UGA Men’s Basketball: Bulldogs Host Gators On Senior Night

 

 

2019-20 STATISTICS	GEORGIA	FLORIDA
Points Per Game	76.9	72.1
Opp. Point Per Game	75.6	66.3
Scoring Margin	+1.2	+5.8
Field Goal Pct.	.452	.455
Opp. Field Goal Pct.	.450	.419
3-Point Pct.	.304	.346
3-Pointers Per Game	7.2	7.1
Opp. 3-Point Pct.	.322	.319
Free Throw Pct.	.701	.725
Free Throws Per Game	14.5	13.9
Rebounds Per Game	38.4	35.4
Opp. Rebound Per Game	36.1	31.9
Rebound Margin	+2.3	+3.6
Assists Per Game	13.5	11.7
Turnovers Per Game	15.0	12.1
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio	0.90	0.97
Turnover Margin	-1.7	+0.8
Steals Per Game	7.3	5.8
Blocks Per Game	3.4	3.9

 

• Anthony Edwards’ 573 points is the second-most ever by a UGA freshman and is 73 points away from the freshman record held by Jacky Dorsey.
• Sahvir Wheeler’s 123 assists represent the second-most ever by a UGA freshman. He is 10 passes-to-baskets shy of Litterial Green’s UGA freshman record..
• Toumani Camara scored in double figures once in UGA’s first 16 games but has reached double digits seven times in the last 13 outings.
• UGA broke its all-time total attendance record with the crowd at the Arkansas game. The toal of 154,064 fans this season topped the mark of 148,700 set last season.
• Georgia’s celebrated freshman class – ranked among the top-10 groups nationally by every recruiting service – features five of the nation’s top-100 prospects.

 

Georgia looks to put a bow on an extremely solid home campaign on Wednesday night when the Bulldogs host Florida for “Senior Night” at Stegeman Coliseum at 7:00 p.m.

Georgia improved to 15-14 overall 12-4 at home with last Saturday’s 99-89 win over Arkansas. Six Bulldogs scored in double figures in the victory, as Georgia upped its Stegeman scoring average to 81.1 ppg and scoring margin to + 9.8.

At approximately 6:40, the Bulldogs will recognize this season’s seniors – players Tyree Crump, Donnell Gresham Jr. and Jordan Harris and student managers Harrison Gascho, Jordan McGruder, Ben Starks and Michael Van Hooser.

Wednesday’s game will be Georgia’s seventh sellout of the season. Last Saturday’s crowd of 10,017 led to two UGA attendance records.

That represented Georgia’s 10th crowd of 10,000-plus, inching past the previous high of nine such crowds during the 2002-03 campaign.

It also pushed the Bulldogs past their all-time total attendance record for a second-straight season. A year ago, 148,700 fans came through the Stegeman Coliseum turnstiles. Georgia surged past that to 154,064 fans for this season…with tonight’s sellout still to come. The new record should top last year’s count by around 15,000.

Anthony Edwards, who on Monday was named SEC Freshman of the Week for a school-record fourth time, leads Georgia at 19.8 points per game. Edwards, one of only two freshmen on the 20-player late-season Wooden Award Watch List, is the nation’s top-scoring freshman. The Atlanta native has reached double figures in the scoring column in 25 of 29 games, with 13 20-point outings and three 30-point efforts.

The first 1,250 UGA students at Wednesday’s game will receive a t-shirt honoring the Bulldogs’ three senior players, Tyree Crump, Donnell Gresham Jr. and Jordan Harris.

Tyree Crump is…
• 3FGs from No. 9 Bernard Davis
• 14 3FGAs from No. 7 Dustin Ware

Among UGA’s Freshman Leaders – Anthony Edwards is…
• 73 points from No. 1 Jacky Dorsey

Among UGA’s Freshman Leaders Sahvir Wheeler is…
• 10 assists from No. 1 Litterial Green

The Bulldogs and the Gators are facing off for the 221st time this evening. Although Georgia leads the series in Athens, 63-40, Florida owns a 115-105 advantage in overall matchups.

Florida is Georgia’s most frequent foe on the hardwood. Trailing the Gators on the list of most matchups for Georgia are two more of the Bulldogs’ biggest rivals – Georgia Tech with 196 contests and Auburn with 191.

Last month in Gainesville, the Gators rallied from a 22-point, second-half deficit to secure an 81-75 win over the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs led 41-26 at the half and pushed that margin to 22 points just over three minutes into the second stanza.

The Gators went up 59-57 with 8:38 left and expanded that margin to 69-59. Georgia made it a one-possession game twice, lastly at 76-73 with 31 seconds remaining, but could not complete the comeback.

In the last meeting in Athens on Jan. 19 last season, Florida withstood second-half rally from Georgia en route to a 62-52 victory.

The Gators built a 33-23 halftime lead, largely due to connecting on 7-of-13 shots from 3-point range during the period.

Georgia opened the second half with an 8-0 surge and then eventually tied the game at 40-40 at the 15:40 mark.

The Bulldogs’ momentum continued as Georgia built a 48-43 advantage with just under 10 minutes remaining. The Gators regained control by scoring the next dozen points and not allowing the Bulldogs closer than five points the rest of the way.

Florida enters the final week of the regular season at 18-11 overall and 10-6 in SEC play after compiling a 6-3 record in February. The Gators were listed as a No. 9 seed in the latest edition of Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology on ESPN.com released on Monday morning.

Florida’s balanced offense features a quartet of double-digit scorers averaging between 10.3-14.0 ppg.

Sophomore Keyontae Johnson leads the Gators on the offensive end, while graduate transfer Kerry Blackshear chips in 13.4 ppg and a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game.

Georgia raced to a 14-0 lead to open the game and then withstood numerous Arkansas attempts to rally en route to a 99-89 win over the Razorbacks before a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum last Saturday.

The Bulldogs eventually doubled up Arkansas on the scoreboard with their largest lead of the evening coming at 36-18 with 8:24 left in the first half.

The Razorbacks trimmed the gap to 47-39 at the intermission and pulled within a single point three times in the second period. The Bulldogs answered on each occasion – with a Rayshaun Hammonds three-point play, an acrobatic layup from Tyree Crump and a layup by Hammonds.

Anthony Edwards took over late, scoring 10 of his game-high 26 points in the final 4:30 as Georgia pushed a three-point lead to a 10-point margin of victory.

Through games of March 2, Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler were among the nation’s top freshmen in scoring and assists, respectively, as outlined below.

Edwards was the top scorer among all Division-I freshmen, the only one featured in the top-50 scoring leaders and one of only three included among the top-100.

Wheeler sported the eighth-best average assists average by a freshman.

UGA’s Top-10 Freshman Scoring Averages
Rk.	Player, School	G	Avg
36.	Anthony Edwards, Georgia	29	19.8
84.	Jordyn Adams, Austin Peay	31	17.8
95.	Vernon Carey, Duke	30	17.6

 

UGA’s Top-10 Freshman Assists
Rk.	Player, School	G	Avg
35.	Yuri Collins, Saint Louis	29	5.5
42.	Nico Mannion, Arizona	29	5.3
56.	Tyger Campbell, UCLA	30	5.0
68.	Sean East, UMass	29	4.8
81.	Isaiah Stevens, Colorado St.	31	4.6
82.	Rylan Jones, Utah	28	4.5
99.	Mark Freeman, Tennessee St.	29	4.4
99.	Sahvir Wheeler, Georgia	28	4.4

 

Toumani Camara, who moved into the Bulldogs’ starting lineup in the 10th game of the season against SMU, has seen a massive up-tick in his production over the last 23 outings.

During that span, Camara also posted career highs of 16 points vs. Georgia Southern, nine rebounds vs. Austin Peay and 34 minutes of playing time vs. SMU.

After notching one double-digit output in the Bulldogs’ first 16 outings, he has done so seven times in Georgia’s last 13 contests.

The freshman more than doubled his playing time from the first six games and has also increased his scoring and rebounding by huge chunks as outlined below.

Camara’s Increased Efforts
Stat	First 6	Last 16
Points per game	4.0	7.3
Rebounds per game	2.5	4.9
Minutes per game	13.2	26.8

 

In his 61 games played as a freshman and sophomore, Rayshaun Hammonds had two 20-point performances, four double-figure rebounding outputs and two double-doubles.

In 29 games this season, Hammonds notched six 20-point outputs, six double-digit rebound counts and four double-doubles.

Hammonds’ most impressive outing of the season came against arch-rival Georgia Tech on Nov. 20. He scored 26 points against the Jackets, including 19 first-half points when he connected on 8-of-11 shots from the floor and 2-of-3 from 3-point range.

Tyree Crump continued a familiar theme to his scoring this season, with 49 of his 67 field goals (73.1 percent) being 3-pointers.

More than two-thirds of Crump’s made shots from the floor at Georgia have come from 3-point range.

The Bainbridge native has connected on 176 3s as a Bulldog, which accounts for 69.8 percent of his total 252 made field goals.

Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler are currently occupy the No. 2 spot among Georgia’s all-time freshman leaders for points and assists, respectively, as outlined below. Edwards joined the Bulldogs top-10 season scoring efforts by a freshman in just the 18th game of the season at No. 15 Kentucky on Jan. 21. Over the next four outings, Edwards ascended all the way up to the No. 4 position. Edwards’ current scoring pace of 19.8 ppg would be the second-best by a freshman in UGA history and would put him at 612 points at the end of the regular-season slate. Wheeler’s eight assists against Alabama on Feb. 8 gave him exactly 100 passes-to-points this season. He became just the sixth Georgia freshman to record 100 assists and the first to do so in just over a decade, since Dustin Ware did so during the 2008-09 season. Wheeler enters the Florida game 10 assists shy of Litterial Green’s UGA freshman mark. His current pace would give Wheeler 136 assists at the end of the regular season.

Top-10 Freshman Scorers
Rk.	Player	Pts.	Year	G	Avg.
1.	Jacky Dorsey	646	1975	25	25.8
2.	Anthony Edwards	573	2020	29	19.8
3.	Jumaine Jones	515	1998	35	14.7
4.	Litterial Green	481	1989	31	15.5
5.	Cedric Henderson	433	1985	28	15.5
6.	K. Caldwell-Pope	422	2012	32	13.2
7.	Walter Daniels	404	1976	27	15.0
8.	D.A. Layne	381	1999	30	12.7
9.	Terry Fair	368	1980	27	13.6
10.	Trey Thompkins	354	2009	28	12.6

 

Top-10 Freshman Assists
Rk.	Player	Ast.	Year	G	Avg.
1.	Litterial Green	133	1989	31	4.3
2.	Sahvir Wheeler	123	2020	28	4.4
3.	Dustin Ware	108	2009	32	3.4
4.	Moses White	105	2000	29	3.6
5.	Rashad Wright	103	2001	31	3.3
6.	Bryan Drafts	100	1974	26	3.8
7.	Charles Mann	92	2013	32	2.9
8.	Vern Fleming	86	1981	30	2.9
9.	Sundiata Gaines	78	2005	27	2.9
10.	Walter Daniels	77	1976	27	2.9

 

For the second consecutive season, Georgia broke its all-time total attendance record with a game to spare.

A year ago, 148,700 fans came through the Stegeman turnstiles to break the previous record by more than 9,000.

Georgia’s total attendance this season eclipsed that mark last Saturday and now stands at 154,064 entering tonight’s regular-season finale. With a seventh sellout this season set for the matchup with the Gators, the Bulldogs should top last year’s standard by around 15,000 fans.

Tom Crean has credited fan support as an integral part of UGA’s home success, most notably after a December win over SMU.

“We don’t win this game without this crowd,” Crean said bluntly in his postgame press conference. “We do not win this game without this incredible, passionate, stick-with-us, not let us drop crowd. I reminded the players a few times that we’re sitting here in basically a sold-out game, and these fans are not giving up on you, so don’t give up on yourself. I’m extremely proud of how we found a way to win, and I’m unbelievably thankful for our fans.”

And after Auburn win, Crean opened his postgame radio show with: “The fans were here and on their feet. The win is awesome, there’s no question about it, and I’m happy for our team, but the bottom line is that shows we’re building a program. We are going through growing pains and hard days. We are going through adversity. But you don’t get a program built if you lose momentum with your fans. They are staying with us, and I’m so thankful for that. To have everybody here like that supporting us on a Wednesday night means an awful lot. So thank you Dawg Nation, from the bottom of my heart and all of this team.”

One attendance record that will stand – at least for now – is Georgia’s average home attendance mark. The Bulldogs have averaged 9,629 fans over their 16 home dates. That is on pace to be the second-best tally in program history (trailing only 9,857 in 2002-03).

Tyree Crump’s 3-pointer with 13:06 left in the first half of the South Carolina game on Feb. 26 pushed him into the No. 10 position among Georgia’s all-time leaders for successful shots behind the arc.

The senior equaled the existing No. 10 effort of Jody Patton.

Crump ascended into the top-10 leaders in 3-point field goal attempts at Arizona State on Dec. 14 and is now No. 8 as outlined below.

UGA Career 3FGA Leaders
Rk.	No.	Player	Seasons	3FGAs
1.	683	Levi Stukes	2004-07	261
2.	583	D.A. Lane	1999-01	231
3.	582	Ezra Williams	2001-03	213
4.	576	J.J. Frazier	2014-17	204
5.	569	Kenny Gaines	2013-16	213
6.	544	Litterial Green	1989-92	215
7.	536	Dustin Ware	2009-12	194
8.	522	Tyree Crump	2016-19	176
9.	500	G.G. Smith	1996-99	193
10.	453	Bernard Davis	1991-94	184
UGA Career 3FG Leaders
Rk.	No.	Player	Seasons	FT-FTAs
1.	261	Levi Stukes	2003-07	683
2.	231	D.A. Lane	1999-01	583
3.	215	Litterial Green	1989-92	544
4.	213	Ezra Williams	2001-03	582
	213	Kenny Gaines	2013-16	569
6.	204	J.J. Frazier	2014-17	576
7.	194	Dustin Ware	2009-12	536
8.	193	G.G. Smith	1996-99	500
9.	184	Bernard Davis	1991-94	453
10.	172	Jody Patton	1987-91	387
	176	Tyree Crump	2016-19	522

 

A half-dozen Georgia players posted double-figure scoring outputs against Arkansas on Feb. 29 and The Citadel on Nov. 12.

The last time six Bulldogs scored 10 or more points was in 2002.

Versus Arkansas last Saturday, Anthony Edwards scored 26 points, Rayshaun Hammonds poured in 22, Tyree Crump chipped in 14, Jordan Harris and Sahvir Wheeler contributed 11 each and Toumani Camara added 10.

Against The Citadel’s Bulldogs Edwards had 29 points; Crump and Donnell Gresham Jr. added 13 apiece; and Hammonds, Amanze Ngumezi and Wheeler each chipped in 10.

Prior to that, you had to go back to a 92-62 win over Appalachian State on Dec. 22, 2002 to find a contest with six Bulldogs in double figures, when Steve Thomas scored 18 points, followed by Ezra Williams (13), Chris Daniels (12), Jarvis Hayes (11), Rashad Wright (11) and Jonas Hayes (10).

The Bulldogs’ celebrated freshman class – a consensus top-10 group according to every major scouting service – was vital in the Georgia’s Feb. 19 upset of No. 13/12 Auburn.

Anthony Edwards scored 18 points, while Sahvir Wheeler and Toumani Camara added 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Anthony Edwards was selected as SEC Freshman of the Week for a school-record fourth time on Monday, the fifth SEC FOTW honor this season for the Bulldogs.

Edwards also was recognized on Feb. 24, Dec. 2 and Feb. 3, while Sahvir Wheeler was selected on Dec. 23.

Last week, Edwards averaged 31.0 points against South Carolina and Arkansas. He scored 36 points and recorded game-high tallies for four assists and four steals in 44 minutes of action versus the Gamecocks. Against Arkansas, Edwards put up 26 points, including 10 in the final 4:30 of the game as Georgia pushed a three-point lead to a 10-point margin of victory.

Edwards’ first SEC accolade came after he averaged 22.3 points in a trio of outings at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. He was honored the second time after becoming the first Bulldog freshman in over two decades to record consecutive double-doubles in outings against Missouri and Texas A&M. Edwards averaged 18.5 points per game in the Bulldogs’ back-to-back victories over No. 13/12 Auburn and at Vanderbilt prior to being honored for the third time.

Wheeler was selected after making layups in the final five seconds of two overtime periods against SMU. He scored with four seconds remaining in the first OT to tie the score. In the second extra session, Wheeler’s layup with 1.9 seconds left was the game winner.

Georgia is 5-3 this season in games decided by four points or less.

That’s a dramatic difference last season when UGA was 0-6 in such outings, with all six setbacks coming to NCAA tourney teams.

Georgia’s non-conference effort in 2018-19 featured four- and two-point setbacks to Temple and Arizona State, respectively. The Bulldogs also dropped four consecutive extremely excruciating late-season losses by a combined nine points to LSU (83-79), Mississippi State (68-67), Ole Miss (72-71) and Auburn (78-75).

This season, Georgia defeated Georgia Tech (72-68), Chaminade (80-77), SMU (87-85) and No. 9 Memphis (65-62) before suffering setbacks against Missouri (72-69) and Alabama (105-102). Georgia earned its fifth victory in a tight game by besting Vanderbilt (80-78) on Tyree Crump’s buzzer beater, but then immediately dropped a 94-90 overtime decision at South Carolina.

Sahvir Wheeler returned to the court against Texas A&M on Feb. 1 after missing a Jan. 28 game at Missouri.

Wheeler, who leads Georgia in assists and is third in scoring, suffered an upper body injury in practice on Monday, Jan. 27, before the team departed for Columbia.

He played three of his best games of the season immediately after his return.

The Houston native had a strong linescore against the Aggies, with nine points, five assists, four boards and two steals.

Wheeler followed that with 16 points and four assists at Florida.

Against Alabama, he recorded career-high tallies of 24 points and eight assists (for the third time this season) in a career-most 42 minutes of playing time.

Freshman Christian Brown made an immediate impact off the bench in Georgia’s road games at Florida and Texas A&M.

At Florida on Feb. 5, Brown scored six points in five minutes, connecting on 2-of-3 3-point attempts.

At Texas A&M on Feb. 15, Brown contributed eight points in eight minutes, making 3-of-5 shots from the floor and converting on his two attempts at the line.

Anthony Edwards was named to updated Watch Lists for the Wooden and Jerry West Awards released in early February.

On Monday, Feb. 3, Edwards was the only SEC player and one of just two freshmen (along with Duke’s Vernon Carey Jr.) featured on the new top-20 list of candidates for the Wooden Award.

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Edwards was one of two freshmen (along with Kentucky’s Tyrese Maxey) and four SEC players on the top-10 list for the West Award, which is given to the nation’s top shooting guard.

Sophomore Tye Fagan scored 14 points at No. 15 Kentucky on Jan. 21 by connecting on all six of his shots from the field (including a 3-pointer) and one attempt at the line.

Fagan has now scored in double figures three times this season and has done so in an extremely efficient fashion. In that trio of contests, Fagan has connected on 81.0 percent (17-of-21) of his shots from the floor.

Fagan recorded his first double-digit scoring output with 11 points against Dayton in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. He connected on 5-of-5 shots from the field, including his only 3-point attempt, against the Flyers.

The sophomore from Logtown paced Georgia with 15 points at Arizona State on Dec. 14. Fagan did most of his damage in the second half in Tempe with 11 points in 10 minutes.

Before that, Fagan’s top offensive performances were early last season. He notched eight points in three of the first four games of his freshman year.

Freshmen Toumani Camara, Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler all started for the Bulldogs at No. 5 Auburn on Jan. 11.

That marked the first time Georgia started a trio of freshmen in a decade and 11 days.

To find the last contest when three first-year Bulldogs got the nod you have to venture back to a date with Kennesaw State on New Year’s Eve in 2008 when Travis Leslie, Trey Thompkins and Dustin Ware all started.

Four members of the Bulldogs’ top-10 recruiting class have started this season. Rodney Howard did so against N.C. Central and Arizona State.

For a second-straight season, Georgia endured a brutal stretch to open SEC play.

The Bulldogs began league action by facing six straight 2019 NCAA Tournament teams – Kentucky, Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky (again) and Ole Miss.

Tom Crean has undergone some serious hazing from the scheduling Gods since arriving in Athens. A year ago, Georgia opened SEC play with consecutive Saturday road trips to the defending league co-champions from the previous year – Tennessee and Auburn.

While most of the SEC opened league play on Saturday, Jan. 4, Georgia was earning a historic road win at No. 9 Memphis.

That was: 1) just the second road victory over a ranked non-conference foe in Georgia Basketball history; and 2) just the second road win over a ranked foe by any SEC team this season…South Carolina’s upset of No. 9 Virginia on Dec. 22 being the other.

The victory also represented UGA’s first:

• win over a top-10 foe since defeating No. 10 Kentucky, 77-70, on Jan. 8, 2011.
• road win over a top-10 opponent since beating No. 5 Kentucky, 65-57, at Rupp Arena on Jan. 17, 2004.
• road win over a ranked, non-conference foe since topping No. 7 Louisville, 73-70 in overtime, on Dec. 29, 1977.

Georgia’s freshman class features five of the top-100 prospects from 2019 and was consistently ranked among the nation’s top recruiting groups – No. 5 by ESPN.com, No. 6 by rivals.com and No. 10 by 247Sports.com.

Headlining the quintet is Anthony Edwards. The Atlanta native, who tabbed the nation’s best prospect by some, announced his commitment to his home-state school on national television on Feb. 11. He is the Bulldogs’ highest rated recruit ever.

Dominique Wilkins was the most hyped recruit in Georgia history in 1979. Individual rankings for that class are believed to be unavailable, but it also featured future stars such as Ralph Sampson, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Clark Kellogg and Sam Bowie.

In the internet age, current L.A. Laker Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is the highest ranked player in the 247Sports.com composite to enroll at Georgia at No. 12 in 2011. Current L.A. Clipper Louis Williams signed with the Bulldogs as the No. 6 prospect in the 2005 composite but opted to enter the NBA Draft.

The Bulldogs’ highest recruiting class ever was No. 2 in 1992 when UGA inked four top-100 prospects – Shandon Anderson, Terrell Bell, Pertha Robinson and McDonald’s All-American Carlos Strong (who was rated as high as No. 4 nationally) – in the fall and added then added Cleveland Jackson, the National Junior College Player of the Year, in the spring.

Additional top classes at Georgia include those in 1979 and 1980 which featured four McDonald’s All-Americans between them – Wilkins and Terry Fair in 1979 and Vern Fleming and James Banks a year later.

The Bulldogs’ class of nine freshmen – seven scholarship and two walk-ons – ranks as the third-largest in D-I hoops.

Navy, TCU and Utah sport a nation-leading 11 freshmen on their rosters. Air Force has 10 freshmen. In addition to Georgia, Louisville also has nine freshmen.

On this list, “freshman” is defined as a player who is a freshman eligibility wise and competing at that school for the first time this season…so there are some redshirts.

Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler poured in 24 and 19 points, respectively, in the season opener against Western Carolina on Nov. 5 – the second- and third-most points ever by a freshman in their Bulldog debut.

Since NCAA rules changed to allow freshmen to compete in basketball in 1972, 23 Bulldogs have scored in double figures during their first collegiate contest.

Edwards came within a bucket of Dominique Wilkins’ school record against Troy on Nov. 30, 1979 as outlined below.

Top Tally Debuts By UGA Freshmen
Year	Player	Points
1979	Dominique Wilkins	26
2019	Anthony Edwards	24
1979	Terry Fair	19
2019	Sahvir Wheeler	19
1998	D.A. Layne	18
2007	Jeremy Price	18
2004	Sundiata Gaines	17
2017	Rayshaun Hammonds	17
2011	Kentavious Caldwell-Pope	15

 

Anthony Edwards’ 24 points against Western Carolina were the most by a Bulldog in an opener in nearly two decades – since Ezra Williams’ 26 versus Furman on Nov. 16, 2001.

You may have noticed Georgia’s roster has gone away from listing traditional basketball positions of guard, forward and center.

Tom Crean is a proponent for “position-less” basketball so players are now simply listed as the position “B”…which stands for “Basketball Player.”

“That’s what they are,” Crean said. “It’s not valid to call them centers and forwards and things like that with the way that we’re trying to play. They’re being trained as basketball players, every day. If you came out there to practice (6-11) Rodney Howard, a lot of times is doing the same things that (5-10) Sahvir Wheeler’s doing in the sense of how we train ball handling, driving, shooting…all those type of things. That’s what we’re recruiting. We’re recruiting basketball players.”

The Bulldogs signed four standouts to letters-of-intent during the NCAA’s early signing period, Tom Crean announced on Nov. 18.

Georgia’s incoming recruiting class was listed at No. 24 nationally in the 247Sports.com composite rankings.

Two in-state prep prospects – Kadarius “K.D.” Johnson from Decatur and Josh Taylor from Norcross – and a pair of Eastern Florida State College teammates – Jonathan Ned and Mikal Starks – will play for the Bulldogs beginning next season.

Georgia’s 31-game regular-season slate includes 14 games against teams featured in the last preseason edition of ESPN.com’s Bracketology released on Nov. 4.

The Bulldogs will host games against seven teams in the predicted field and take on six more away from Stegeman Coliseum.

In Athens, Georgia will entertain Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia Southern, Kentucky, N.C. Central and Tennessee.

The Bulldogs met Dayton and Michigan State in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational and will play road games at Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU and Memphis.