06-01-2003, 07:08 PM
The highs and lows of the past six months at UGA
Turmoil has tarnished Georgia's Sugar rush
By Josh Kendall
jkendall@onlineathens.com
The front page of the first Athens Banner-Herald of 2003 trumpeted the University of Georgia's men's basketball victory against No. 2 Pittsburgh.
That evening, Georgia football fans celebrated what they saw as the rebirth of a powerhouse as the Bulldogs thumped Florida State 26-13 in their first Sugar Bowl appearance in 20 years.
The momentum carried on for a while. The basketball team built its record to 17-7 and improved its national rank to No. 21. The football team turned its historic 13-1 season into one of the nation's top recruiting classes.
But today, six months after the year opened with such promise, the school's two most prominent programs are struggling to regain that momentum.
The basketball team faces NCAA probation, has lost its coach and 80 percent of one of the nation's top recruiting classes, and expects its best player, Jarvis Hayes, to skip his final collegiate season.
The football team has also had its problems. Eight players have been suspended for at least one game, nine more have had their eligibility temporarily revoked for hawking their championship jewelry and one vital backup is transferring.
''In an ideal world you'd like for everything to be on a constant high, but that has never been the case and will never be the case because of the high visibility and great passion that people have for intercollegiate athletics,'' Georgia Athletic Director Vince Dooley said.
Dooley pointed to Thursday's USA Today, which chronicled the cloud hanging over the Florida State program as an example. The school's athletic department is undergoing an internal review and faces serious implications from the misdemeanor gambling trial of former quarterback Adrian McPherson, among other things.
''Unfortunately, it happens to almost everybody now,'' said ESPN analyst Bill Curry, formerly the coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky. ''Off the top of my head, I can't think of any program that doesn't endure this kind of thing.''
Still, only Alabama coach Mike Price and his costly two-day tear through Pensacola, Fla., kept the Bulldogs from being the conference's biggest embarrassment this summer.
''I am not quite as excited as I was a couple months ago,'' said Candler Meadows, longtime executive secretary of the Athens Touchdown Club. ''I would say it'd have to'' tarnish the accomplishments of January.
The turmoil erased any thoughts that the rift between Dooley and UGA President Michael Adams had dissipated. Adams played a key role in the hiring of former basketball coach Jim Harrick and was the focus of most of the public's blame for the catastrophic way Harrick's reign ended.
Dooley, who is scheduled to retire June 30, 2003, privately asked Adams for a contract extension of at least four years in April.
Adams, who was quiet throughout the basketball fiasco, has yet to respond to the request, but he took a thinly veiled shot at Dooley's leadership following the string of unsavory incidents involving the football team.
''My patience, the patience of the faculty and the patience of most of our supporters is exhausted over this continuing improper behavior by athletes,'' he said May 15 in an unsolicited statement. ''What was probably our best academic year ever is too often overshadowed by such incidents. I am disappointed, and I expect corrective actions to be taken.''
Dooley declined to address Adams' statement. An official in Adams' office said this week the president remains unprepared to respond to Dooley's request.
Dooley acknowledged the parade of negative headlines has damaged his department's image, but he insisted there will be no long-term effect.
''This program is too sound, it's still on its feet,'' he said. ''Yeah, you'll get bruised every once in a while, a black eye, but this program has been built with a solid foundation for a long period of time. It'll keep going, and it'll continue to get stronger.''
The turmoil started Feb. 27. Word began to leak out about midday that a former Georgia men's basketball player, Tony Cole, who only the most ardent basketball fans would have recognized on the street, would appear on SportsCenter and level allegations of misconduct against the basketball program.
The things he said - that he took a bogus Coaching Basketball course, was given money and living expenses and had correspondence course work completed for him - prompted Georgia and the NCAA to begin a joint investigation into the basketball program. As a result of that investigation, assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. was fired for what school officials called ''academic fraud'' in the Coaching Basketball class, the team was eventually pulled from the Southeastern Conference and NCAA Tournaments and Harrick Sr. resigned.
Even after the school hired highly regarded Western Kentucky coach Dennis Felton, Harrick's recruits began to slip away, leaving the Bulldogs with only one of the original five. The exodus leaves Felton's cupboards frighteningly bare for the foreseeable future.
Mark Richt's football team waded into the quagmire on April 22, when five players (and a basketball player who has since been dismissed from the team) were arrested at a school dormitory on charges of misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Those players were suspended for two games each.
Then came what has been dubbed ''Ringgate.''
The school discovered nine players sold their SEC Championship rings for as much as $2,000. Those players are still seeking to have their eligibility reinstated by the NCAA and are expected to be cleared in time for the season opener. At the same time the school announced the full scope of the ring incident, Richt revealed four other players had been suspended for at least one game and another player was transferring.
''It's not been a lot of fun, and usually if we have something that goes wrong, I'd like to find out what happened and discipline it quickly and move forward,'' said Richt, referring mainly to the ring incident. ''Because we're really at the mercy of the NCAA and waiting for their reply on this situation, we've had to keep it open-ended. It's become just a continual debate.
''If I was able to handle the situation a month ago, or however long ago it was, I doubt that we'd be talking about it right now. But because everyone's still wondering what's going to happen, it just keeps coming up over and over and over. It's just like opening up a wound time and time again.''
This summer's events are the result of unfortunate but natural cycles and not a sign anything is amok at the athletic department, Dooley said.
''It's happened before, and it'll happen again,'' he said. ''I've been dealing with situations for 40 years at Georgia. I don't like any of them. There are some that have been a lot worse than these, but we came through that stronger and we'll come through this stronger.''
The Bulldog Nation is eager to get through it, said Meadows, who has missed just six home basketball games since 1958 and is only the third secretary in the history of the Touchdown Club.
''I just want to get all this other crap over with and get on with it and get it started back right,'' he said.
Curry predicts the memory of this summer's trials will last ''until the next time they win the SEC Championship,'' if that long.
''Frankly (it'll be forgotten) about the next time one team goes on a winning streak because people want to forget that type of stuff,'' he said. ''You think if Georgia is playing for the national championship in January somebody is going to say, 'Wait a minute, you remember what it was like last May?'''
TIMELINE
Jan. 1, 2003: Bulldogs defeat Florida State 26-13 for first Sugar Bowl victory since 1980.
Feb. 4: Georgia capitalizes on dream season with strong showing on National Signing Day.
Feb. 27: Former basketball player Tony Cole makes accusations on ESPN.
Mar. 4: Bulldogs upset No. 3 Florida 82-81 at Stegeman Coliseum.
Mar. 10: Basketball coach Jim Harrick Sr. is suspended and the team is pulled from postseason play. Athletic director Vince Dooley calls situation "as bad as it gets."
Mar. 27: Harrick Sr. resigns
Apr. 10: Dennis Felton is hired to replace Harrick. Felton becomes third black head coach in any sport in school history.
Apr. 22: Five football players and one basketball player are charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana The football players receive two-game suspensions.
May 5: UGA officials learn Kedric Golston's title rings and bowl jersey sold for $3,500 on eBay.
May 15: School officials learn eight other players sold rings to the buyer who placed Golston
Turmoil has tarnished Georgia's Sugar rush
By Josh Kendall
jkendall@onlineathens.com
The front page of the first Athens Banner-Herald of 2003 trumpeted the University of Georgia's men's basketball victory against No. 2 Pittsburgh.
That evening, Georgia football fans celebrated what they saw as the rebirth of a powerhouse as the Bulldogs thumped Florida State 26-13 in their first Sugar Bowl appearance in 20 years.
The momentum carried on for a while. The basketball team built its record to 17-7 and improved its national rank to No. 21. The football team turned its historic 13-1 season into one of the nation's top recruiting classes.
But today, six months after the year opened with such promise, the school's two most prominent programs are struggling to regain that momentum.
The basketball team faces NCAA probation, has lost its coach and 80 percent of one of the nation's top recruiting classes, and expects its best player, Jarvis Hayes, to skip his final collegiate season.
The football team has also had its problems. Eight players have been suspended for at least one game, nine more have had their eligibility temporarily revoked for hawking their championship jewelry and one vital backup is transferring.
''In an ideal world you'd like for everything to be on a constant high, but that has never been the case and will never be the case because of the high visibility and great passion that people have for intercollegiate athletics,'' Georgia Athletic Director Vince Dooley said.
Dooley pointed to Thursday's USA Today, which chronicled the cloud hanging over the Florida State program as an example. The school's athletic department is undergoing an internal review and faces serious implications from the misdemeanor gambling trial of former quarterback Adrian McPherson, among other things.
''Unfortunately, it happens to almost everybody now,'' said ESPN analyst Bill Curry, formerly the coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky. ''Off the top of my head, I can't think of any program that doesn't endure this kind of thing.''
Still, only Alabama coach Mike Price and his costly two-day tear through Pensacola, Fla., kept the Bulldogs from being the conference's biggest embarrassment this summer.
''I am not quite as excited as I was a couple months ago,'' said Candler Meadows, longtime executive secretary of the Athens Touchdown Club. ''I would say it'd have to'' tarnish the accomplishments of January.
The turmoil erased any thoughts that the rift between Dooley and UGA President Michael Adams had dissipated. Adams played a key role in the hiring of former basketball coach Jim Harrick and was the focus of most of the public's blame for the catastrophic way Harrick's reign ended.
Dooley, who is scheduled to retire June 30, 2003, privately asked Adams for a contract extension of at least four years in April.
Adams, who was quiet throughout the basketball fiasco, has yet to respond to the request, but he took a thinly veiled shot at Dooley's leadership following the string of unsavory incidents involving the football team.
''My patience, the patience of the faculty and the patience of most of our supporters is exhausted over this continuing improper behavior by athletes,'' he said May 15 in an unsolicited statement. ''What was probably our best academic year ever is too often overshadowed by such incidents. I am disappointed, and I expect corrective actions to be taken.''
Dooley declined to address Adams' statement. An official in Adams' office said this week the president remains unprepared to respond to Dooley's request.
Dooley acknowledged the parade of negative headlines has damaged his department's image, but he insisted there will be no long-term effect.
''This program is too sound, it's still on its feet,'' he said. ''Yeah, you'll get bruised every once in a while, a black eye, but this program has been built with a solid foundation for a long period of time. It'll keep going, and it'll continue to get stronger.''
The turmoil started Feb. 27. Word began to leak out about midday that a former Georgia men's basketball player, Tony Cole, who only the most ardent basketball fans would have recognized on the street, would appear on SportsCenter and level allegations of misconduct against the basketball program.
The things he said - that he took a bogus Coaching Basketball course, was given money and living expenses and had correspondence course work completed for him - prompted Georgia and the NCAA to begin a joint investigation into the basketball program. As a result of that investigation, assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. was fired for what school officials called ''academic fraud'' in the Coaching Basketball class, the team was eventually pulled from the Southeastern Conference and NCAA Tournaments and Harrick Sr. resigned.
Even after the school hired highly regarded Western Kentucky coach Dennis Felton, Harrick's recruits began to slip away, leaving the Bulldogs with only one of the original five. The exodus leaves Felton's cupboards frighteningly bare for the foreseeable future.
Mark Richt's football team waded into the quagmire on April 22, when five players (and a basketball player who has since been dismissed from the team) were arrested at a school dormitory on charges of misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Those players were suspended for two games each.
Then came what has been dubbed ''Ringgate.''
The school discovered nine players sold their SEC Championship rings for as much as $2,000. Those players are still seeking to have their eligibility reinstated by the NCAA and are expected to be cleared in time for the season opener. At the same time the school announced the full scope of the ring incident, Richt revealed four other players had been suspended for at least one game and another player was transferring.
''It's not been a lot of fun, and usually if we have something that goes wrong, I'd like to find out what happened and discipline it quickly and move forward,'' said Richt, referring mainly to the ring incident. ''Because we're really at the mercy of the NCAA and waiting for their reply on this situation, we've had to keep it open-ended. It's become just a continual debate.
''If I was able to handle the situation a month ago, or however long ago it was, I doubt that we'd be talking about it right now. But because everyone's still wondering what's going to happen, it just keeps coming up over and over and over. It's just like opening up a wound time and time again.''
This summer's events are the result of unfortunate but natural cycles and not a sign anything is amok at the athletic department, Dooley said.
''It's happened before, and it'll happen again,'' he said. ''I've been dealing with situations for 40 years at Georgia. I don't like any of them. There are some that have been a lot worse than these, but we came through that stronger and we'll come through this stronger.''
The Bulldog Nation is eager to get through it, said Meadows, who has missed just six home basketball games since 1958 and is only the third secretary in the history of the Touchdown Club.
''I just want to get all this other crap over with and get on with it and get it started back right,'' he said.
Curry predicts the memory of this summer's trials will last ''until the next time they win the SEC Championship,'' if that long.
''Frankly (it'll be forgotten) about the next time one team goes on a winning streak because people want to forget that type of stuff,'' he said. ''You think if Georgia is playing for the national championship in January somebody is going to say, 'Wait a minute, you remember what it was like last May?'''
TIMELINE
Jan. 1, 2003: Bulldogs defeat Florida State 26-13 for first Sugar Bowl victory since 1980.
Feb. 4: Georgia capitalizes on dream season with strong showing on National Signing Day.
Feb. 27: Former basketball player Tony Cole makes accusations on ESPN.
Mar. 4: Bulldogs upset No. 3 Florida 82-81 at Stegeman Coliseum.
Mar. 10: Basketball coach Jim Harrick Sr. is suspended and the team is pulled from postseason play. Athletic director Vince Dooley calls situation "as bad as it gets."
Mar. 27: Harrick Sr. resigns
Apr. 10: Dennis Felton is hired to replace Harrick. Felton becomes third black head coach in any sport in school history.
Apr. 22: Five football players and one basketball player are charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana The football players receive two-game suspensions.
May 5: UGA officials learn Kedric Golston's title rings and bowl jersey sold for $3,500 on eBay.
May 15: School officials learn eight other players sold rings to the buyer who placed Golston
