People love winners, there is no question about that. When a team seemingly comes out of nowhere to make a BCS bowl or punch a ticket to the NCAA’s Big Dance, you can count on seeing car flags and school sweatshirts from people who you never knew had an affiliation to the school or program. While I can grin and bear it when the person is an alumnus or alumna of the particular school, I absolutely lose it when a person has chosen to begin rooting for a team simply because it is successful despite no tie to the team/program/school whatsoever. Imagine being a graduate of, say, Middle Tennessee State, but randomly this person begins rooting for Alabama for no known reason other than they have won three titles in four years. Makes no sense, right?
People will do this, though, because they love winners. The most frustrating thing about people cherrypicking successful programs is often they leave behind the programs that need the support more than these bigger, more successful programs do.
SLEEPING GIANT
Georgia Basketball is a perfect example of a fanbase ignoring a sleeping giant to root for another established program.
Why?
Why in the world would a student/graduate of the University of Georgia not get behind the basketball program?
Oh, they’ve always been bad. Why should I support them when we have the football team?
Not to burst your bubble, but the basketball team has actually hoisted an SEC championship more recently than the football program has (the 2008 SEC tournament title).
And, for what it is worth, Georgia was a team plenty capable of making serious waves had there been support this year. Entering the year, Mark Fox said he had been looking forward to coaching this team more than any other team during his tenure in Athens. While the team started slow, it finally found its footing during the SEC conference schedule. The team rattled off a five-game winning streak and had won
three of its last four following Thursday’s victory over defending national champion Kentucky.
A 9-9 conference record helped exceed expectations as many had Georgia picked to finish dead last in conference play, and Georgia managed to sweep the season series’ with Texas A&M, South Carolina and bubble-team Tennessee.
What is amazing to consider is that Georgia was within a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope dribbling error (at Vandy) and a made Donte Williams alley-oop (at Ole Miss) from being 11-6 with two additional road victories. The Dawgs have also seen two other leads slip away in the final minute against Alabama and Arkansas. Alabama would down Georgia a second time thanks to a miracle halfcourt shot. I know you shouldn’t play the shouldawoulda game, but people should also look at this Georgia team instead of just writing them off based on their record like they always have.
Hey, it is cool to bang on Georgia basketball because they aren’t any good.
FALSE.
MOVING FORWARD
It will take another miracle run in the SEC Tournament just like in 2008 for this Georgia Bulldogs team to make the NCAA championship field, and the team will need to pick up a few wins to even finish the regular season above .500 to qualify for the NIT or CBI. ESPN ran a documentary on that 2008 SEC tournament run for Georgia and honestly, that team wasn’t as talented as this one. Imagine if Georgia can somehow find its way past Thursday night to make it to Friday. With Charles Mann getting more comfortable as an SEC point guard and KCP firing from the outside, an upset could happen considering how the team has come together. You never know what will happen in March when the madness starts.
Perhaps with an SEC tournament title, Georgia basketball could attract some of those bandwagon-jumping fans looking for the latest big thing. When Georgia does start winning, and Fox’s team will as early as next season, people will surely come around. Too bad they missed a chance to get in early. Oh well, support is support and Georgia can use it, as well as some in-state recruits please.
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