All the talk right now is on the manager, and rightfully so. Transfers of players are unlikely (except perhaps a sale) until that situation gets settled. But I figured we may as well have a thread to discuss summer transfers, and the bevy of rumors that will emerge in June.

Needs: LB, DM, wingers, striker. We've been linked with countless names in March and April, but as said, that talk all stopped when the news about Daglish hit.

Possible sales: Brad Jones, Maxi, Kuyt, Pacheco, Aqua, among several others. And some others may be tempted to play Champions League (Skrtel?, Reina? etc).

Mark Fox has made an addition to the staff that several fans have been clamoring for, and myself in particular. Many have bemoaned the current staff's lack of connections to Atlanta, and cited them as a reason we keep missing on big nam local recruits. Well, we are about to reestablish those connections in a great way, hiring Jonas Hayes as program coordinator.

You may remember Jonas Hayes as the twin brother of the last Georgia men's basketball player to be drafted in the NBA lottery. Or you may remember him as the 6'6 big man with the soft touch when he averaged almost 12 points per game as the starting C on Dennis Felton's first team. Or as the 6th man on Jim Harrick's last two teams who hit a 30 ft game winner at the buzzer against Colorado.

Born in Atlanta, Hayes and his brother were stars at Douglas HS before signing with Western Carolina out of high school. When they decided to transfer, they came back close to home and chose Athens, where both excelled. After finishing up his degree, Coach Jonas join the staff at his alma mater Douglas, before moving on to South Carolina St, then Morehouse, and followed by the previous 5 seasons at Belmont-Abbey under former Georgia assistant coach Stephen Miss.

As said above, this is the type of hire I, and countless others have been screaming for, and the exact name I was hoping we could hire to fill a spot on staff. He knows Atlanta, and Atlanta knows him. He's a damn good Dawg, a smart basketball mind, and in my opinion, a wonderful human being. This was a home run hire for Mark Fox, and will be an amazing addition to the Hoop Dawgs staff.

From the georgiadogs.com announcement linked above, Coach Fox and Coach Hayes had this to say.

"I am really excited to have Jonas join our staff," Fox said. "He will be a valuable asset as we move forward. He is a smart and talented young man who will be a great example to our players. I am excited to have a former player who is so passionate about Georgia become part of our team."

"I am thrilled to be coming back to Georgia," Hayes said. "I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be joining Coach Fox's staff. UGA holds a special place in my heart. I'm just ready to get started, ready to do whatever I can to help build the program."

Welcome back Jonas. For exclusive footage of my, Mr. Sanchez's, reaction upon hearing the news earlier hiring, click to the jump

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Welcome to another installment of the monthly (if I'm not too lazy) update on how our former Diamond Dawgs are doing in the Major and Minor Leagues. Our last installment was after about a week, so the guys have had a lot more time to compile some numbers and do work. Well, with 16 names to get to, let's not dilly dally and get to the updating.

We'll start with St. Louis Cardinals reliever Mitchell Boggs. In addition to growing some obviously sweet facial hair, the former starter in Athens has not only settled in to a role in the NL Central leading Cards bullpen, but a significant role at that. He's been handling the job of primary set up man. In 16 games so far, the Dalton native has posted a 2.70 ERA. He's logged 16 and 2/3 innings, allowing only 15 hits and 7 walks, to 19 strikeouts (10.3 K/9). He's yet to allow a HR, and is setting himself up for a pretty nice payday when he reaches his first year of arbitration eligibility this winter.

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Lots of craziness yesterday. Trades galore, some wild and strange picks. No Dawgs went, but they definitely will go today and the SEC dominated the first round. The SEC should dominate as it is by far the nation's most talented conference, and today will see a dozen or more SEC kids go to various teams. The local team, Atlanta Falcons, pick twice (55 and 84).

Among the UGA players expected to go: Cordy Glenn in the first 10 picks of the day, with Brandon Boykin and Orson Charles possibly later on in the evening, and perhaps Ben Jones as well. There will likely be several from the Peach State who did not attend school in the Classic City also get selected.

So let the games begin. If you have a Mayock or Kiper drinking game, feel free to post the rules and the rest of us can play along on a beautiful Friday night in the south.

Yeah, so it's already started. There's been trades. An SEC player has gone to the Browns, where he can be the next "ordinary" RB to try and replace the great Jim Brown.

Talk about your favorite NFL teams. Where Cordy Glenn will go, where he should go, and anything else about that wrong level of the great game of football. The local Falcons don't have a 1st round pick, but they did make a great trade giving up a 7th for Asante Samuel (because you can get starting CBs in the 7th round apparently.

It's the Dawgsports NFL draft open thread. Have fun. Or you can talk about that great episode of Community I just watched.

This began as a comment in a thread, and I'll try to expand on it for this, in to a more comprehensive view of Georgia's AAU basketball scene, and how it relates to UGA specifically. I'll likely do so poorly, but I am a Georgia Bulldog men's hoops fan, so doing poorly with Georgia AAU comes with the territory. AAU is a huge, comprehensive sporting entity, and basketball is just a single part of their many, many programs. This focuses on a small part of that entity, and while some rail against the sometimes shady and borderline criminal element of AAU basketball, that's not what this is about. And for the most part, AAU basketball is full of good people trying to help kids improve their lives, as is the case with most Amateur Athletic Union teams.

via storage1.ihigh.com

More after the jump....

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And now we start what may well become a regular feature, updating how former Diamond Dawgs are doing in their pro careers. The list below are the names as best I can figure (thank you baseball-reference.com), so any help adding to the list or correcting my mistakes would be appreciated. So without further ado, here is how the half dozen or so Georgia baseball players are doing in MLB and the minors a week and a half in to the season.

Former owner of the Green House, Gordon Beckham has picked up where he left off last year, which isn't a good thing considering how bad last year was for him. He's got a mere 5 hits and 2 walks after 10 games, to go with 12 strikeouts, at the plate, as the primary 2B for the Chicago White Sox. But even though things are going from bad to worse, he's still working hard to regain the form he hasn't showed since that promising rookie campaign in 2009.

Joing Beckham in the bigs are St Louis Cardinals P Mitchell Boggs, and Tampa Bay Rays IF Jeff Keppinger, as well as several Dawgs working their way through the minors. Updates on them, and those in the minors, after the jump.

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The suspension of Jiminez got me thinking, should starting pitchers face extended suspensions? The lost pay aspect may impact those lengths to an extent, but considering those guys only play once every 5 games to begin with, a 5 game suspension is little more than a 1 game suspension for a starting pitcher. And when you look at it reaslistically, it's not even that. A starting pitcher can take the mound, sit for their 5 games, and then get right back on the hill with little more than an extra day of rest between starts. So, I ask you, TC commenters, should starting pitchers be subject to longer suspensions so that they truly miss action, and if loss of pay is an issue, then MLB can simply make it say 5 games without pay, and then 10 games with pay, for a total of a 15 game suspension so that a starting pitcher would miss multiple turns in their rotation?

Poll

Should starting pitchers be subject to longer suspensions?

78%

Yes

101 votes

21%

No

28 votes

129 votes | Poll has closed

So, we can't even get out of spring training without needing to rosterbate. We're guys, so I guess it's normal. We just have to get the bad juices out. So, rosterbate away ladies and gents (yes, there are a few female rosterbators). Who should we add to LF, or as as young 3B now that Chipper is out? Don't lie, you've been fantasizing about what you would do once that old man left town for years, and now is the time you can finally go dancing, get that young guy around the corner you've been coveting for so long, and just be free to enjoy yourself after almost 20 long years locked in to the same man again and again and again, except when he was hurting and you had that other guy fill in from time to time. Or when he went on that long business trip to the left (field) and we had a stand in keep us happy for two years. So, who's our next 3B? I vote for this guy

via cbschicago.files.wordpress.com

The 4th seeded Lady Dogs (22-9) saw their season come to a close Sunday in Tallahassee, upset 76-70 by 13th seed Marist.

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Republished from sportsandgrits.com

Inspired by Paul Westerdawg's piece, I figured I'd give a quick look ahead to next year's Fox Hounds before putting up the shorts and looking more at baseball and spring football.

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Landers' Ladies made a quick appearance and exit from the SEC Women's basketball tourney, dropping one to South Carolina after a first round bye in the Nashville event.

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Following last night's debacle by the boys, the girls came to South Carolina to face a 25th ranked Lady Gamecocks squad that was, like the boys, on a similar level of performance. The similarities certainly showed, as the two teams that entered the contest with the exact same 19-6, 8-4 records went back and forth until Landers' ladies came away victorious.

The win marked the 4th straight for the Georgia women's hoops team following a rough stretch in late January beset by injuries. The girls still aren't 100% and may not be the rest of the way, but they do appear to be getting hot at the right time as we approach the all important month of March.

Numbers wise, congratulations to Jasmine James, as the junior guard from Memphis surpassed the 1,000 point total for her career. Fellow junior from the Volunteer State, F Jasmine Hassell, led the way with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Senior G Meredith Mitchell was second on the team scoring 15, followed by sophomore PG Khaalidah Miller who finished with 11 points and 6 assists. Anne Marie Armstrong had had a strong all around game with 10 points, 7 boards, and a career-best 5 blocked shots, capped off by hitting the game winning free throws with under 5 seconds remaining. Depth issues continue to be a lingering hurdle for the Lady Dawgs, as they only got 7 minutes total from their bench, as Armstrong, James, Miller, and Mitchell played the full 40 minutes.