Bulldogs stay the course

ATHENS, Ga. - Dave Bliss says there's no reason he shouldn't accept a leadership role on Georgia's basketball team.

Bliss is only a freshman, but on the nation's youngest team, first-year players have to lead.

"I think we can lead as much as anyone," said Bliss, one of three freshman starters on the team. "Other guys don't have a lot more experience than us."

Actually, only two sophomores on a team with no seniors or juniors have any more experience than Bliss.

Georgia has no upperclassmen and only seven scholarship players as coach Dennis Felton is rebuilding a program left on probation because of the NCAA's findings of rules violations involving academic fraud, unethical conduct and improper benefits during the tenure of former coach Jim Harrick.

According to a recent study of the 343 NCAA Division I rosters by the Athens Banner-Herald, Georgia has the highest percentage of underclassmen in the nation.

The study included walk-ons and scholarship players, but Georgia's youth is even more obvious when looking only at the team's five freshmen and two sophomores on scholarship.

Even when guiding a 2003-04 team that included four seniors to a 16-14 record, Felton knew tough times were coming this season. He might have softened the fall to last place in the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division by adding some junior college players to the mix, but Felton insists he has not second-guessed his plan to start over with players signed for four years.

"You can put this in the book: I've never had any doubts or done any second guessing as to how we're going to do it," Felton said. "I know precisely how we're going to do it. One of the parts to being successful is having the backbone and the discipline to stay the course."

That means enduring a sometimes rocky course.

Georgia, 7-12 overall, has won only one of its first nine conference games after Saturday's 60-53 loss to South Carolina.

The Bulldogs avoided a winless conference schedule by beating Vanderbilt on Jan. 22, but then they were held to 47 points in each of their back-to-back lopsided losses to Florida and Alabama.

The rebuilding task would have been tough even without NCAA sanctions that have taken away three scholarships over the next three years.

As the losses mount, simply maintaining morale is a challenge.

Players called a meeting after Wednesday night's 95-79 loss to Louisiana State, and Felton ordered a 6 a.m. practice Thursday.

"Obviously, we get frustrated at times just because we're not having the success we'd like to have," Bliss said. "I think everybody is just trying to stay positive."