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Thursday, November 18, aoio I The Red a Buck
Bulldogs step into new
roles at start of season
By MITCH BLOMERT
Thk Red & Black
It’s still early in the season, but
there are already some interesting
anomalies forming on the stat sheet of
the men's basketball team.
Take Oerald Robinson, for example.
After sitting out the entire 2009-10 sea
son, the junior guard is the Bulldogs’
scoring leader with 20 points per game
good for fifth in the SEC.
Right behind him is Jeremy Price,
who has 18.5 points per game. The
senior averaged just under seven points
per game his first three seasons.
Then there’s the team leaders in
average minutes logged. Travis Leslie
is averaging 33 minutes, while Dustin
Ware has logged 32 a game.
The next highest, also with 32 min
utes a night, is Connor Nolte? The
junior transfer is playing 10 more min
utes than he averaged in two years at
Rinnan.
These stats show the change of roles
that several Georgia players have had
to make with the loss of superstar for
ward Trey Thompkins.
When Thompkins sprained his ankle
shortly before the season started, it
disrupted the Bulldogs' roster, one that
was highly admired by SEC coaches
and players and motivated the media
to pick Georgia to finish third in the
SEC East in the preseason polls.
Asa result, head coach Mark Pox
has been forced to move players around
and take on responsibilities they hadn’t
prepared for in the offseason. He has
called it “re-inventing themselves” on
several occasions.
They appear to be doing just fine.
With Thompkins’ 17.7 points per
game missing from the front court, the
Bulldogs have looked to the backcourt
for scoring answers. That’s where
Robinson has shined, becoming the
team’s go-to 3-point man and play
maker in the combo guard role.
But Robinson is versatile, appar
ently. For a brief time in the season
opener against Mississippi Valley State,
he played forward. All 6-foot-1 of him.
Green debates NFL decision
By NICK PARKER
The Red & Black
A.J. Green acknowl
edged that Senior Day
against Georgia Tech
could also be the last time
he plays in Sanford
Stadium, with a looming
decision at the end of the
season whether or not to
enter his name into the
NFL Draft.
“I think it’s always a
possibility, but like I said
I’m not going to think
about that yet,” Green
said. “I would love to come
back, but it’s so many
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SPORTS ANALYSIS
Meanwhile, Leslie has wasted no
time getting adjusted to his new posi
tion at shooting guard— averaging
17.5 points per game —but still dis
plays remnants of a forward. He leads
the team with 9.5 rebounds per game,
and still keeps the Stegeman Coliseum
crowd satisfied with a few show-stop
ping dunks so far this year.
So how is this renovated backcourt
bringing it all together so quickly?
Robinson says it’s all about knowing
who’s going to do what all the time.
“I feel like we have great chemistry,
all being able to play together and all
bring different things to the table,”
Robinson said. "We complement each
other well.”
The Tennessee State transfer has
made that chemistry look impressive
on a highlight reel twice this season,
feeding a pair of alley-oops to Leslie
one off a full-court pass against
Augusta State in the preseason. The
two appear to have meshed immedi
ately.
But the early success Georgia has
epjoyed at guard doesn’t mean the
frontcourt hasn’t been tested with
their own new roles.
Obviously, the Bulldogs’ inside game
took an immediate hit when Thompkins
got hurt. That’s a lot of points and
rebounds lost inside the paint.
It was critical that a big man
stepped up and took a leadership role,
and Georgia has gotten just that in
Price. He led the team with 20 points
in a 72-70 win against Mississippi Valley
State, including eight in the final five
minutes to spark the Bulldogs’ decisive
late rally. For the time being. Price is
no longer coming off the bench.
And he’ll still be around when
Thompkins is healthy making for a
deadly inside game for Georgia.
In the meantime, expect a few
strange numbers on the stat sheet as
the season progresses. It might just
lead to a few more wins for the
Bulldogs.
FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK
things you have to deal
with if you come back, get
ting hurt and stuff like
that. You have to put all
that in perspective, and
you just have to do what’s
best for you.”
But it’s a decision
Green joked he won’t even
make. Instead, deferring to
his mom’s advice on
whether to return for his
senior year and finish out
his degree or enter the
NFL Draft. Either way,
Green says he’ll finish the
20 hours he will have
remaining after this semes
ter.
“I’m on track to gradu
ate early (December 2011),
so it’s going to be big. I
want to get that because
my family is really big on
that, especially my mom,”
Green said. “She really
wants me to get that, so
whatever she wants, I got
to do what she wants. I got
to do what she "wants,
what makes her happy. If
she’s telling me to stay. I’m
going to stay.
“I feel like that's every
big dream coming into a
Division I school, to play
at the next level, that’s
always a big dream. But
my dream also was to get
a degree and play in the
NFL at the same time, so
that's really going to play a
factor into that.”
Green also acknowl
edged that the potential of
an NFL lockout if the
Players Union and NFL
owners don’t come to an
agreement on anew collec
tive bargaining agreement
could great
ly influence
his deci
sion.
Why
leave if
there’s no
NFL sea
son?
“That's
really going
to play a
big part of
i
GREEN
my decision,” Green said.
“If they’re talking about a
lockout, there’s no point in
me leaving because they
aren’t going to play for a
whole season or a half of
season, so that’s going to
play a big factor.”
But at the same time,
it's always been Green’s
i “big dream" to play in the
; NFL, and he is a consen
: auk top-18 pick among
mock drafts.
He is ranked as the No.
I 1 wide receiver on the
board, and rookie con
tracts at that level would
guarantee him a multi-mil
lion dollar deal if he
decides it's time to make
the move to the NFL.
Regardless, Green still
feels like he has a lot to
prove in college football
after being suspended four
games by the NCAA to
start the season.
“I really wanted to play
a hill season coming into
my junior year;” Green
said. “I put up a lot of hard
work to come back and
have a great junior year,
but I’m still having a good
junior year, but I had to sit
out four games. 8o that’s
really going to play anoth
er factor, just coming back
and feeling like I still have
something to prove.”
SPORTS
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MEGHAN HITMAN TANARUS Rip a Buci
▲ Junior transfer Connor Nolte is one of the Bulldog players who has seen
an increase of playing time since the injury to standout Trey Thompkins.
Heisman vote, national title
run risk of recall with Newton
Right now, I think another story
about Auburn quarterback Cam
Newton is the last thing anyone
wants to read.
Sorry.
As tired as I am of hearing about the
NCAA’s investigations into Newton and
his father Cecil’s alleged solicitation of
money from Mississippi State, there are
potential problems that simply can’t be
ignored.
With each dynamic touchdown,
Auburn inches closer to a BCS national
championship and Newton to a Heisman
Trophy. Good for them bad for college
football.
Newton being ruled ineligible by the
NCAA is quickly becoming a matter of
when, not if. And if “when” is after the
dust settles on the 2011 BCS title game,
college football could face its second
vacated national championship and
Heisman Trophy in under a decade.
Southern California and former
Trojan running back Reggie Bush were .
stripped of these honors earlier this year
when the NCAA ruled Bush ineligible for
that season.
I can already feel the Heisman Trust’s
unease.
To have those awards stripped once
is an embarrassment. To have them
stripped twice is a complete loss of cred
ibility for the award and the competition
as a whole. So what should we do?
In the case of Auburn winning the
national championship, not much can
be done. If it wins its final two games
at Alabama and in the SEC
Championship it will play in the title
Diamond Dogs sign No. 2 class
By RYAN BLACK
The Red & Buck
After suffering through
a mediocre 2010 season,
the Georgia Bulldogs
baseball team has already
started the 2011 season
off on the right foot —and
they have not played a
game yet.
At the end of the early
signing period yesterday,
Georgia added six addi
tional signees, bringing
their total for the 2011
recruiting cycle to 20
prospects.
Making it even better is
the fact Perfect Game —a
national baseball recruit
ing service ranked the
Bulldogs’ class as the No.
2 overall class in the coun
try.
“We couldn’t be more
excited about this class
because it’s loaded with
power hitters, contact hit
ters, big-time pitchers and
without a doubt, it’s the
best class we’ve ever
signed,” Bulldogs head
coach David Pemo told
Georgia Sports
Communications. “This is
a credit to the assistant
David
Mitchell
game.
As for the Heisman Trophy, one solu
tion is to vote against Newton. He can’t
vacate what he doesn’t win, right? While
he is, hands down, the most deserving of
the award on the field thus far, it would
not be incorrect to argue that these alle
gations tarnish his candidacy.
The opposing argument to this —and
it’s a good one— is that you can’t deny
him votes based solely on speculation.
He is innocent until proven guilty.
It would be a shame, many argue, if
false accusations cost him a place in col
lege football history.
Maybe so.
But, as a fan of college football, I just
can't get past the irreparable damage
that would be done if he is ruled ineligi
ble. The Heisman Trust can’t risk tar
nishing its illustrious reputation further
on the off chance that this might all be a
misunderstanding.
Either the NCAA needs to make a
ruling before the end of the season or
voters need to take matters into their
own hands. Because I don’t know about
you, but I’m getting pretty tired of it.
David Mitchell is a sportswriter
for The Red <6 Black
coaches Jason Eller and
Allen Osborne, the entire
baseball staff, as they
built and maintained rela
tionships with our new
Bulldogs. We are looking
forward to coaching these
young men, and they all
are excited about coming
to UGA.”
The six new
additions include
inflelders Tyler
Oreene, Patrick
Leonard and
Nelson Ward,
pitcher Mike
Mancuso and two
players who can
play multiple posi
tions in pitcher/
outfielder Matthew
Taylor and pitcher/
lnfielder Jared Walsh.
Greene (No. 4-rated
prospect in Georgia),
Leonard (No. 6-rated
prospect in Texas) and
Mancuso (No. 3-rated
prospect in Ohio) were all
among their state’s most
highly-touted prospects.
None may be more
important than pitchers
Mancuso, Walsh and
Taylor, who will be expect
ed to help improve a
Bulldog pitching staff that
compiled a league-worst
8.51 earned run average
last year.
Mancuso went 13-0 the
past two seasons of high
school ball, while putting
up ERAs of 1.20 as a soph
omore and 1.10 as ajunior.
“Mike fits what we’re
looking for in the
pitching depart
ment as a big,
physical athlete
with a huge upside
that's used to win
ning,” Pemo said.
“He is a winner and
is talented enough
to contribute as a
freshman.”
Walsh is entering
his senior season at
PERNO
Peachtree Ridge High
School, and is coming off
a season where he had a
2.09 ERA and 72 strike
outs in 57 innings pitched
and batted .408.
Taylor is the Bulldogs’
only junior college signee.
He is now at Middle
Georgia College after
transferring horn the
University of Alabama fol
lowing his freshman sea
son.