UGA and being average

Was going to get some of yall's thoughts on why UGA is average in the big 3. After reading the golf thread, it made me think about their recent lack of success in any of the major 3 men's sports. How do they consistently underachieve? I know Random thinks they are turning the corner in football and they may be. I still can't wrap my head around their baseball program being average at best and basketball being pretty terrible.

They should be going to the CWS just about every other year with the built in advantages they should have in that sport. So much talent comes out of the ATL metro and surrounding areas for baseball. Not only that but several of the biggest travel ball tourneys are held in GA every year. They should be killing the baseball recruiting.

Basketball, I honestly don't know much about basketball recruiting but would assume that the ATL metro would produce some top talent year in and year out and yet they continue to be pretty bad.

Football, we will have to wait and see. They haven't been able to get over the hump in a down east. I do think they are improving. I also think it will still take some time to know if Smart can coach. We know he can recruit but will have to wait and see on his coaching ability.

Thoughts?

Their fans don't care about baseball or basketball, thus their administration doesn't care to spend the effort and money into trying to build those up. That's probably the simplest answer.

And when I say they don't care about baseball or basketball, I mean like...not at all.

A lot of their alums end up in and around Atlanta, and you've got the Falcons, the Braves, the Hawks, the new soccer team...they just don't care about UGA baseball or basketball unless they're good in those, and there's no point in taking the time to try to get good in them if no one cares on the front end.

I've always thought they should be awesome in baseball. Sleeping giant in that sport. Polk had success there so it can be done.

[QUOTE=smootness;738192]Their fans don't care about baseball or basketball, thus their administration doesn't care to spend the effort and money into trying to build those up. That's probably the simplest answer.

And when I say they don't care about baseball or basketball, I mean like...not at all.

I was recently in Athens and had a chance to check out their baseball stadium. Three years ago they spent $ 12 million updating it. Sounds like somebody cares.

By the way, it's neat what they've done with their Dugout Club. It's a field level seating area that has the same feel as the Gridiron Club at Davis Wade. Inside are ammeneties (like food and A/C and seating) that makes for a cool venue.

In the hallway leading from the Dugout Club to the real dugout and locker rooms, they have a listing of the players that have been drafted each year, and there are tons of them.

To your point, though ... They consistently underachieve.

I thought Scott Stricklin would do better there.

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Originally Posted by BB30

Was going to get some of yall's thoughts on why UGA is average in the big 3. After reading the golf thread, it made me think about their recent lack of success in any of the major 3 men's sports. How do they consistently underachieve? I know Random thinks they are turning the corner in football and they may be. I still can't wrap my head around their baseball program being average at best and basketball being pretty terrible.

They should be going to the CWS just about every other year with the built in advantages they should have in that sport. So much talent comes out of the ATL metro and surrounding areas for baseball. Not only that but several of the biggest travel ball tourneys are held in GA every year. They should be killing the baseball recruiting.

Basketball, I honestly don't know much about basketball recruiting but would assume that the ATL metro would produce some top talent year in and year out and yet they continue to be pretty bad.

Football, we will have to wait and see. They haven't been able to get over the hump in a down east. I do think they are improving. I also think it will still take some time to know if Smart can coach. We know he can recruit but will have to wait and see on his coaching ability.

Thoughts?

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They've been better than average in football. Richt wasn't able to win a championship, but even their down years under Richt were around average or a little better. Basketball I can understand because so much of it is about getting the right coach and recruiting. I can understand hwo they've missed on coaches and why whatever talent is in Atlanta isn't beating down the door to get to Athens.

I have no clue how they have avoided being a national power in baseball. UGA and FLorida should be the best two baseball programs in the SEC. Both of them have access to good sized populations in baseball crazy states and at least UGA has the abilityi to fill out their roster with in state players that don't need baseball scholarships because of state grants.

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Originally Posted by Count Istvan Teleky

I was recently in Athens and had a chance to check out their baseball stadium. Three years ago they spent $ 12 million updating it. Sounds like somebody cares.

By the way, it's neat what they've done with their Dugout Club. It's a field level seating area that has the same feel as the Gridiron Club at Davis Wade. Inside are ammeneties (like food and A/C and seating) that makes for a cool venue.

In the hallway leading from the Dugout Club to the real dugout and locker rooms, they have a listing of the players that have been drafted each year, and there are tons of them.

To your point, though ... They consistently underachieve.

I thought Scott Stricklin would do better there.

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I mean that their fans don't care. Spending $12 million on a stadium that wasn't great to begin with is not even treading water in the SEC.

You could ask a large number of UGA students if they would go to Omaha if Georgia made the CWS, and you'd get a lot of blank stares.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

You could ask a large number of UGA students if they would go to Omaha if Georgia made the CWS, and you'd get a lot of blank stares.

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Correct.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

You could ask a large number of UGA students if they would go to Omaha if Georgia made the CWS, and you'd get a lot of blank stares.

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To be fair, if you asked a large number of students at any school, anything, you would get a lot of those.

I grew up an UGA fan, and the lions share of my family and friends are all Red & Black. I'll echo a lot of what you are saying - by and large their fan base does not care about anything but football. They make apathetic hires in baseball and basketball who do not recruit. That apathy has led to Ga Tech, Kennesaw State, Ga Southern, and Mercer having better baseball programs. You could argue that Georgia College in DII has a better program (with a couple of NAIA Nattys), and Georgia Perimeter was better as a JUCO program (before they got consolidated with Georgia State).

Basketball was good under Hugh Durham and Tubby Smith. But Mark Fox is about as ho-hum as a coach as you can get.

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Originally Posted by Mobile Bay

To be fair, if you asked a large number of students at any school, anything, you would get a lot of those.

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Now that's funny right there, ha ha!

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

I grew up an UGA fan, and the lions share of my family and friends are all Red & Black. I'll echo a lot of what you are saying - by and large their fan base does not care about anything but football. They make apathetic hires in baseball and basketball who do not recruit. That apathy has led to Ga Tech, Kennesaw State, Ga Southern, and Mercer having better baseball programs. You could argue that Georgia College in DII has a better program (with a couple of NAIA Nattys), and Georgia Perimeter was better as a JUCO program (before they got consolidated with Georgia State).

Basketball was good under Hugh Durham and Tubby Smith. But Mark Fox is about as ho-hum as a coach as you can get.

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What year was it that UGA won the championship in baseball '90?

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Originally Posted by DanDority

What year was it that UGA won the championship in baseball '90?

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1990 - I happened to go to their rising HS Senior baseball camp a couple of weeks after they won the title. Dave Perno was the student coach for our group.

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Originally Posted by DanDority

What year was it that UGA won the championship in baseball '90?

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

1990 - I happened to go to their rising HS Senior baseball camp a couple of weeks after they won the title. Dave Perno was the student coach for our group.

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They also played for a national championship as recently as 2008 under Perno.

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Originally Posted by AusTexDawg

They also played for a national championship as recently as 2008 under Perno.

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Back to the OP, they have won as many as they have in FB and played for another, why no passion for the sport?

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Originally Posted by DanDority

Back to the OP, they have won as many as they have in FB and played for another, why no passion for the sport?

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Their fans just don't care. There may be multiple reasons for that, and they may be tough to pinpoint, but the bottom line is that they don't care.

Bama fans also don't care about baseball and really don't care much about basketball. Similar thing at Auburn. Not that much better at Florida, though Donovan's consistent runs of elite success improved that.

I could list every SEC baseball team and legitimately tell you why each of them should be a baseball superpower. Every SEC team also has disadvantages as well. I’ve seen some of our fans downplay our crowds, tradition, and Dudy-Noble Field and how that doesn’t win National Championships- and it doesn’t. But it also doesn’t hurt either. Georgia has the Hope Scholarship advantage and is in an area with a ton of baseball talent- but I think what they show is what happens when you don’t have fans and administration that care and OK facilities.

At the end of the day I think if you ask most baseball players and recruits the number one thing that they want to ultimately do is play in MLB. And maybe a few will tag on and end up in the HOF one day. So, I think the biggest thing a program needs is a coach that can identify talent, recruit that talent, get most of that talent into school and develop it and get it to MLB. And in this day and age you also need a legit pitching coach for the pitchers. Like a Derek Johnson, Butch Thompson, Gary Henderson, or an Alan Dunn that can recruit and has a great track record for developing pitchers.

The facilities, scholarships, crowds, and region are all window dressing that helps on top of what I mentioned and can possibly be what puts you over the top in some cases but what I said above about getting to MLB is priority number one. I don’t know what Stricklin’s problem has been at Georgia. They do have a lot of competition from people like Georgia Tech, who is down right now, South Carolina, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Auburn, and everyone else and most elite players in Georgia don’t want to play for a constantly rebuilding program where no one cares about the program. And if he has a third losing season odds are good that he’s going to have to make some coaching changes if he’s not fired himself and that adds a lot of uncertainty in the recruiting process as well because players want to go somewhere where the staff is stable if possible.

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Originally Posted by Mobile Bay

To be fair, if you asked a large number of students at any school, anything, you would get a lot of those.

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Except MSU, OM, and probably LSU.