Published: December 16, 2009 10:22 pm      

Marty Kirkland: Duffie’s Cats have grasped concept of ‘D’

It’s fairly obvious that part of being a good basketball team is knowing your strengths. The flipside of that is pretty important as well, though, and it might be one of the biggest reasons Dalton High’s boys are off to a 4-1 start.

This year’s Catamounts have leadership via experience plus depth on top of a little bit of almost everything else a coach might want — size, quickness, defensive effort and a variety of players who can score.

But even with four years leading this group of Cats, coach Mike Duffie knows his team isn’t perfect. That’s OK, though. It gives Duffie and his players a very important starting point to build a gameplan.

Reflecting on Tuesday night’s win against Northwest Whitfield — and yes it was at home, but that rivalry throws out home-court advantage, not to mention records and skills, to some extent — Duffie was pleased with the Cats because they recognized what was working and went with it.

Dalton played good defense from start to finish and rebounded well, with posts Jalen Fields and Watts Dantzler leading that charge and scoring when they could off offensive rebounds. For those big guys, those are easy, opportunistic baskets that go a long way for the Cats.

“This group seems to grasp the concept of defense,” Duffie said. “They’re really buying in and selling out. It looks like we’ve got a bunch of guys all over the floor, diving, scrapping reaching. They’re buying into the defensive intensity creating offense.

“It’s no secret. We don’t shoot great, we really don’t, so we have to create turnovers and get to the basket, get points off putbacks, transition, that’s where we like to play.”

The Cats won’t return to Region 7-4A competition until January, but they’ll play a lot of basketball between now and then. Duffie rated the schedule, which includes the Carpet Capital Classic at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center starting this Friday, as tough.

It will offer plenty of chances to test the Cats’ ability to go with those strengths, though, and that’s the idea for their path back to region play.

“We’ll be ready,” Duffie said. “This league’s tough.”

� College football is growing and the Peach State is at the forefront of its expansion.

Under Bill Curry’s guidance — and only after Dan Reeves, acting as a consultant, gave his approval for starting a program — Georgia State began practicing this past fall for its first season in 2010. Last week, Kennesaw State’s president announced his university has asked Vince Dooley to help determine whether the Owls should make their own move toward the sport.

A recent New York Times story noted the rise of additions in NCAA programs this decade after a drop in growth during the 1990s and that the common ground for all is the unifying nature football has for schools.

Is this a good thing?

That might depend on where you’re sitting.

There’s no doubt a little instant prestige and pride comes with having your own football program. Simply having a game to go to on a Saturday afternoon in the fall — on your campus — adds something to the experience for any school. The added opportunities for athletes in this state are certainly a good thing, too.

But will fans, particularly students, still go if and when the new wears off? Is there any chance that somewhere down the road Georgia State and Kennesaw State will affect the recruiting fortunes of Georgia and Georgia Tech?

(Tough luck if it does, Georgia State and Kennesaw State fans might say. Then again, I’m willing to bet there are plenty of Georgia and Georgia Tech fans in both the alumni bases and current student bodies at those schools; when you don’t have a team but love football, you root for somebody, don’t you?)

Georgia State will compete in Division I’s Football Championship Subdivision, a cut below the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets, but if things go well, who’s to say the Panthers won’t make a move up years from now?

Again, you might say there’s little chance of Georgia State catching up to programs that have been around for more than a century. And I’ll say this: South Florida 17, Florida State 7.

Perhaps the Bulldogs and Jackets should simply see it as a motivating factor to stay ahead. Perhaps college football fans in this state should be happy for the sport in general with less concern about how it affects their programs. Perhaps Georgia State and Kennesaw State will find out college football is more trouble than it’s worth if you’re not on the top tier.

I don’t know. I’m just wondering.

� With Christmas a little more than a week away, mixed martial arts fans have the chance to give something and get something this Friday night.

Dalton’s Andy Foster, who’s currently serving as the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission’s executive director, recently dropped a line to remind me that Wild Bill’s, a dance club/concert hall in Atlanta that regularly hosts MMA fights, will hold a charity event for the second year in a row.

To get in free to Friday’s fights — doors open at 7, with action starting at 8 — all you have to do is bring a new unwrapped toy that will go toward the U.S. Marine Corps’ well-known Toys for Tots program.

Among venues in Georgia, Wild Bill’s has been one of the state’s biggest supporters of MMA, so it’s fair to expect a good night of fighting — three pro bouts are listed on the card — as well as something good outside the cage. A release from Wild Bill’s said that last year’s event ranked as one of the top 10 single-day toy drives in Atlanta.

For more information, you can visit wildbillsatlanta.com.