There aren't many coaches who respect Kentucky basketball more than Georgia's Dennis Felton does. "Kentucky has dominated the SEC for all the right reasons," Felton says. "They compete harder than you. They defend. They rebound. They work as a team. They play the game the way it's meant to be played, and they understand how to win consistently." It will be a while before Georgia wins consistently in similar fashion, but the Bulldogs' 65-57 upset of fifth-ranked Kentucky on Sunday, which snapped the Wildcats' 19-game Southeastern Conference regular-season winning streak, provided a glimpse of what is to come with Felton at the helm.
To appreciate the significance of that win, just the school's fourth-ever road triumph over Kentucky, you have to remember that Georgia was in total shambles when Felton arrived last spring and took over for the disgraced Jim Harrick. Four of Harrick's recruits bailed out after his firing, and the team Felton took into Rupp on Sunday had just seven scholarship players. But Felton is used to winning -- witness his 100-54 record in five years at Western Kentucky -- and Sunday's victory was a credit to his ability to instill unselfishness and mental toughness in his players. "If you can lose yourself in the moment of competition, then you don't have time to think about fatigue," he says. "I ask my guys, 'Would you rather be painfully tired and have a chance to win or be mildly tired and not have a chance?'"
It didn't take long for the Georgia players to realize that their new coach has a much different modus operandi than did their old one. Within weeks of Felton's taking the job, freshman guard Wayne Arnold was arrested for misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Felton kicked him off the team immediately. In September, Felton cut last year's leading rebounder, senior center Steve Thomas, because Thomas was perennially late to classes and study halls. Felton also put 6-foot-8 senior center Jonas Hayes on notice because Hayes was spending too much time at home in Atlanta rather than attending to all his requirements at school. Hayes eventually bought into Felton's plan, and he is now the team's third-leading scorer and rebounder.
You might say Felton is the anti-Harrick. He made all his players move back into dormitories. He does not permit them to sport facial hair below the lip. Players are not allowed to wear flashy jewelry or hats while they're indoors. During his tenure at Western Kentucky, 100 percent of his players graduated -- and he intends to carry over that success to Georgia, whose men's basketball program posted a 36 percent graduation rate in the most recent NCAA report. "We'll always have a perfect graduation rate," he says. "That's non-negotiable." He even goes so far as to promise that none of his players will ever be academically ineligible. "We will not allow any of our players to fall through the cracks."
The win over Kentucky only improved Georgia's record to 9-5, and by losing its first two SEC games to Tennessee and South Carolina by a total of 45 points, the Bulldogs have also shown they will probably not make the NCAA tournament. But Georgia has played its best against the best. On Jan. 3, the Bulldogs handed Georgia Tech its first loss of the season, and they hung tough on the road against Gonzaga back on Nov. 29 before falling in OT. You can imagine, then, how good Georgia will be once Felton has a full complement of players. He signed two good ones last fall -- Sundiata Gaines, a 6-1 guard from the Bronx, N.Y., and 6-4 Channing Toney from Snellville, Ga. -- and last Friday Felton got verbal commitments from two of the top national players in the junior class, Mike Mercer and Louis Williams, who comprise the backcourt at Brookwood High in Snellville. The state of Georgia is loaded with great players, and many feel tremendous loyalty to their state university. Whatever challenges Felton may face, a dearth of recruitable players isn't one of them.
He is also far from through in his effort to change the culture at Georgia. When Felton was at Western Kentucky, he put his players through a week-long "boot camp" during the first semester. (He would dress his players in fatigues and hire actual military personnel to conduct a brutal 90-minute workout beginning at 5 a.m.) He has thus far not implemented that in Athens -- "To be honest I don't think our group was ready for that sort of thing," Felton says -- but he hopes to get it going within the next two years. "The whole idea of the boot camp is to develop mental toughness, learn teamwork and build camaraderie," he says. "When you know you've struggled and accomplished something as a group, you can look back on it and feel very, very proud."
Georgia fans know too well what it's like to feel ashamed of their basketball program. They can take heart knowing Felton is giving them something to be proud of.
<a href='http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/seth_davis/01/20/hoop_thoughts/index.html' target='_blank'>Link</a>
|