Hello again! I’m back from a brief vacation — and my first-ever trip on a cruise ship.
Strengths: Day-drinking, no cell service. Weaknesses: Mediocre food, close quarters with small children.
Overall grade: B-minus. First-round vacation draft potential, but probably more of a second- or third-rounder.
I’m open to tips and suggestions for future endeavors … but enough about the Bahamas for now! Let’s revel in a big-time Bulldog basketball performance, shall we?
Quick links: Dawgs shock Gators | Tech tops Pitt | Falcons get defensive | And good reviews, too
BULLDOGS BUBBLE UP
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
What a game, eh? Georgia basketball chomped No. 3 Florida at Stegeman Coliseum on Tuesday night, jumping out to a big lead and holding on late for the 88-83 win.
Let us review (and take a peek at what lies ahead).
⏪ In case you missed it: The Bulldogs took an early 26-point lead. It was down to 16 at halftime. The Gators cut the advantage to single digits several times in the second half, but couldn’t make a real run — until a nearly four-minute stretch that featured zero Georgia points and plenty of Georgia turnovers.
Florida took its first lead of the game with about 1:20 left to play. But a 3-pointer from Blue Cain put the Bulldogs back on top about 30 seconds later, and they held on from there.
🥳 The storming: As the clock ticked down, the coliseum PA announcer asked the crowd at least three times to wait 90 seconds after the game ended before storming the court — thus letting the Gators get outta there and avoiding a potential $100,000 fine.
And the fans … actually obliged. UGA athletic director Josh Brooks helped lead the countdown.
📈 Fun with numbers: Lots of interesting tidbits out of this one. Hat-tip goes to AJC/DawgNation reporter Jack Leo.
- The win marked Georgia’s first over a top-3 opponent since Jan. 3, 2004. That was a double-overtime thriller against Georgia Tech.
- It also snapped the Bulldogs’ 12-game losing streak against the Gators, a stretch dating back to March 2, 2019. Georgia lost by 30 at Florida earlier this season.
- Head coach Mike White got his first win over his former team since leaving Gainesville for Athens in 2022.
“It’s special, it is,” White said. “It’s a little different. Every win that you accomplish, you’re excited about, it’s on to the next, of course. This one was a little bit more special too because of the way we performed against them in Gainesville.”
🤔 What it means: The Bulldogs (17-11, 5-10 in the bruising SEC) desperately needed the win to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive. Their second win over a top-10 team puts them right back on the bubble.
The good news is Georgia closes out its regular season with three unranked opponents (at Texas, at South Carolina, vs. Vanderbilt). The bad news? The Bulldogs might need to win all three for a tournament berth — and they’re winless on the road in the SEC this season.
ON THE DEFENSIVE
Credit: Michael Conroy/AP
Credit: Michael Conroy/AP
Actual workouts — as in, four days of dudes touching cones and stuff while wearing spandex — get underway tomorrow at the NFL Scouting Combine. But Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot spoke to the AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter and other on-site reporters on Tuesday.
Fontenot said lots of things, including about quarterback Kirk Cousins (still the backup, if he’s not kicked to the curb); defensive tackle Grady Jarrett (declined to deem him uncuttable); and free agent center Drew Dalman (meeting with his representatives this week).
👀 The most interesting tidbit our pal D. Led relayed from Indy, though, is this one: “None of the Falcons assistant offensive coaches will attend the combine. The Falcons are using all 45 of their interview meetings on defensive players.”
Which ain’t your average approach!
“Not very common,” D. Led told me. “But when you’re 31st in sacks and 31st in pass defense, it makes perfect sense to me.”
A fair point. Still feels a little gimmicky, and an offensive lineman or two wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. But next month’s draft is overflowing with the defensive talent Atlanta needs.
- Ex-Georgia star Jalon Walker and Kyle Kennard of South Carolina (a former Yellow Jacket and Riverwood High grad) are among the players set to speak to reporters today.
📊 Semi-related AJC exclusive: The Falcons jumped from 25th to 3rd in this year’s NFL Players Association report card. That’s the one where players rank aspects of each franchise.
A new locker room, weight room and cafeteria helped drive the jump. The guys like coach Raheem Morris, too.
DRAFT TRIVIA
Who was the last defensive player the Falcons drafted in the first round?
Answer at bottom of the newsletter.
PERSONAL STRIDES
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
I’d be remiss not to highlight Braves beat writer Justin Toscano’s month-by-month deep dive into Spencer Strider’s elbow injury, surgery and recovery.
It’s really a kind of character study of Strider as a person: one who painstakingly catalogs every step of his professional life, quotes Stoic philosophy and genuinely relished rehab.
🗣️ A sample of his thought process: “Everything’s delayed gratification. Even a healthy player’s process is delayed gratification. We do all this work — all the offseason, the whole season, in between starts, on a daily basis, for something that happens in a fleeting moment, or at the end of the season.
“That’s what this is. And once you can understand that and you can enjoy that excitement and that potential that comes with that opportunity of this process, then I think it allows you to be honest, be humble and learn. And that’s really what I’ve enjoyed.”
Today’s spring training game against Pittsburgh streams for free on MLB.tv/Braves.com. First pitch at 1:05 p.m.
QUICK HITS
🏈 UGA still plans to hold a spring football game, though no date is set. A handful of other schools have nixed the tradition, fearful of giving other teams an extra eyeful of potential transfers.
🤨 Actor Nicolas Cage will play NFL legend John Madden in a biopic that starts shooting in Atlanta in April. Should be … interesting.
🏀 The Hawks visit the Heat tonight (7:30 p.m. on FanDuel Sports Southeast). Columnist Ken Sugiura says they’re running out of time to take advantage of Trae Young’s brilliant season.
😬 NBA star Luka Doncic put up a triple-double in his first game against the Mavericks since being traded earlier this month. The Lakers won 107-99.
🫡 Diana Taurasi retired from the WNBA after 20 seasons. She’s possibly the league’s greatest player, though we’ll always vouch for Collins Hill High School grad Maya Moore in this house.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
OK, one more Georgia basketball photo (lots more here). And one more Georgia basketball quote, too.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
I changed into this hoodie, and I'm a little more comfortable now. Pants are still wet, a little cold. Ready to get home to the pizza.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of Sports Daily. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Oh, and the trivia answer: AJ Terrell in 2020.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
