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Post I drove to Athens for that?!?

Friday February 1, 2008

The Lady Dogs found a way last night to make the men’s 56-point performance at South Carolina on Wednesday look like the output of a Tarkanian UNLV team.

Georgia gave up only 47 points to Kentucky…and lost 47-44.

They scored 17 points in the second half, and that includes a garbage layup at the buzzer.

After going up 36-27 with 13 minutes remaining, the team made just one more shot until Ashley Houts’ layup as the clock expired.

Tasha Humphrey scored 20 points for Georgia, but even she was held to just six points in the second half. Kentucky doubled down on the Bulldog star, and Georgia’s perimeter players were not quick enough to make the Wildcats pay for the extra attention paid to Humphrey.

It is impossible to describe just how wretched the Georgia offense was. If it wasn’t missed shots, it was turnovers. Really bad turnovers. Everything from Ashley Houts’ unforced double-dribbling along the sideline to Megan Darrah throwing the ball away on Georgia’s final opportunity to tie the game.

When you’re a successful coach like Andy Landers, watching (and pointing out) the same mistakes over and over is maddening. He reached a breaking point after the game and pulled the team into the postgame media conference to let them hear some very candid and pointed public criticism.

"We don’t fight," Landers said. "I have a hard time correcting mistakes. And quite honestly, our accountability is not really great. All that’s my fault. I’ve got to figure out how to get all that straightened out. We don’t like to be accountable. We’ll call momma. We’ll call daddy. We’ll call you if we think we can get you to agree with me on a bad idea. …I’m an ineffective coach. I’m not doing a very good job."

From what I’ve seen over the past couple of seasons, he’s right to be frustrated with the players. But the scary thing is looking beyond this year. What is this team without Humphrey and Darrah? The program signed a single guard in the fall signing period without much fanfare. There are a couple of post players sitting out this season – one due to injury and one due to transfer rules – but neither seems to be the impact player that Humphrey is. The long-term outlook for the program is another post for another day, but it’s not a pleasant subject, and Landers has plenty to answer for himself.

Getting back to the present, the Lady Dogs have only a couple of days to rebound and get ready for a rematch with Vanderbilt on Sunday. Vandy jumped out to a 16-0 lead and led by as many as 20 before Georgia made a game of it in the second half, getting as close as 6 points before Vanderbilt sealed the 67-59 win. 24 turnovers – including 9 by Houts – did in the Lady Dogs.

Halfway through the SEC regular season, the Lady Dogs must beat Vanderbilt to avoid sinking below .500 in conference play.

One Response to 'I drove to Athens for that?!?'

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  • What’s going on with Landers? It’s not like he’s Dennis Felton — a guy with some success at a low/mid-major that’s just getting his feet wet in the big leagues. Andy Landers is one of the best women’s b-ball coaches ever… right? So why are things falling apart now? Has he gotten to a point in his career where he’s complacent? Has he just forgotten how to coach? Or is this just a sloppy group of players, and if he finds some better ones, he’ll start to look like his old self again?

    I’ve always thought Landers was unfairly overlooked because he had the misfortune to run up against Pat Summit several times a year and in recruiting. But I don’t see a Pat Summit team ever falling apart this badly.