University of Georgia Athletics
Game Notes: Lady Bulldogs vs. Rutgers
November 21, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Lady Bulldog Basketball Game Notes
Georgia vs. Rutgers
Sunday, November 22 at 2:30 p.m. ET
Stegeman Coliseum • Athens, Ga.
AM 960 The Ref in Athens
Promotions
• "Thanks for being a Dog day" with $1 tickets on sale at Stegeman Coliseum beginning at 1:00 p.m.
• Fans can enter to win 10 turkey dinners or to participate in "Turkey Bowling" courtesy of HoneyBaked Ham
The basics
With a youthful roster featuring more first-year players (six) than returning letterwinners (five) one would think Andy Landers might’ve built a schedule allowing his Lady Bulldogs to ease into the 2009-10 season.
Taking the easy way out is not what turned Georgia into one of the nation’s elite programs, however.
This afternoon, the Lady Bulldogs face their third straight perennial NCAA Tournament team to open the campaign as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights visits Stegeman Coliseum in a 2:30 Sunday matinee.
Georgia opened the campaign a week ago with a 62-51 upset of No. 13 Oklahoma. On Thursday, the Lady Bulldogs topped Chattanooga, 74-57, in their initial road date of the season.
While the two victories are certainly significant, Landers believes Rutgers presents a different challenge altogether.
“With Rutgers, you’re talking about a team that is unlike the other two teams we’ve played,” Landers said. “They’ll mix their defenses. They’ll play some man. They’ll play some junk. They’ll play some man-junk. That will make us think and make us change, which is something that early in the year we need to be good at.”
Georgia has already laid a very solid foundation to open the year.
The Lady Dogs never trailed Oklahoma a week ago, and when the Sooners rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to knot the score with 6:52 left, Georgia responded with a quick 6-0 surge to regain control.
At Chattanooga, UGA trailed by six with less than a minute left in the first half. Ashley Houts, playing in front of 500 family and friends from her hometown of Trenton, Ga., just 15 minutes from the UTC arena, hit a three to cut that deficit in half and then scored 10 straight UGA points in the first 3:24 of the second stanza to give the Lady Bulldogs a lead they would never relinquish. UTC pulled within four, but Jasmine James scored 17 of her game-high 25 points to almost single-handedly pull away.
Still, Landers knows there is room for improvement in every aspect of Georgia’s play.
“With a young team, you’re always mindful of what it is that you need to be working on and getting those youngsters up to speed,” Landers said. “That’s a challenge. We have to keep both hands on the wheel with our own guys, but at the same time you have to get ready to play teams that are experienced and teams that understand how to go about the process of winning themselves. It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge. It’s a good baptism for young players.”
Series history vs. Rutgers
Georgia sports a 7-3 lead in its all-time series with Rutgers, including a 2-0 mark in games at Stegeman Coliseum.
A majority of the contests have been neutral site affairs. In the first meeting, Georgia topped the defending AIAW national champ Scarlet Knights in Chicago to christen the 1982-83 season – a campaign that eventually produced UGA’s first of five Final Fours.
Today marks the third matchup in the last four seasons between UGA and RU.
Just under a year ago in Piscataway, Rutgers emerged with a 45-34 victory in a Jimmy V. Classic matchup.
The Scarlet Knights’ 9-0 run early in the second half put Rutgers up 35-25.
That lead topped out at 12 points before Georgia pulled within seven and had possession twice with less than five minutes remaining. The Lady Bulldogs turned the ball over both times, however, two of 25 times they did so during the contest.
Prior to that, Georgia secured a 78-69 victory in the season opener for both teams at the 2006 State Farm Tip-off Classic in Norman, Okla. That contest was the collegiate debut for each team’s current seniors.
Due to a series of injuries and occurrences, Georgia only suited up seven players for that contest...and only had one player in uniform on the bench for a brief stretch of the second half when Janese Hardrick retreated to the locker room due to a stomach illness.
Hardrick and Ashley Houts scored a game-high 18 points to lead Georgia, while Kia Vaughn and Essence Carson led Rutgers with 16 points apiece.
That afternoon also was memorable in that the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame announced its class of 2007 inductees, which included Georgia head coach Andy Landers.
Last time out...
With Georgia trailing by six points and less than a minute left in the first half, Ashley Houts decided to take control of her homecoming game at Chattanooga. The Trenton, Ga., native scored 13 straight points for the Lady Bulldogs in a 74-57 victory.
Houts knocked down a three-pointer to cut UTC’s lead in half before the intermission and then scored 10 in the first 3:24 of the second period to give the Lady Bulldogs a 43-39 lead they would never relinquish.
“She’s a senior. She’s our leader. She’s our point guard,” Andy Landers said. “She did exactly what she’s supposed to do. The neat thing about it was that it sparked our other players. They saw her doing that and all of a sudden Porsha (Phiilips) is knocking down balls on defense and ‘JJ’ hit some big shots. Everyone fed off each other but that started with Ashley.”
Houts finished with 21 points, five assists and four steals before a crowd of 4,004, including an estimated 500 fans from her hometown of Trenton, Ga., less than 15 minutes from the
Chattanooga arena. Freshman Jasmine James poured in 25 points, largely due to hitting six three-pointers, to secure game-high scoring honors.
Houts checked out of the game with 1:41 left to a boisterous ovation. She then sat on the bench for more time than she did in all
14 SEC games last season combined.
“To be honest, it just makes me very proud to be where I’m from,” Houts said. “It means so much to me to have the chance to come back and play in front of so many people who watched me play for the Dade County Lady Wolverines. I always had such great support from everyone from Trenton, Ga., just like tonight.”
A historic Houts homecoming
Ashley Houts not only propelled Georgia to victory at Chattanooga, she also furthered her own individual legend in Lady Bulldog Basketball annals.
Houts’ three-pointer with 30 seconds left in the first half moved her past Pam Irwin-Osbolt into the No. 26 spot among the Lady Bulldogs’ career scoring leaders.
Houts eventually finished with 21 points, enough to ascend her past No. 25 Carla Green and No. 24 Cynthia Collins on Georgia’s career scoring leaders ledger.
Houts has now scored 1,124 points in a Lady Bulldog uniform, leaving her 33 shy of the current No. 23 position occupied by Alexis Kendrick, her predecessor as a four-year starter at point guard.
Tradition ALWAYS graduates to the tune of 102 percent
There’s a common catch phrase used by numerous college athletic teams: Tradition Never Graduates. Well, with Lady Bulldog Basketball, that saying has been altered to Tradition ALWAYS Graduates.
During his 30 seasons at Georgia, Andy Landers has coached 54 four-year letterwinners. Only one of those players, 2009 senior Danielle Taylor, has not earned her degree from the UGA. Taylor, a Social Work major, is spending this year completing a year-long internship she could not undertake while still playing basketball and will receive her degree in May 2010.
Landers’ only two non-graduating four-year letterwinners other than Taylor completed their degrees in 2009. Kedra Holland-Corn (above left with Landers) secured her degree in sociology in May, while Lady (Hardmon) Grooms received her diploma in recreation and leisure studies in August.
Adding to the impressive ledger is the fact Tina Taylor actually received three degrees while she was at UGA for six years of eligibility due to knee injuries. Taylor earned her bachelor’s in accounting in four years, added a second degree in finance in her fifth year and received a master’s in accounting in the final year in Athens.
To calculate Landers’ unofficial graduation rate, we feel strongly that he should be awarded “extra credit” for the extra degrees Taylor earned while eligible to compete. Therefore, 54 four-year Lady Bulldogs possess a total of 55 diplomas from the University of Georgia, giving Landers a graduation rate of 102 percent!
That tally doesn’t even include the degree in child & family development fifth-year senior and three-year letterwinner Angel Robinson (above right with Landers) has already earned. Robinson is now pursuing a master’s in adult education.
A Hall of Fame matchup
Georgia’s Andy Landers and Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer, both members of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, have been two of the game’s premier coaches for more than three decades.
Landers and Stringer are two of only five major college women’s basketball coaches to top the 800-win plateau for career victories.
All told, Landers and Stringer have combined to secure 1,636 victories as collegiate head coaches.
And they haven’t just won, they’ve won on the biggest of stages.
During their combined 72 seasons in – and sometimes out of – the sideline coaching box you’ll also find: 57 20-win seasons, 48 NCAA Tournament bids; 19 “Elite Eight” appearances; nine Final Four bids; and three NCAA runner-up finishes.
Somewhat appropriately, Landers and Stringer have split their previous eight matchups as head coaches as outlined on the next page. Stringer won two of three dates when she was at Iowa, while Landers has won three of five meetings since.
In all but two of those games, both teams were ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press poll at tip-off.
Game-by Game Landers vs. Stringer
Date Result/Site
3/19/87 NCAA Sweet 16 – Ruston, La.
No. 9 Iowa def. No. 6 UGA, 62-60
11/29/87 Amana Classic – Iowa City
No. 6 Iowa def. No. 10 UGA, 66-56
1/5/91 Big Ten-SEC Challenge – Iowa City
No. 9 UGA def. No. 15 Iowa, 62-51
3/27/00 NCAA Elite Eight – Portland, Ore.
No. 8 RU def. No. 4 UGA, 59-51
12/3/00 Honda Elite 4 Classic – Orlando
No. 7 UGA def. No. 5 RU, 82-53
3/24/03 NCAA Second Round – Athens
No. 19 UGA def. No. 23 RU, 74-64
11/12/06 State Farm Tip-off Classic – Norman
No. 9 UGA def. No. 12 RU, 73-69
12/8/09 Jimmy V. Classic – Piscataway
No. 15 RU def. UGA, 45-34
Our take on Landers’ “career”
As Andy Landers approached his 800th career win last year, the question came up.
“Hey, the NCAA Records Book has Andy Landers with just over 700 career wins. What gives?”
Well in our mind, that total is not quite accurate. Georgia politely disagrees with the NCAA on what constitutes Landers’ complete “collegiate” coaching record.
Prior to UGA, Landers compiled an 82-21 record in four seasons at Roane State Community College, a junior college in Harriman, Tenn. The NCAA does not recognize Landers’ Roane State wins because they were not earned at a four-year institution.
Therefore, the NCAA says Landers’ “career” record includes only his efforts at Georgia. UGA chooses – and has since in 1979 – to include Landers’ Roane State results.
With all due respect, its seems odd that the NCAA allows Georgia – and every other women’s basketball program – to count wins accumulated against junior college competition when the game was in an emerging state during the 1970s but won’t recognize Landers’ efforts in that same time frame.
In fact, more than a third of Landers’ victories at Roane – 33 wins, or 40.2 percent to be exact – came against four-year schools. Roane compiled a 33-1 record versus four-year schools during Landers’ tenure.
Georgia vs. the Big East
The Lady Bulldogs are 28-10 all-time against teams currently competing with Rutgers in the Big East Conference.
In addition to its 7-3 mark against Rutgers, Georgia also is: 5-0 vs. Cincinnati; 1-3 vs. Connecticut; 2-2 vs. DePaul; 2-0 vs. Louisville; 1-1 vs. Marquette; 2-1 vs. Notre Dame; 1-0 vs. Pittsburgh; 4-0 vs. South Florida; and 1-0 vs. St. John’s, Syracuse and Villanova.
“JJ” tabbed SEC’s FOW
Jasmine James was tabbed as the SEC’s Freshman of the Week on Monday, less than 24 hours after helping the Lady Bulldogs upset No. 13 Oklahoma in her collegiate debut.
James, a 5-9, guard from Bartlett High School Memphis, Tenn., tied for game-high scoring honors against the Sooners with 15 points, and she also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out an assist and had no turnovers in 34 minutes of playing time. James was 4-of-5 from the free throw and hit both ends of a critical one-and-one with 1:37 left that gave the Lady Bulldogs a three-possession lead.
“JJ’s certainly off to a good start,” Andy Landers said.
James became the first freshman to lead Georgia in scoring in a season opener since current senior Ashley Houts scored 18 points against Rutgers to open the 2006-07 campaign. James is the fifth Lady Bulldog to earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors since the award was introduced in 2006. Those players have secured the accolade a total of 10 times.
Fourth ranked “W” in opener
The victory over No. 13 Oklahoma represented the fourth time ever that the Lady Bulldogs have opened the year with a victory over a ranked foe.
Most recently, Georgia knocked off No. 12 Rutgers, 73-69, in the initial outing of the 2006-07 campaign. Those Scarlet Knights went on to finish as NCAA runners-up.
In addition, Georgia topped No. 16 Southern Illinois, 58-53, to begin the 1987-88 season, and the Lady Bulldogs also topped No. 14 Rutgers, 76-61, in the first game of the Lady Bulldogs’ 1983 Final Four season.
Marshall’s surgery goes well
Christy Marshall underwent successful surgery on Tuesday to repair the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her right knee that she tore during the pre-season.
Marshall, a 6-1, guard from Beach High School in Savannah, Ga., injured her knee in a team workout on Wednesday, October 13, two days before the official opening of practice. The ACL tear was later confirmed through an MRI.
“It rips my guts out every time a kid falls and grabs their knee,” Andy Landers said the day after the injury was sustained. “It’s an all-too-common injury in women’s basketball. My heart goes out to Christy. We’re all in a state of shock at this point.”
Marshall started 21 of 31 games played for Georgia in 2008-09, averaging 8.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. For her career, she has played in 95 games with 28 starts and produced averages of 7.7 points and 3.6 rebounds.
In 2007, Marshall was named the SEC’s Sixth Woman of the Year by league coaches.
Red, White & Blue together
Georgia’s Ashley Houts and Oklahoma’s Danielle Robinson – two of the nation’s premier point guards who shared that role for the U.S. National Team that won the Gold Medal at the World University Games over the summer – squared off in the season opener.
Houts and Robinson virtually evenly split the playing time at point, with Robinson averaging 21.0 mpg and Houts logging 19.3.
Houts started four games and averaged 8.3 points per game by connecting on 52.6 percent of her field goal attempts, 47.1 percent of her three-pointers and 90.9 of her trips to the line. She also averaged 1.7 steals and 1.6 assists.
The medal was Houts’ second international Gold in the past three years. In 2007, she was the lone rising sophomore on the American squad that won the FIBA U21 World Championships.
Robinson started the other three World University contests and averaged 4.6 points and leading the team with averages of 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game.
The U.S. squad posted a 7-0 record in Belgrade, Serbia, defeating its opposition by an average of 33.1 points per game.
Record number of TV dates!
Fourteen Georgia regular-season games will be televised this season. That tally matches the most in Lady Bulldog history. In 2006-07, 14 regular-season dates were among the school-record 19 TV games that aired that season.
A dozen of UGA’s 16 SEC contests and two non-conference games will be on TV.
The Lady Bulldogs’ matchups with Georgia Tech and at Clemson will air on CSS, two of six appearances on the network. CSS also will televise the Lady Bulldogs’ SEC home dates versus Ole Miss, LSU, South Carolina and Alabama.
FSN will produce four league games: at Vanderbilt, versus Tennessee in Athens, at Mississippi State and at Kentucky.
Games against Florida in Athens and at Auburn will air on ESPNU, and the Arkansas game on Feb. 28 will be broadcast on the SEC Network. Lastly, at Florida will be televised by either ESPN2, FSN or Sun Sports.
Georgia is one of the most televised women’s basketball programs in the nation. Over the past six seasons, an average of more than 16 games per year have aired.
Media say 3rd, Coaches 4th
The Lady Bulldogs were picked to finish third in the Southeastern Conference in balloting of league media, while conference coaches tabbed Georgia fourth in the pre-season.
Both bodies did agree in naming Lady Bulldog seniors Ashley Houts and Angel Robinson to their first-team All-SEC predictions. In addition, the coaches included junior Porsha Phillips as a second-team selection.
The media and coaches also disagreed on their SEC Champion prediction. The media installed LSU as its favorite, and the coaches named Tennessee as such.
Following the Tigers in the media’s predictions were Tennessee, the Lady Bulldogs, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Kentucky and Alabama.
Trailing the Lady Volunteers according to the coaches will be LSU, Mississippi State, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Kentucky and Alabama.
Simply put: she’s Houtstanding
Thanks to the efforts of research guru Dave McMahon, we now know that Ashley Houts had played more minutes in her career than any other active Division I women’s basketball player in the nation entering the 2009-10 season.
Houts played the third-most minutes of any player in the country over the past three seasons, and the two players ahead of her (and the two behind for that matter) won’t be playing college basketball this season as outlined below.
National MP Leaders (2007-09)
| Player | MP | GP |
| Epiphanny Prince, Rutgers | 3,623 | 103 |
| Renee Montgomery, UConn | 3,570 | 113 |
| Ashley Houts, Georgia | 3,567 | 99 |
| Takia Starks, Texas A&M | 3,500 | 103 |
| Kristi Cirone, Illinois State | 3,484 | 101 |
Houts played all 40 minutes of the Oklahoma game, the 45th time in her career that she’s never left the floor.
Further research by McMahon revealed that Alexis Gray-Lawson entered the year having played 3,560 minutes at Cal.
Gray-Lawson, a fifth-year senior in 2009-10, played in nine games during the 2006-07 campaign before suffering a season-ending knee injury. She ranked as the nation’s second-most experienced player minutes-wise behind Houts.
“JJ” pledges starter sorority
Freshman Jasmine James logged her first career start at Chattanooga in the second game of her collegiate career.
All told, Andy Landers has now started 63 freshmen during his 31 seasons at Georgia, including 21 standouts who got the nod for their collegiate debuts.
Four of the Lady Bulldogs’ five returning letterwinners – Ashley Houts, Christy Marshall, Angel Robinson and Meredith Mitchell – are included on that ledger, with Houts also being one of the 21 to open their playing careers in Red & Black on the floor for the season opener.
Lady Bulldogs sign three
Three premier prospects signed letters of intent to join the Lady Bulldogs during the NCAA’s early signing period. Arieal Johnson and Ronika Ransford inked their intentions on Wednesday, Nov. 11, while Khaalidah Miller followed suit on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Johnson, a 6-5, forward, is a native of Havelock, N.C., who has played the past three seasons at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. She’s ranked as the nation’s No. 18 post prospect by both the All-Star Girls Report and Hoopgurlz.
“Arieal is going to give us the size that we’re needing inside,” Andy Landers said. “If you drew up a player from a physique standpoint, you’d draw a picture of Arieal. She’s got great size, great length and a great body type. She runs extremely well and can score it from inside and out to 15 feet. She’s a very, very good player who’s only going to get better.”
Ransford, a 5-7, guard from Washington, D.C., is ranked as high as No. 11 overall nationally and is listed among the nation’s top-35 prospects by five different recruiting services. She is ranked No. 11 by Peach State Hoops, No. 13 by Blue Star, No. 16 by the All-Star Girls Report, No. 21 by Hoopgurlz and No. 34 by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.
“Ronika is a multi-talented and an extremely athletic guard who can play both the ‘1’ and the ‘2,’” Landers said. “She can score and penetrate and guard you. She has a great, great future ahead of her. She has extreme quickness and explosiveness. She’s just an outstanding player.”
Miller, a 5-9 guard from Douglass High School in Atlanta and the highest ranked prospect in the state, was named first-team All-State for Class AAAAA by the Georgia Sports Writers Association as a sophomore and junior. She is ranked as the nation’s No. 33 overall prospect and No. 7 guard by the All-Star Girls’ Report. Miller is also listed as No. 36 by Hoopgurlz, No. 40 by Blue Star, No. 42 by Peach State Hoops and No. 57 by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.
“Khaalidah is a terrific athlete,” Landers said. “She has the prototypical size and strength and quickness. She’s versatile and could play anywhere on the perimeter. She has terrific stamina and running ability. She can score off the dribble and can take you to the rack but also has extended range. She’s the whole package.”
The trio of prospects continue a recruiting resurgence for Lady Bulldog Basketball. Georgia’s current freshman class featured four players – Anne Marie Armstrong, Jasmine Hassell, Jasmine James and Tamika Willis – who were ranked among the nation’s top-50 prospects by one or more national recruiting services.
Taylor joins radio crew
Former UGA two-sport letterwinner Maria Taylor will join longtime play-by-play announcer Jeff Danztler to comprise the Lady Dogs’ radio announce team this season.
Dantzler will be calling Lady Bulldog Basketball for the 17th season.
Taylor, who serves as a reporter for georgiadogs.com, was a standout for the Georgia volleyball program who also played for the Lady Bulldogs during the 2006-07 season. She was a three-time All-SEC performer in volleyball and ranks No. 4 all-time in kills (1,729). Taylor played in 22 games for the Lady Bulldogs during their 2007 “Sweet 16” campaign, averaging 1.2 points and 1.9 rebounds per game.
Taylor also was a standout away from athletics. She was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll three times and served as the student-athlete representative on the UGA Athletic Board during 2007-08.
ISP Sports assumed management of the Georgia Bulldog Radio Network this past summer. The company produces radio programming for nearly 40 major college programs. A dozen affiliates throughout Georgia will carry Lady Bulldog games this season, anchored by AM 960 The Ref in Athens and 103.7 FM throughout Northeast Georgia.