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Most exciting time of year
Posted: Thursday March 16, 2000 05:03 PM
Andy Landers, a three-time National Coach of the Year, is in his 21st season at Georgia. Landers has averaged 24.3 wins a year, third-best among all active Division I coaches with as much tenure. The Lady Bulldogs are one of only four teams to reach the NCAA Final Four five times. Georgia is 29-3 and the No. 1 seed in the West region of the NCAA tournament.. Check out Landers' diary every week on CNNSI.com.
March 16, 2000
For basketball fans, players and coaches, this is perhaps the most exciting time of the year...we are now entering the city limits of "Bracketville" and, of course, the NCAA Tournament. In the fall, teams all across the country, Georgia included, had dreams and aspirations of a successful year that would culminate with an invitation to the Big Dance. For 64 teams, those dreams came true; for a handful of others, not receiving a bid was disheartening. Naturally, when you get to the number 64 there are always four or five teams clinging to the edge with the hope that they, too, will receive an invitation. The committee, however, has decided otherwise. We have been in that number, and I know the crushed feeling that goes hand-in-hand with being close but not good enough. For 64 teams, however, the goal of playing for the national championship remains alive and anticipation abounds. It is always an exciting feeling and very rewarding to know that the committee has chosen our team as a participant. This year, not only were we chosen, we were seeded as the No. 1 seed in the West Regional. Our team feels that its play throughout the year has been justified, and now our attention is squarely focused on the University of Montana. Montana is a basketball program that has a rich tradition of success, and one that has a past history of NCAA tournament play.
A concern of mine, however, is that it has been two weeks since our team played its last game. After having been accustomed to a routine of Thursday-Sunday games for two months, the routine has been broken; there is some slippage in team focus. I think this is the case with our basketball team but I can sense, as the first game draws closer, our team becomes more and more intent on the objectives at hand. In past years, one of the things that has contributed to the success of our basketball team is being able to focus; not on the NCAA Tournament, not on the 64-team bracket, not on all the other teams and their placement within the brackets, but rather on our upcoming opponent. It sounds simple, but it's true...and it has served us well throughout the years. Montana becomes the biggest game of the year for Georgia, and that game will be played Saturday evening at 7:05 in the Stegeman Coliseum. Excitement abounds, and certainly our basketball team will be enthused when it takes the floor at that time. Hopefully in the next entry of this diary, I will bring good news from Georgia regarding the success of our play this weekend.
-- Coach Landers
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