UGA/Tennessee basketball

Won tickets to Saturday’s UGA/Tennessee game…from WSB radio. Also $50.00 in lottery tickets…zero winnings. Will had gotten a cough at his Thursday practice, but he had invited his friend to go to the game in Athens. We got there just in time for the NBA-style introductions. They do it up over there, turning out the lights, dancing girls, and everything.

UGA applied the pressure and jumped ahead 19-6. Tennessee was led by sophomore Chris Lofton, a Mr. Basketball in Kentucky, that wasn't recruited by the Wildcats or Louisville. They didn't think he could get his shot off, though he's listed as a generous six - two. At the beginning of the game he kept trying to drive inside, with little success. Only when he started hanging around out on the wing and shooting three-pointers (reminding me of Dennis Scott), did Tennessee mount a run. Actually Lofton looks very similar to the old LSU scorer Chris Jackson/Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.

The Vols went from 13 down to 20 up early in the second half, and I was wondering if it would be a blowout. Then UGA started playing like they did at the beginning of the game, Tennessee turned it over a few times, and UGA closed the gap to five. Exciting game. Lofton finished with 33, and went 9-12 from three-point land, breaking a UT single-game record held by Allen Houston.

The UGA fans left quickly after the game. The UT coach led the team into the stands...up one aisle, across the walkway, and down another aisle. Major Wingate, a junior center from Florence SC, was wearing a headband. Will was busy positioning himself to give the team fives. He asked Wingate for his headband, but instead the big guy pulled off an Addidas sweatband and handed it to Will.

Then the UT fans migrated down behind the radio guys, and the head coach and Lofton came out for interviews. Will and has buddy were two of the few to later go over near the Tennessee locker room tunnel. All the players were coming back out, wearing grey sweats, getting ready for the bus ride home. Wingate sported yellow pajama pants, and when Will's friend asked him for a sweatband, he went back into the tunnel and dug one out of his duffel. Will got the entire UT team to autograph his sweatshirt, then walked around the radio side and got the coach's autograph as well. On the way back we stopped at the Athens Varsity.

Friday night we dined at IKEA. In the future we'll probably eat somewhere else.

Sunday Ceil finally got a chance to work on school stuff, so I took the kids to see 'Yours, Mine, and Ours'. Anna dragged me to Borders, where we ran into the Freunds. A guy in their new small group works for a company in the metals industry, and he told them to get me to send him a resume.

Last night Ceil was running around getting ready for Valentines, and we had a small celebration this morning. May go out to eat tonight after Will's ball practice. Gotta pack for tomorrow morning's trip to Houston.

Nice to see more Braves stories on the news and in the paper. There are tons of sports blogs out there. Lots of them are good, but I have to remind myself that they are just people's opinions.

Flying to Houston Wednesday morning, coming back Thursday evening. I wanted to come back on a late flight so I could do some NBA All-Star stuff (Bow Wow concert!), but the last flight back leaves at 7 pm. Lang said he would pull some strings to try and get me in to an event Wednesday night that’s not open to the public.

Matthew plays 14 games this year! He struggled in practice yesterday, but he’s out of practice, and it was cold. Hopefully it’ll motivate him to get out in the yard.

How/Where does Todd get others to read his blog? I don’t advertise much. I was going to post a comment (isn’t that the nice/proper thing to do?), but I keep forgetting my blogspot password while at home.

Just finished helping my boss for over two hours. Got in two hours late from a dentist’s appointment this AM. Yesterday we all had a meeting that lasted over an hour. Tuesday I left early for a doctor’s appointment. All after being out for 2-1/2 days. Keeping my head above water, but not much progress besides that.

Lang was on the front row of Emeril’s audience last Wednesday night, as his wife was the main guest. He said he’d work to get me entrance into some NBA stuff next week in Houston.

Matthew has fallen into the habit every day when I arrive home of asking if I brought him anything. He treasures little toys. A guy here just gave me a Rome Braves 2006 pocket schedule. I scanned it, noticing two things…
May 27th…Francoeur bobblehead night
June 24th…Brian McCann bobblehead night
I’ll see how long it takes Matthew to discover this…his two favorite players.