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Georgia Sports News
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ATHENS — Georgia found the culprit, and he’s been banned. Between in-house cameras and good old gumshoe detective work, the Bulldogs were able to identify the person who threw the toy bulldog onto the court at Stegeman Coliseum at a most inopportune time Wednesday. UGA refused the share the identity of the offending party, saying only that he had been banned from the premises for the rest of the season and his ticket-buying privileges revoked for an unspecified amount of time. Ultimately, the fan’s actions cost the Bulldogs to the game. The stuffed animal landed several feet away from Mississippi State’s Quinndary Weatherspoon after he missed the first of two free throws with the game tied with 0.5 seconds to play. Because an object was hurled onto the floor in the direction of an opposing player, the Bulldogs were assessed a technical foul. Weatherspoon was awarded two more free throws, making the first and deliberately missing the second to give the visitors a 69-68 victory. Georgia coach Tom Crean was angered by the whole incident for several reasons, not the least of which was he felt a warning should have been issued by the officials before assessing a technical. Crean actually grabbed the public address microphone to tell fans not to throw anything else and thought that’d be it. According to an SEC spokesman, whether or not to call a technical is at the discretion of the on-floor officials. “Anytime an object or debris is thrown onto the court there is a potential for a technical foul to be assessed,” the SEC’s Craig Pinkerton told the Athens Banner-Herald. “Issuing a warning after an object is thrown on the playing surface is not required per NCAA Rule 10-2.8, but may be issued at the discretion of the game officials. The game officials are charged with responsibility for determining which team’s follower threw the object on the court. In last night’s game it was the judgment of the officials that the act was committed by a follower of the home team, resulting in a technical foul assessed to the home team.” It’s too bad a review of the foul that preempted the incident could not be reviewed. The call on Georgia’s Jordan Harris was questionable. None of it matters at this point. The Bulldogs (10-16, 1-12 SEC) lost their 11th SEC game in a row. They play on the road at Mississippi on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (TV: SEC Network; radio: WSB 750-AM & 95.5 FM). The post ‘Toy Tosser’ identified by Georgia, banned from Bulldogs’ future games appeared first on DawgNation. -
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KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) - If Ronald Acuna Jr. is dropped down in the Atlanta Braves' batter order, Ender Inciarte and Ozzie Albies could be the top candidates to lead off. 'I'm going to wait and see where we're at in a couple of weeks. I don't think we have to set a lineup right now, and it could change,' manager Brian Snitker said. 'I have different ideas but I don't think right now or even a week from now we have to have anything set.' Acuna hit .328 in 66 games as a leadoff hitter last season, when he batted .293 overall with 26 home runs in 111 games and was voted NL Rookie of the Year. Atlanta went 90-72 and won its first division title in five years. 'If it was up to me personally, I would like to stay in the leadoff spot, simply because I like hitting there,' he said Thursday as the Braves held their first full-squad workout. His power numbers could merit a spot closer to the middle of the batting order, which will get a makeover following the signing of former AL MVP Josh Donaldson. Freddie Freeman hit third last year and Nick Markakis cleanup. Donaldson said he was attracted to the 'chance to be able to hit in front of Freddie and guys like that, and to have some speed in front of me to be able to drive some guys in.' 'They really kind of came out of nowhere last year. Nobody was really expecting it,' said Donaldson, who signed a $23 million, one-year deal. 'You started seeing some of these guys contributing and doing their thing. It was cool to see.' Enciate hit .223 in 54 games as the leadoff hitter and .326 in 23 games in the No. 2 hole. Albies batted .234 in 40 games atop the order and .287 in 82 games hitting second. Atlanta is searching for a fifth starter to join a rotation that includes Mike Foltynewicz, Julio Teheran, Sean Newcomb and Kevin Gausman. The Braves also will use spring training to evaluate shortstop Dansby Swanson and closer Arodys Vizcaino. Swanson had offseason wrist surgery after playing in 136 games last season. Vizcaino and Mike Soroka, a 21-year-old candidate for the fifth rotation spot, had sore shoulders in 2018. None of them will play in the early spring training games; Snitker said they are all on schedule to be ready for the regular season. Swanson's training routine has included everything except taking batting practice against pitchers. No limitations have been placed on Vizcaino, who saved a game in the postseason but pitched only 38 1/3 innings during the regular season. 'I don't know exactly when we have him scheduled to pitch, but there's no reason to push him right now,' Snitker said. 'He's feeling good, his bullpens have been good so there's really no reason to rush or to push him at this point.' ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports -
ATHENS — Georgia sophomore star Nicolas Claxton might still be in shock after seeing his team fight back from 17 points down only to lose on a free-throw with 0.5 seconds left on Wednesday night. The calls in the final minutes of the game that went against UGA were controversial enough, but the technical whistled on the Bulldogs after a stuffed toy was thrown on the court left more people scratching their heads. “That was an extremely strange ending,” Claxton said, “and, no, I’ve never lost a game like that.” RELATED: Stuffed bulldog leads to decisive technical Coach Tom Crean was flabbergasted at the call after the small, stuffed bulldog was tossed on the floor by an unidentified fan and led to a pivotal and delayed whistle in Georgia’s 68-67 defeat. “I’m 52 years of age, been a head coach for 19 years, been an assistant, been coaching since I was 18 and college since I was 20,” Crean said. “I’ve never seen that. Not without a warning. And certainly without an explanation.” The New York Times felt the ending newsworthy enough to write about it — not the sort of national headlines Georgia expected when it hired Crean, but certainly an indication UGA’s head coach might have a case to make with the SEC office. Crean said it was an issue that would be handled and addressed “behind closed doors.” But for Georgia basketball, it was heartbreak, a seventh-straight loss and 11th consecutive defeat in SEC play. RELATED: State wins battle of Bulldogs, 68-67, game story “Yeah when I hit that shot, I thought we had a good chance of winning the game,” said UGA guard Tyree Crump, whose 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds left tied the game at 67-67 and brought the crowd to life. “I thought we were going to get a stop and go into overtime and try to win the game in overtime.” Instead, Mississippi State escaped with its NCAA Tournament hopes intact. “We were blessed and fortunate,” State coach Ben Howland said. The 61-year-old veteran Mississippi State coach could only recall one situation remotely similar back when he was at University of California Santa Barbara. “At UCSB I was an assistant coach (1982-94) and back in the day on Big Monday back with UNLV with (coach) Jerry Tarkanian,” Howland said. “The fans at UCSB on the first score of the game would throw out tortillas so they’d have thousands of tortillas sailing like frisbees. “Then they outlawed that and said every time you do that it was a technical, but it was done for a number of times, but that’s the only time I’ve seen anything that I can remember off the top.” The post Georgia basketball ‘extremely strange ending’ makes national headlines appeared first on DawgNation. -
Georgia football is the No. 1 topic every day on DawgNation Daily — the daily podcast for Georgia Bulldogs fans. Catch up on everything happening with UGA athletics with host Brandon Adams and the cast of DawgNation experts as they break down the latest Georgia football recruiting news and discuss UGA coach Kirby Smart’s quest to keep the Bulldogs on top of the SEC. On episodes No. 887 (Feb. 21, 2019) of the podcast, Georgia fans can hear a discussion about UGA’s willingness to cooperate with the SEC and Auburn regarding a scheduling change. Georgia football podcast: UGA needs to stop being the SEC’s teacher’s pet Beginning of the show: Georgia has agreed to change the date of its rivalry game with Auburn starting in 2020. I’ll discuss on today’s show why UGA might be guilty of too much cooperation on this issue. 10-minute mark: I’ll discuss the way in which UGA’s new defensive coaching responsibilities have been rolled out. 15-minute mark: DawgNation’s Mike Griffith joins the show. Some of the topics covered include… Whether UGA coach Kirby Smart is likely to be happy with the change to the schedule with Auburn What UGA gains — if anything — from the scheduling change A possible perception problem for UGA athletic director Greg McGarity Reaction to the way in which Dan Lanning was announced as defensive coordinator And a discussion about the controversial technical foul given to UGA 30-minute mark: I take a look at other SEC headlines including former Ole Miss defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff finding a new coaching home at Auburn, some praise for Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt from ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Alabama reportedly hiring another former head coach as analyst and a fast start for LSU’s 2020 recruiting class. 35-minute mark: I’ll share some audio from Lanning prior to the Sugar Bowl discussing the possibility of becoming UGA defensive coordinator. End of show: I share the Gator Hater Updater. The post Georgia football podcast: UGA needs to stop being the SEC’s teacher’s pet appeared first on DawgNation.
