocks (50th for FGA; 66th) for VT.
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Recent 3-game play analysis for both squads shows us that Georgia is out-shooting VT by 6% from the floor and by 4% from downtown. Some of that is of coursed skewed by having played our last 3-games all away from the Cassell. So go ahead and expect a measure of correction regarding those shooting metrics to take place at home on Sunday in favor of VT. Our Hokies do hold a nice Turnover advantage here; and we will need all the easy baskets we can get vs. a bullish UGA front-line that out mans us pretty much across the board. I gotta side with that UGA front-line edge, all other things be equal; which the nearly are. MD-20-20 will have a great game (25+ points); and yet it won’t quite be enough to make these rascally Bulldogs “sit.”
Virginia Tech=62, Georgia=67
“LETS GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street
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