One of my long standing superstitions is a simple one, and has been proven true too many times to count:
I can’t watch Georgia basketball games.
The story is one that holds the test of time. I remember that game is on, the team is streaking orbit, or it’s a big game. I watch, we lose.
When this season got started, I watched a time or too, and the test remained true with the same result: Georgia lost.
So, I quit watching. Suddenly, we’re streaking, so guess what I’m going to do?
Georgia has a final game Saturday, at home, against a touch Vanderbilt squad that could give Georgia the magic number 20 win and a likely ticket to the big dance. With the SEC tournament left to play, Georgia could still make some noise and who knows what else?
To finish that thought: I’ll be in Athens for my daughter’s state honor chorus at the Classic Center…but I will not watch, not go to the game. Maybe this is a mortal lock that the Hoop Dawgs will get that magic number 20.
Question for today: what’s your sports superstition?
Let’s hear it, Refugees.
I’ll watch if I can remember to, but I often forget or can’t because my wife would rather watch White Lotus or something on a weeknight. I usually catch some of the Saturday game. Hopefully the Hoop Dawgs finish strong. This is a better squad than they’ve had in most recent years.
Earlier this season, for basketball, I’d have to check the score on my phone first. If we were up by 10, I’d proceed to turn it on. But I got to the point that I enjoy watching this team so much, win or lose, that I just had to turn it on regardless of what the score was.
I never wear a new Georgia shirt or hat for a “big” game during football season. It has to be introduced against a lower opponent. If not, Georgia is doomed to lose the “big” game if it is the debut of the shirt or hat.
Same thing happens when I watch. If I intentionally watch a game, they lose… and usually badly.
Also, I’ll see you at the Classic Center for the honors chorus. (I probably won’t because there’ll be a lot of people there.) My daughter is participating, too.
If watching at home. I can’t eat anything until we score.
If I go to the game I have to say “good luck” to three visiting fans.
I, too, endured the same private Hell. Especially since when I work in Northern Carolina I go to a couple Duke & NC games a year and see what real basketball is like. he past decade of Bulldog basketball damn near ruined the sport for me. Then I decided – it’s not my job to change, it’s the HoopDawgs job to get better and if they lose it’s on them.
As far as superstitions, I don’t say bleep to their undisciplined arses so i can point to the scoreboard and laugh.
The biggest voodoo I ever participated in was this: if your group of buddies sit in a darkened room save for the TV glow, pass one cigarette around the group, except for the one guy who doesn’t smoke so he puts a fat dip in, have a ceramic Uga sitting on Barry Bond’s face on the AJC sports page, mute the TV so we don’t have to listen to Tim McCarver’s sanctimonious whining, while blasting GnR’s “Locomotive”…you, too, can bring Sid Bream around to slide and go to the Series.
Y’all are welcome.
I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball. I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball. I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball. I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball. I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball. I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball. I will not get sucked in to Georgia basketball.
Was that you JP? I thought for sure it was MY fault whenever I turned the b-ball game on for even a minute. A mere glance at the screen can cause turnovers, bricked 3’s and general incontinence amongst the squad. I try to turn the channel before the announcers can say “and xxx has gone on a 10-0 run the last 60 seconds.”
Same. Vs. UF last week, I checked the score on my phone, see we’re way up in the 1st half so I turn it on. I swear UF hit a couple quick 3’s in a row. I turn it off. A friend texted me near the end saying “it looks like y’all are gonna pull off the upset!” I turn it back on…bam, UF hits a 3, fouled, 4 point play. Click…off.
It’s crazy I feel exactly the same way about Georgia basketball. As far as superstitions, I have too many when it comes to football. I have a visor I’ve worn since CKS came here which I feel I have to wear start the game. I take it off if we need a change of pace. I also wear one game-day t-shirt for each year upon which I record the schedule and scores (I wear it under a different shirt if I am at the game or in public). Two of those shirts are hanging in my mancave as sort of banners (you can probably guess which 2). Finally, I start a beard on Labor Day weekend which I will not cut during football season.
Your superstition game is strong.
I try not to watch any UGA sport except Georgia football or, if I happen to notice that they are on TV, UGA baseball. For football, on gameday, I hang a UGA football sign on the house, have to wear the same red UGA shirt and my wife has to wear the same UGA pajamas. During a UGA football game, where I sit will change if the game is not going the Dawgs way (and that can change many times during a game). If my wife leaves the room for any reason and the Dawgs start doing better, she won’t come back into the living room or watch the game in another room. She knows how UGA is doing based on if I get loud (like the Ohio State game in 2022 when the Dawgs came back after looking like we were going to lose). If nothing else, it’s fun, but only if the Dawgs win.
I don’t drink Gatorade.
I just don’t watch basketball until possible the tournament. I can’t get into basketball as what is a travel, what is a foul? It is more up to the refs than a targeting call IMO. Is traveling still called?
Further, the last few minutes takes forever, and the game is called tighter at the end of the game. They hold the ball a few seconds, then a foul or something happens, just for a timeout and a 4 minute commercial break, just to happen again 45 seconds of air time later.
I’m not superstitious. I just don’t take chances.
I won’t wear a new shirt for a critical game since it hasn’t been “proven” yet. For the Georgia-Texas bball game last weekend, wife and I were watching in a bar (she’s a Longhorn but not a bball fan). I kept telling her we would choke the game and I wasn’t going to get sucked in. I bet her we would lose, so I take credit for that win.
Again, it’s not superstition. It’s just being prudent.
I have no superstitions for basketball, and don’t believe there are any strong enough to overcome the flood of turnovers that Dawgs Hoops commits. For football, I tend to wear the same shirt for every game in a season, and always wear gray boxer briefs on gameday as my own silver britches.
I could tell y’all what my superstitions are, because they’ve pulled us through the last three basketball games, but then the superstitions wouldn’t work any more.
Superstition: same shirt watching games and same place on the couch.
As for b-ball, they’re in the tournament already. Losing to Vandy won’t knock them out. Can’t wait to watch them in the Dance again!