Nevada Dawg

I don't know anything about Smith and have no direct link to insiders in the know about the Ducks roster. I know more about Raiola as he was a Georgia commit before flipping away to Nebraska. On the positive side, he does have ample starting experience in the B1G where he had his experiences, both good and bad. But I certainly would not compare him to Nix, who was good at making plays with his legs when necessary. The big rap on Raiola from the Georgia insiders was that he was a statue back in the pocket with no real elusiveness. Whether he has improved over time is not knowable to me, but it is a caution that COULD limit his effectiveness. Time will tell I guess.

I've always liked CKW and wish him buen suerte in Ann Arbor (except when facing he Ducks, that is).

Yeah Tae is a good one. Special teams is where he was going to play during his first 1-2 years had he signed with Georgia. But the thinking in Athens was that he could be developed into a meaningful contributor.

Ducks have the far more talented roster playing at home and should win this one. But Boise may stick around a while and will not be intimidated. They love these underdog roles and it wouldn't surprise me to see them pushing the Ducks well into the 3rd Quarter. Hard to believe that we still have 60+ days till we kick the football. How time drags this time of the year!

I've always had the impression that Boise recruited talented football players who felt they were ranked lower than they should be and who came in and worked their butts off to prove that the analysts had dun em wrong. I still remember the kickoff classic game when the Broncos came to Atlanta and embarrassed my highly ranked Dawgs. They were clearly the better team on that particular night and I was quick to acknowledge that to my ex-college roomie who was an insufferable Broncos fan who had missed the game while on an Elk hunting trip in the Idaho Rockies.

Men's Georgia track team lost too many contributors to be serious contenders think. On the other hand, the Lady Dawgs repeated as national champs if my information is correct.

Dawgs came through big-time tonight against those arrogant Texas Longhorns. I don't know if this qualified as the snot-beating my great Duck buddy was hoping for, but I kept telling myself all game that this one, in my sentiments at least, was not only for the Dawgs but also for the Ducks. Hopefully, Ducks Baseball will be back stronger than ever next year.

The statement about " :...that is Baseball, isn't it?" shows me you are a true fan of the sport. Indeed when my best Duck buddy and his wife (both true fans of baseball) responded to my text about last nights game being a "really tough loss", he replied "Barb and I hope that the Dawgs beat the living snot out of Texas next week." I replied "I think they will, but as you well know, this is baseball you know." It can be a damn frustrating game to be sure.

Yep, I kept waiting for a couple of timely hits that could change the complexion of the game. Watched the Bulldogs bowl from Athens this morning and Georgia was fortunate to get such timely hits that erased an early 7-0 deficit. But hang in there my Duck buddies--it is a DOUBLE elimination tournament.

Great game times for the Ducks! My Dawgs, the highest remaining seed in the tourney, got abysmal starts: 11AM Saturday and 12PM on Sunday. Neither Georgia or their opponent Mississippi State (a CDT team) are happy about this draw. As the games are in Athens, which is said to be prone to afternoon thunderstorms this time of the year, should we use a similar logic to move the World Series from an even more storm prone venue, Omaha, to a more benign location like Los Angeles?

As an 80-year-old, I think that the importance of the regular season has already been lessened to some extent by expansion of the playoffs from 2 to 4 teams, although favored that move, as well as a move to 8 or 12 teams. But as much as I value tradition and the pageantry of college football, I think that a 24 team field erodes the fabric of the game I have followed for 70 years. As you have pointed out, there are some solid points to be made for a doubling of teams in the dance, so I guess I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best. But suspect I will be skipping the games that project as blowouts. This isn't college basketball in which a team with far fewer resources can catch lightening in a bottle and make deep runs. Teams like the Dawgs Ducks, and anybody else with millions to invest are at far greater advantage than, say, a Michigan vs. a San Diego state on the hardwoods.

Given the number of uninteresting/noncompetitive first round games last year with only 12 teams in the field, I can only imagine how bad that round will be in a 24-team field. More money to more teams has little meaning if the games become so boring that viewers tune out and/or gravitate heavily to the NFL playoffs for postseason excitement. I fear we could end up killing the Golden Goose if we are not careful and grovel too hard for the all mighty $$$$. Call me a cynic but that's my opinion and I'm sticking with it until proven wrong

Love the renewal of a traditional rivalry! The focus on money is, unfortunately all too often, pushing tradition aside to the detriment of the game IMHO.

I think these roster rankings are reasonably accurate. Part of the reason Georgia isn't top 10 is that Kirby Smart doesn't break the bank to land unproven high school recruits, and part of the reason for that is, as Jon notes, that he prefers to spend to retain his proven entities. Plus, Georgia is not one of the weathier teams in college football, ranking only 8th in the SEC in fan donations.

Solid player but Georgia was merely a hat on the table as the Dawgs pursuit was tepid at best I am told. Why that is (was) I can't say.

Man, Bruins were as sharp as South Carolina was flat today. The game was never really in doubt and that's a rare thing to say about South Carolina women's basketball. Dawn Staley was as classy in her post-game remarks as Gino wasn't a couple days prior. She lost the game on the court today but certainly won in the court of public opinion. Congrats Bruins! You earned it!

When I completed my bracket prior to the tournament tipoff, I had both Michigan and UConn progressing to the final four and Michigan winning it all. After watching the offensive machine of the Arizona Wildcats, I am not so confident about Michigan winning, but the Wolverines are a very solid team . I kinda lean toward Illinois falling to the tournament tested coach Dan Hurley who seems to always find a way to win big games. However I admit that Illinois is much better than I have given them credit for. And I have to admit that I turned away from the Duke-UConn game and was shocked several hours later to learn that UConn ended up winning that puppy.

It was a funny year for SEC basketball. There were a fair number of very good teams and no elite ones. The SEC's outcomes this year pretty much matched what the B1G usually does. I wouldn't bet too much, however, on the league staying down for long.

Good article Charles. There is much truth to what you lay out here.

I didn't watch many Duck games this year, but what I saw suggested serious depth and talent deficits. Whether this was from an NIL deficit, I can't say and will defer to Charles on this one. My team suffered perhaps the most embarrassing loss of any in the first round, losing badly to a less talented Saint Louis aggregation. They didn't even come close to resembling the spirited group they had been in the regular season. I began to wonder early in the second half if some of the players were on the take to gamblers. No one I know close to the team as any good explanation for how poorly the Dawgs played in this one.

Congrats to the B1G getting so many teams to the Sweet 16. This is BY FAR the best conference showing in the big dance since...would you believe last century. Typically with an initial draw of 7-9 teams, the B1G gets an average of about 2-3 teams in the Sweet Sixteen in a good year and the numbers making the elite 8 were sparce indeed. I saw a large number of fundamentally sound B1G teams this week and think it very likely that one of them (probably Michigan) will break the conference's 25-year drought on winning it all. They are far from the most athletic teams, but the kind that would make John Wooden proud, playing team-oriented approaches rather than the all-too-often hero ball we see so much of today.

David Marsh's post is right on IMHO. Lanning and the younger Ducks got bounced rather rudely by the older ,more experienced team in both 24 and 25. 2023 Natty champ Michigan was an older, very experienced squad, as were the 21 and 22 Georgia national championship squads. Lanning will have his successes, I believe, if he can put together similar squads, which will involve convincing some of his older contributors to stick around to run it back another year in Eugene for the pride and pleasure of raising the big trophy at the end of the year.

Miami had some very good football teams in the 1970s and 80s. One of those teams was matched against Georgia in the old Tangerine Bowl IIRC. I was in Athens by then, was familiar with Miami during the three years I had spent in MAC country, and warned Dawg partisans they had better prepare diligently for this team or risk getting their butts kicked. Vince Dooley preached the same message, but the scuttlebutt I heard surrounding the upcoming game was that Ole Coach was crying wolf as he so often did. I don't remember the score but Miami did indeed kick some tail that game and were clearly the better team on the field that day. Had the two teams played 10 games, I think Miami would have won seven of them!

Goes without saying doesn't it?