A Tournament Weekend Storyline

Pitt beats Georgetown; UNC beats Virginia Tech and VT coach Stan Greenberg says that anyone who doesn't think his team belongs in the Big Dance is insane. But that stuff pales to Georgia, which played two games in one day on Saturday after Mother Nature disrupted the Bulldogs' scheduled SEC quarterfinal game against Kentucky on Friday. First, they beat UK's Wildcats in overtime then a few hours later they beat Mississippi State. Now they've got to take on Arkansas.

Of course they didn't just play two games yesterday en route to the championship game: they'd won a total of four conference games all season. More than that, Georgia coach Dennis Felton's job was on the line after the Dawgs' disappointing regular season. So this afternoon, the team is playing not just for the SEC Tournament title and a ticket to the Big Dance, but also for their coach.

It may not be just a losing season, however, that has Coach Felton's fate hanging in the balance. As ESPN's Mark Schlabach chronicles, it's the fact that, after Georgia brought him in to clean up a scandal-ridden program, Felton did too well. He dismissed players for disciplinary issues so that his squad started the season with just eight scholarship athletes. Additional transfers and injuries complicated the issue. But other coaches think the problem is the fact that Felton has brought the hollow old phrase "scholar-athlete" back into balance:

At least one college basketball coach suggested Georgia's new academic standards, which require student-athletes to attend dozens of tutoring, study hall and advisement sessions each month, make it too difficult to build a program that will consistently win.

"The job is too hard," said the coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "You can't find enough good players who are willing to do all of that."

But Evans, who instituted the policies last year to improve Georgia's lagging graduation rates, defended the new plan. Evans said Georgia's other athletic teams haven't struggled to adhere to the policies.

"First and foremost, we're about academics," Evans said. "Aren't we supposed to encourage our kids to go to class and do what they're supposed to be doing academically? We should be asking more of them academically, to be honest. We've had other teams at Georgia have success under the same guidelines. We want to graduate players from this institution and win basketball games." [Bolded emphases are my own.]

Let's get this straight: UGA's thinking about throwing him under the bus for maintaining his principles and making a commitment to his kids that extends beyond the court. Georgia shouldn't even consider firing Felton - the NCAA as a whole needs more coaches like him. Maintaining a healthy balance between the two halves of the scholar-athlete isn't impossible; just ask Coach K. In my eyes, most coaches are derelict in their responsibility to their players off the court - making sure they get an education of some sort while in college, preparing them for a future that may not involve the NBA.

Here's to hoping that the Dawgs win the SEC this afternoon and get a ticket to the Dance. Even UGA's apparent win-first culture would be hard-pressed to fire Dennis Felton then. And if they do? Quoth Felton, "I promise you this: If I were to get fired, it would be for not winning enough games. It would not be for a lack of our guys consistently representing our university and our program with class."