Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Daily Swarm

HOOPS
Paul Hewitt was the guest speaker today at the "Lunch Bunch" - here is the re-cap from the visit.............. Texas Roundball has updated their high school state player rankings, and still have Jeremis Smith listed #1 (thanks RRed for the tip). As I stated on the HIVE, how do the #2, #3 and #6 players in Texas become McDonalds All-Americans and the #1 player does not? My own opinion is that Smith is just not high on the national radar outside of Texas. Time will tell what he can do at the college level............. Jeremis has entered his latest online journal. Jeremis finished the regular season the 2nd leading scorer in 4A at 26.1 per game. He was also the 10th leading rebounder in 4A at 8.3 per game. In Jeremis's latest game, his Dunbar came back from a big half-time deficit to win 86-73. Smith had 27 points, 6 boards. The paper account said he had plenty of impressive dunks, but it was a no-look pass he made at the end of the game to Jarred Watley for a lay-up that might have been his best play............. In other recruit news, Buck Fredrick scored 33 points as Calhoun County won 72-58 to send them to the 3rd round of the playoffs. For those of you who want a video clip of the thug play by the Wake Forest Euro-trash player on McHenry, click here................ Justin Gray of WF was named ACC POW, partly due to his performance against GT............ TarHole fans are thinking that everyone seems to have their career night against, citing BJ Elder's last performance. Here is Adam Lucas's mail-bag answer to this question (see bottom question)............. Maryland fans and writers are starting to see the writing on the wall (story here). Bottom line is that they need some W's to have a hope of getting in the big dance. RPI and SOS numbers support their inclusion but their win total does not. Get a few more W's and win at least one in the ACC tourney and they should have a legit claim........... GT owns Julius Hodge. It hasn't always helped us get W's, but he does not play well against us. From the "Daily News", a NC paper - "Holding down Hodge: North Carolina State's Julius Hodge has managed just 31 total points in five career games against Georgia Tech, a statistic Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt was at a loss to explain Monday. "We don't do anything special, we just try to guard him very hard every night," said Hewitt, whose team plays the Wolfpack on Wednesday night in Atlanta. "It's probably a matter of him just having a bad night when he plays against us." Hodge has averaged almost 15.6 points in his 82 college games that haven't come against Georgia Tech. The junior has yet to score in double figures in any game against the Yellow Jackets and managed just two points in a game earlier this season." .............. The officiating situation has made the papers again, as a result of comments by Hewitt in the post-game interview versus WF. Even Fred Barakat, head of ACC officiating has made statements about the game (story here). Hey, we all know ACC officiating sucks. They are doing a terrible job in MOST games. Every team in the ACC can point to loads of plays that were called incorrectly. Bottom-line is that we just have to figure out how to play our aggressive game with that reality. In my mind, it does no good to complain and might even hurt us. Look, if Isma'il is going to body up on the opposing PG in the BACKCOURT, he is going to get called for a foul. Happens about once per game with Isma'il. He should know. Occassionaly is results in a turnover, but more often than not a foul. That's life. The reffing sucks. Accept it. I will say one thing. When ANYONE is playing Dook, would the opposing coach please not let Coach K dominate the conversation with the refs? He has done it time and time again. Go back and look at our last Dook game. After the JJ incident, the ref sits and listens to Coach K for 5 minutes, while Coach Hewitt stood and watched. Then when Hewitt wanted to say something the ref shuffled him away and wouldn't listen. There is a hilarious picture of him doing the same thing during the WF game, while Prosser is in the background with an amazed look on his face (but doing nothing). That's not bashing Hewitt, but someone needs to put K in his place. He plays the refs like a fiddle..................... Could Perry Clark be on his way out in Miami? The former GT assistant is hanging on by a thread........ Dennis Scott was recently interviewed on NBA.com (story here), and he is attempting a comeback by the way.

BEESBALL
GT has moved up to #3 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll............