Media guide inspires Lady Dogs

Georgia heads into today's game against Detroit with plenty of self-generated momentum.

The Lady Bulldogs have won 10 straight games to start the season. They decisively beat No. 19-ranked Virginia on Sunday. Jasmine James picked up her third Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week award in the last six weeks on Monday.

The No. 9-ranked Lady Bulldogs have pulled into the top 10 for the first time in two years. Georgia is one of nine unbeaten teams left in Division I and Detroit has won one game all season.

But Georgia coach Andy Landers wants the team to remember last year's 70-66 loss at Detroit. A photograph of last year's scoreboard against Georgia is emblazoned on the cover of Detroit's media guide.

Landers acquired 20 posters of Detroit's media guide cover and pasted them all over the locker room walls and the hallway between the offices and the practice gym.

"It's a part of what we're trying to change," Landers said. "Normally we don't dwell on what happened a year ago or some other time. But with younger kids, what we've tried to do, is get them to understand who Georgia is and what the rest of the country thinks and feels about Georgia.

When their media guide is a picture of the scoreboard of the win over Georgia, it helps me relate to the younger kids that this is what you bought into. We are the biggest game on a lot of people's schedule and we're always a huge game on anybody's schedule," Landers continued. "With the older kids, this is the work you have done and this has to change. This is not what makes Georgia proud."

The loss at Detroit was Georgia's first of the season in 2008-09. The Lady Bulldogs would lose 13 more times and finish in the middle of the pack in the SEC. Landers has committed his program to reversing that downturn and returning to its traditional position as one of the top programs in the nation.

"We have some very fond memories of playing (at Detroit) last year," Georgia senior point guard Ashley Houts said. "It was definitely a knife through the heart. We didn't play well and we didn't get it done as a team. We were on their home court, so they're obviously proud of that. Stuff like that is good at this point to motivate."

Georgia did not play well last year against Detroit. Landers was even more disappointed in the Lady Bulldogs' lack of response when challenged, which would become a recurring problem as the season progressed.

"I remember that we played awful," Georgia forward Porsha Phillips said. "It motivates us a lot. Seeing this 66-70 is pretty dreadful. But it motivates us to beat them (today). I don't want to think about the past. I know we had a horrible season last year. But this year we're playing a lot better and we're having a lot of people stepping up."

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