SB Nation User Blog: NCT

On a lighter note, this is the first "Google Suggestion" when searching for Brandon Spikes.

NCT — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:38:23 -0000

On a lighter note, this is the first "Google Suggestion" when searching for Brandon Spikes.

Kupets Named Sportswoman of the Year

NCT — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:49:09 -0000

Kupets Named Sportswoman of the Year

This isn't a collegiate-only honor. It's woman of the year across all sports at all levels. Tim Tebow wears Courtney Kupets pajamas.

Isner Advances To Third Round Of U.S. Open - Official Athletics Site of the University of Georgia Bulldogs

NCT — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:20:36 -0000

Isner Advances To Third Round Of U.S. Open - Official Athletics Site of the University of Georgia Bulldogs

Comcast is playing games with me.

NCT — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:51:20 -0000

I'm a subscriber and devoted fan of TiVo. On 8/25, I got a message through my TiVo DVR that there were changes in my Comcast channel lineup. A bunch of new channels were added, including ESPNU HD. ESPNU had been added a few weeks ago, and I was hoping ESPNU HD would soon follow. Well, as it turns out, ESPNU HD is not, in fact, available; where TiVo thinks it should be is just a blank screen. Perhaps, I thought to myself, it's on its way. I did a little research and discovered that Comcast has informed Tribune Media Services and TiVo that all of these new channels, including ESPNU HD, are part of its lineup. I called, emailed, and "online-live-chatted" Comcast to find out when the channels would be visible on my big ol' beautiful plasma television. I was advised that ESPNU HD is not part of their channel lineup and they have no information regarding when or even if it will be. I asked why Comcast had provided lineup changes to TiVo and Tribune Media Services if it did not know when or even if the lineup changes would actually occur. The friendly customer service representative could not answer the question except to say that Comcast does not know when or if the additional channels would be available.

(Now, let me pause here and say that, in my old age, I have made it a priority not to become frustrated with customer service calls. My patience, when I put my mind to it, approaches that of a Tibetan lama.* Additionally, my goal whenever I make such a call is to be the guy for whom someone wants to do something nice. It never helps to yell at the poor hourly-wage soul who has no information but all the power.)

Anyway, I politely suggested that the more accurate response would have been that Comcast, for whatever reason, has elected to withhold from both the public and its customer service department the information I was seeking, but my interest in the service for which I pay very dearly is greatly appreciated.

Anyone else have any information at all about ESPNU in HD on Comcast? (By the way, Turner Classic Movies in HD is also one of the new channels, and I'm pretty excited about that, too.) I'm part of what they call Atlanta Digital Preferred.

*I elect not to focus on keeping my jewel in my lotus where anticipation of football season occurs, because the torture of the expectation has a certain feels-so-good-when-it-stops quality.

Richt's Stewardship So Far: A Head-To-Head Perspective

NCT — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:56:55 -0000

As Jeff Owens wrote back in February, "Georgia football is bigger than any one player on the team." It's also bigger than any one coach. I hope Mark Richt is with us for a long, long time, but UGA football was here for more than a hundred years before he was hired, and it will be here long after he's gone.

Most of us Georgia fans recognize that Mark Richt's tenure as head football coach has coincided with a high level, if not the highest level, of sustained success in the long history of our program. It's fair to say that he's keeping pretty good care of the place. Kyle dutifully has kept us informed of Coach Richt's win tally as it compares to previous coaches, demonstrating that he's on track to becoming the winningest coach in Georgia history. Partly inspired by donkeydawg's inquiry into how we will remember the Mark Richt Era, I took a look at the head-to-head records against our SEC foes and our annual rival, Georgia Tech, to get another perspective on how the program's done under Coach Richt's watch.

Since Richt's arrival in 2001, Georgia has played each Eastern Division opponent, Auburn, and Tech eight times and has played most Western Division opponents at least four times, including both regular-season games and the Conference Championship (Mississippi State's rotation came up in the middle of the last eight years, so has been on the schedule only twice in that period). For extra kicks, I also pulled down some conference championship information. Now, I recognize that an eight-year period and (in some cases) four or fewer games when compared to a history over 100 years old is a sample so small as to be borderline useless, but that's the data we have with Richt so far. Plus, it's mostly good news, which is what I want to think about in July, anyway. And I like to dig up numbers.

Prior to Coach Richt's arrival, the Bulldogs enjoyed a winning record against Tech and every team in the SEC except four: Bama, Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee. Since Richt's arrival in 2001, Georgia has a winning record against Tech and every team in the SEC except Florida. (Let that sink in for a minute; for those of us over 30 (and I'm well over 30), that's something to savor.) The breakdown goes like this:

Games through 2000 (regardless of conference affiliation when played); games 2001-2008

Bama: 22-35-4 (0.393); 3-1 (0.750)
Arkansas: 4-3-0 (0.571); 4-0 (1.000)
Auburn: 46-50-8 (0.481); 5-3 (0.625)
Florida: 45-32-2 (0.582); 2-6 (0.250)
Kentucky: 42-10-2 (0.796); 7-1 (0.875)
LSU: 9-12-1 (0.432); 3-2 (0.600)
Ole Miss: 26-12-1 (0.679); 4-0 (1.000)
Mississippi State: 14-5-0 (0.737); 2-0 (1.000)
South Carolina: 39-12-1 (0.755); 6-2 (0.750)
Tennessee: 11-17-2 (0.400); 5-3 (0.625)
Vandy: 42-17-2 (0.705); 7-1 (0.875)
Georgia Tech: 52-36-5 (0.586); 7-1 (0.875)

With two exceptions (one glaring, one not-so-glaring), the last eight years have shown an improvement in every single head-to-head record over the history of the program prior to 2001. The record against the Gators in the last eight years is significantly worse than the cumulative previous record, but certainly an improvement over the previous 11 seasons (1-10 (0.091)). The winning percentage against South Carolina is just a hair lower, but it's such a small difference as to be neglible, and I'd consider it on pace with history.

Of the four teams against whom the Bulldogs have a losing record, the gap has narrowed under Coach Richt. Of the teams against whom the Bulldogs have a winning record (except Florida*), the gap has widened (or, in the case of the Gamecocks, has stayed the same).

Yes, it's a small sample. And yes, our friends in Tuscaloosa would point out that our modest progress in the series with Bama came during one of the lowest periods of their history and before The Process got under way. And yes, there's the Florida Problem, but like Kyle, I have confidence that the streaky nature of the series with the Gators will assert itself very soon.

In addition to improvement in almost all of Georgia's head-to-head records with routine opponents, Coach Richt famously led the Bulldogs in 2002 to the first SEC championship in 20 years and coached a second championship team in 2005. That's an average of one every four years. In the 68 years of the conference's existence prior to Richt's arrival, the Bulldogs had won 10, for an average of one every 6.8 years. I would suggest that it represents an improvement even greater than those raw numbers would demonstrate, however, because the first ten were won without a championship game and when it still was possible to share the title.

For comparison purposes, Vince Dooley retired from coaching with losing records against Bama, Arkansas, and Auburn, and an even 2-2 record with LSU. On average, UGA won a conference football championship once every 4.17 years, significantly skewed upward by the amazing three-year run from 1980-1982 (and mitigated by the aforementioned change in how the championship is won).

By any measure (and the above is simply one of countless possible), Richt has taken excellent care of the program.

By the way, all this poking around in historic data got me thinking. We know that Bama leads the way with 21 SEC championships. Tennessee is second with 13; Georgia is third with 12; LSU is fourth with 10; and Florida is fifth with 8. Clearly, Alabama's position is safe for a while. Which among the next four will be the first to improve its standing relative to the others?

*I confess to sinking into a bit of a funk after the 2008 Florida game, and I do hate the look of the record over the last 19 years, but honestly, it's Florida, and I just can't get as riled up about that rivalry as I can about Tech and Auburn. Even Tennessee, with whom Georgia didn't have that much of a history until conference expansion, at least has a rich history itself. Hell, Florida didn't even field a football team until a dozen or so years (longer than that, if you ask the Gators) after UGA and Auburn first met in Piedmont Park. They're just not that important to me beyond being another division foe and co-participants in one of the best annual events in college football.

The Associated Press: Gymnast Kupets of Georgia wins Honda-Broderick Cup

NCT — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:23:36 -0000

The Associated Press: Gymnast Kupets of Georgia wins Honda-Broderick Cup

A few thoughts before I venture out into the rain

NCT — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:26:18 -0000

Both of my grandfathers were solid Tech fans: one got his general engineering degree there in the 1920s; the other would have gone to school there if going to college had been an option (he was a brilliant man and a natural engineer). The latter grandfather's sister married a Tech graduate, and his older son earned his chemical engineering degree from Tech. The other son went to North Georgia, but has been a Tech fan all his life, and his son is a Tech alumnus.

My father became a Georgia fan when his family moved to Athens while he was in high school. While at Athens High (first over off Prince Avenue, and then in the "new" facility off Milledge), my dad started attending the games. Unfortunately, this was at the beginning of The Drought. Dad went on to enroll at the University and was an undergraduate for the '53, '54, '55, and '56 seasons. During that span, Georgia was 1-3 against Florida, 0-4 against Auburn, and 0-4 against Tech. My mother was a little more fortunate: as she was two years behind my father, she was an undergraduate when The Drought was broken in '57 and got to see a Georgia victory in Athens in the following, her senior, year.

My folks had three sons. The first two went to Georgia Tech. My father has said he and my mother had to keep trying until they got it right, and in 1984, I matriculated at the University (and did my best to even things out by earning two degrees). Lo and behold, after six consecutive victories over Tech, I arrived just in time to see the streak end in an 18-35 beating in Athens. We lost the 1985 game, too, and I was beginning to wonder if there was a Generational Curse that I'd inherited from my father. Thankfully, we didn't lose every game while I was a student, but during those seven years, Georgia had a losing record (3-4).

But today is not about my woes, having undertaken my own season tickets during the meat of the Goff years. It's about my dad and those of his era who have enjoyed watching the series mature in a manner completely dominated by Georgia in every way. Georgia now leads in victories and points scored. Georgia has more victories and points in Athens; more victories and points in Atlanta. But Tech holds the longest streak. It's time for that to end.

I could add lots of reasons why I hate Tech and why all victories over Tech are important. But this is about The Drought. It's time to take from the Trade School the one point of pride they have in the series, and let them carry the burden of a drought for a while.

Wreck Tech!

Knowshon Moreno leap | ajc.com

NCT — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:16:10 -0000

Knowshon Moreno leap | ajc.com

Beautiful photo of The Hurdle

Georgia Athletics: Fleeting Thoughts

NCT — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:46:05 -0000

Georgia Athletics: Fleeting Thoughts

David Ching's "replacement" -- check out the clever observation about turning the lights down at lunch during the SEC Media Days.

Omaha.com CWS - fun human interest story

NCT — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:03:31 -0000