re: WOJ bomb: Tom Crean is finalizing an agreement to become the next coach at Georgia, source

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I'll give you the depth argument and that it clearly hurt Fox's tenure.

Again, I'm just making the point that I don't see Crean's starting 5s being very obvious and clear improvements over many of Fox's starting lineups what featured multiple ALl SEC caliber players

The improvement that UGA will experience will be due to Crean being better at coaching teams to wins and not some massive recruiting boost unless Crean start pumping out top 5 type classes

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I'd argue that JJ and Mann in particular were not necessarily as good as "advertised"... Mann did have a fricking uncanny ability to draw fouls though... JJ when he was on was a world beater, but the inconsistency was baffling. Of the more recent guys you listed, I really only put Maten at that same level of "elite" college player. As you saw this year, and most of last... if you don't have some kind of offensive game plan in order to take pressure off of the lone focal point, it's really damn difficult to win game in/game out...

I think Crean's recruiting prowess shows up in rounding out the class with more than one threat first of all... secondly, it will be in his decision to *utilize* the right players. If you've followed any UGA basketball threads, several of us (WG, DOT34 and myself for sure) have *long* criticized Fox for leaving guys in that just don't belong on the floor while pulling younger players out for one or two missed shots. It does not help with their development and ultimately has cost us games as we go offensively stagnant for long stretches of time with barely SEC caliber players (if that) eating up substantial minutes. What good does it do you to recruit high quality players if you refuse to put them on the floor when it counts.

I do agree that the biggest area of improvement will be in coaching, but I think it's wrong to say that UGA won't have substantially better recruiting under Crean... Under Fox, we've technically averaged about 55th nationally since 2010 (won't knock him for the 2009 class - as I can't even recall whether he would have had much input on that relative to signing dates/hiring). If we say that he's evaluated better than the services and that of the guys you listed maybe they were good enough to be considered 4* players (or maybe high 3*)... that might be good enough for about a 40th best class in the country on average? Crean averaged a 10th ranked class at IU... again... even if I say he can only do about half as well, you're talking about a ~20th rated class on average?

This is of course a lot of projection... but I don't think it's unreasonable to say he gets 2 or more top 100 guys out of Atlanta on average.

Just the last few years, the 20th rated class in the country:

2017: Florida: 2 top 101*, + 1 more top 200
2016: Gonzaga: 1 top 100, + 4 more in the top 200
2015: Cal: Tiny class - 3 players. 2 in the top 10, one just outside top 200. (Their top recruit? Jaylen Brown out of Wheeler in Marietta)

*sidenote* In 2017, Auburn only took 3 top 100 guys for the cycle - #22 class overall - Chuma Okeke from Atlanta, and Davion Mitchell from Georgia as well.
In 2016, Auburn took 3 top 100 guys for the cycle plus a ~200 ranked prospect. 2 from Georgia.

Lock down dem borders!!!

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Sorry Georgia but the series ends now...

Neutral court?

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- Honestly, I think UK fans would probably be on board with a rotating "neutral site" game in Atlanta and maybe somewhere closer to Lex if we continue to only have one matchup per year... You frickers can sure as hell fill up Atlanta come tournament time.

I did notice the reference to Kentucky during his opening presser, not anything specific to UK, but rather just that our fanbase/players/etc may not get as excited about other lower profile games currently and that he wants to change that mentality.

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I can take Indiana to a the field of 64, 32 and 16.

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