BIG Week

This week allows me to ignore the dreadful weather of Athens in February and shines light on how good it can be to be a student at Georgia. Though I have 2 tests this week and two more next week, its not too often you get to see two defending national champions play in the same week and go eat and drink on behalf of 20+ 18-year olds.
The baseball team opens with Oregon St. in a series that does not hold a lot of importance but will be interesting to see a lot of new names. The pitching could be stong with Leaver, Moreau, Dodson, and Holder. All showed a lot of promise last year but none were full time starters. Fields might be the best reliever in the country and will have to be fantastic to carry an average bullpen. Wyatt,Beckham, and Piesel are the only proven position starters. Wyatt will start in Center but I wouldn't be surprised to see him move back to Left and Piesel is moving to First. Olsen in Right and Robbins at DH are the other returnees who have significant experience. There will be Freshman everywhere and that will probably lead to struggles in the early portions of the season when Georgia plays one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. Georgia is capable of being in every game if the Starters pitch to their capabilities. I see them finishing in the 7-8 range in the final SEC standings and grabbing a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament. With a young team, that would be a nice season. Georgia wins one this weekend against the Beavers.
The Basketball team was simply disappointing last week. The lack of intensity and the fact that Michael Griffin could have shot better from long distance led to 2 poor showings. Mike Mercer has to be a whole new player or his minutes need to decrease. He has done nothing but hurt Georgia's progress in the last two weeks. More importantly Brown needs more touches. He might be a 1st teamer if he gets an adequate amount. He's playing like one of the best post players this University has seen in a long time. And I continue to see that Georgia goes as Stukes' shooting does and he didn't go last week. A win against Florida would make everything better but a loss might be the beginning of a run to the NIT. Brewer will play with what turned out to be just a bruised knee. Once again Stegeman will be packed and just that is a great sign for the program and basketball recruiting.
The poor finish by Georgia in football recruiting puts a little damper on signing day but we addressed most of our needs and I am not as down about this class as most are. Huge week that also includes a #2 vs. #3 matchup in Gymnastics and by weeks end the countdown will reach 33. Go Dawgs.

Football: Wednesday- Signing Day (ALL DAY)
Basketball: Wednesday vs. Florida(7:30) ; Saturday at South Carolina(7:00)
Baseball: Friday-Sunday vs. Oregon St. (5:00, 2:00, 1:00)