UGA Men’s Basketball: Bulldogs Wrap Up Regular Season At LSU

 

 

2019-20 STATISTICS	GEORGIA	LSU
Points Per Game	76.1	80.0
Opp. Point Per Game	75.4	73.6
Scoring Margin	+0.7	+6.5
Field Goal Pct.	.451	.468
Opp. Field Goal Pct.	.450	.425
3-Point Pct.	.305	.321
3-Pointers Per Game	7.1	6.7
Opp. 3-Point Pct.	.321	.352
Free Throw Pct.	.700	.768
Free Throws Per Game	14.3	16.6
Rebounds Per Game	38.1	39.7
Opp. Rebound Per Game	35.9	33.3
Rebound Margin	+2.2	+6.4
Assists Per Game	13.4	12.6
Turnovers Per Game	15.0	12.6
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio	0.89	1.01
Turnover Margin	-1.9	-0.7
Steals Per Game	7.2	6.3
Blocks Per Game	3.3	3.9

 

• Anthony Edwards’ 587 points is the second-most ever by a UGA freshman and is 59 points away from the freshman record held by Jacky Dorsey.
• Sahvir Wheeler’s 129 assists is the second-most ever by a UGA freshman. He is just four 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 14 outings.
• UGA’s total attendance record fell for the second straight season. A total of 164,071 fans attended 17 home dates, topping the old mark by more than 15,000 .
• 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.

 

The Georgia Bulldogs wrap up their 2019-20 regular-season slate on Saturday with a matinee matchup with LSU at the Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge.

Georgia is 15-15 on the year, and 5-12 in SEC play. The Bulldogs have won three of their last five outings, with one of those setbacks being an overtime decision.

Anthony Edwards and Rayshaun Hammonds are scoring at a double-digit pace for Georgia.

Edwards leads Georgia and is the nation’s top-scoring freshman at 19.6 points per game. He has reached double figures in the scoring column in 26 of 30 games, with 13 20-point outings and three 30-point efforts. Edwards has scored 587 points this season, the second-most ever by a Bulldog freshman and 59 shy of UGA’s freshman record of 646 by Jacky Dorsey in 1974-75.

On Monday, Edwards was tabbed SEC Freshman of the Week for a school-record fourth time.

On Tuesday, the Atlanta native was named one of five finalists for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award.

Hammonds is averaging 12.7 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds per game. After posting two 20-point performances, four double-figure rebounding outputs and two double-doubles in 61 games played as a freshman and sophomore, Hammonds has notched six 20-point outputs, seven double-digit rebound counts and five double-doubles in 30 games this season.

Tyree Crump is…
• 8 3FGs from No. 9 Bernard Davis
• 12 3FGAs from No. 7 Dustin Ware

Among UGA’s Season Leaders – Anthony Edwards is…
• 1 point from No. 13 Jacky Dorsey (1976)
• 3 points from No. 12 Zippy Morroco (1953)
• 4 points from No. 11 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (2013)
• 7 points from co-No. 9s Bob Lienhard (1969) and Vern Fleming (1984)
• 9 points from No. 8 Alec Kessler (1989)
• 23 points from No. 7 Alec Kessler (1990)
• 26 points from No. 6 Walter Daniels (1979)
• 49 points from No. 5 Yante Maten (2018)

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

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

Among SEC Freshman Leaders, Anthony Edwards is…
• 8 points from No. 13 Terrence Jones, UK
• 12 points from No. 12 Julius Randle, UK
• 14 points from No. 11 De’Aaron Fox, UK
• 22 points from No. 10 Allan Houston, UT
• 29 points from No. 9 John Wall, UK
• 45 points from No. 8 Ben Simmons, LSU

LSU owns a 66-46 lead all-time in matchups between the Bulldogs and the Tigers, including a 36-15 advantage in Baton Rouge.

In the most recent meeting last Feb. 16 in Athens, Nicolas Claxton led four Bulldogs in double figures, but No. 19/21 LSU still downed Georgia 83-79 at a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum.

After trailing 31-22 with 5:17 remaining in the first half, the Bulldogs cut the margin to 41-37 at the break and eventually went up 58-53 at the 13:54 mark.

LSU took the lead for good with 6:41 left; however, Georgia pulled within 82-79 with less than a minute to play. The Bulldogs gained possession following a stop but failed to capitalize.

In the most recent meeting in Baton Rouge on Jan. 23 last season, LSU withstood several second-half Georgia rallies en route to a 92-82 victory.

After trailing by a dozen points at the break, the Bulldogs quickly cut that margin to 50-44 95 seconds into the second stanza.

LSU answered with a 12-2 surge of its own. Georgia pulled within seven points twice thereafter, but the Tigers answered each time.

LSU is 20-10 on the year, including an 11-6 record in SEC play. The Tigers are 14-2 at home this season, including a 7-1 mark in league play.

No less than five Tigers are averaging double figures, including three who have started all 30 games to date.

Skylar Mays leads that trio at 16.6 ppg, while Javonte Smart and Darius Days add 12.5 ppg and 11.5 ppg, respectively.

Freshman Trendon Watford, who has gotten the nod for all but one outing, averages 13.6 ppg and a team-best 7.1 rpg.

Emmitt Williams rounds out the quintet of double-digit scorers for the Tigers at 13.6 ppg.

Georgia raced to an early 19-6 lead but could not sustain that momentum and dropped a 68-54 decision to Florida before a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum on “Senior Night” last Wednesday.

Rayshaun Hammonds scored eight points as the Bulldogs opened up a 13-point lead over the first five minutes of the contest.

Florida tied the game on three occasions, twice in the first half and again at 40-40 with 13:14 left in the game, before the Gators grabbed their first lead on a pair of free throws at the 11:47 mark.

After the Bulldogs regained the lead on a Tye Fagan layup with 7:53 remaining, Florida embarked on a 15-4 surge to gain control.

Anthony Edwards enters the Bulldogs’ regular-season finale at LSU in the No. 14 position on lists of both Georgia’s single-season scoring leaders and the SEC’s top-scoring freshmen in league history.

Edwards’ 587 points is one off the No. 13 mark among UGA’s all-time best season scoring efforts, and he is just seven points away from joining the top 10 as outlined below.

Edwards is 22 points shy of joining the SEC’s top-10 freshman scorers ever as outlined below.

Season Points Leaders
Rk.	No.	Player	Season	GP
1.	732	Dominique Wilkins	1981	31
2.	659	Dominique Wilkins	1982	31
3.	646	Jacky Dorsey	1975	25
4.	640	J.J. Frazier	2017	34
5.	636	Yante Maten	2018	33
6.	613	Walter Daniels	1979	28
7.	610	Alec Kessler	1990	29
8.	596	Alec Kessler	1989	31
9.	594	Bob Lienhard	1969	25
	594	Vern Fleming	1984	30
11.	591	K. Caldwell-Pope	2013	32
12.	590	Zippy Morocco	1953	25
13.	588	Jacky Dorsey	1976	27
14.	587	Anthony Edwards	2020	30
15.	583	Willie Anderson	1988	35

 

Top Freshman SEC Scoring Totals
Rk.	Player, School	Season	Total
1.	Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson), LSU	1989	965
2.	Malik Monk, Kentucky	2017	754
3.	Jamal Murray, Kentucky	2016	720
4.	Bernard King, Tennessee	1975	661
5.	Brandon Knight, Kentucky	2011	657
6.	Jacky Dorsey, Georgia	1975	646
7.	Collin Sexton, Alabama	2018	632
	Ben Simmons, LSU	2016	632
9.	John Wall, Kentucky	2010	616
10.	Allan Houston, Tennessee	1990	609
11.	De’Aaron Fox, Kentucky	2017	601
12.	Julius Randle, Kentucky	2014	599
13.	Terrence Jones, Kentucky	2011	595
14.	Anthony Edwards, Georgia	2020	587
15.	A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt	2008	578

 

Georgia has reached the 90-point scoring mark seven times during the 2019-20 season and 11 times during Tom Crean‘s 62 games as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

Prior to Crean’s arrival, Georgia scored 90 or more points 11 times in 11-plus seasons combined, a span of 387 games.

The Bulldogs scored 91, 95 and 100 points in their first three games this season – the first time the Bulldogs scored 90 or more three times in a row since 2006.

Georgia’s scoring has been relatively consistent. The Bulldogs’ season scoring average of 76.1 points per game is on pace to be their highest since averaging 76.4 points during the 2002-03 season.

Through games of March 5, Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler were ranked 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 seventh-best average assists average by a freshman.

UGA’s Top-10 Freshman Scoring Averages
Rk.	Player, School	G	Avg
37.	Anthony Edwards, Georgia	30	19.6
92.	Vernon Carey, Duke	30	17.6
97.	Jordyn Adams, Austin Peay	32	17.5

 

UGA’s Top-10 Freshman Assists
Rk.	Player, School	G	Avg
38.	Yuri Collins, Saint Louis	30	5.5
40.	Nico Mannion, Arizona	30	5.4
54.	Tyger Campbell, UCLA	30	5.0
60.	Sean East, UMass	30	4.9
87.	Isaiah Stevens, Colorado St.	32	4.5
92.	Rylan Jones, Utah	28	4.5
94.	Sahvir Wheeler, Georgia	29	4.4

 

Toumani Camara, who moved into the starting lineup in the 10th game of the season against SMU, has seen a massive up-tick in his production over the last 24 outings.

The freshman from Brussels, Belgium has more than doubled his playing time from the first six games and has increased his scoring and rebounding by relatively large chunks as outlined below.

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 14 contests.

Camara’s Increased Efforts
Stat	First 6	Last 16
Points per game	4.0	7.3
Rebounds per game	2.5	4.8
Minutes per game	13.2	27.0

 

Tyree Crump continued a familiar theme to his scoring this season, with 49 of his 68 field goals (72.1 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, which accounts for 69.6 percent of his total 253 made field goals.

Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler 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 to the No. 4 position, and he is now 59 points away from the record.

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.

After distributing six assists against Florida on Wednesday night in Athens, Wheeler enters the LSU game just four dishes away from matching Litterial Green’s Georgia freshman mark in 1988-89.

Top-10 Freshman Scorers
Rk.	Player	Pts.	Year	G	Avg.
1.	Jacky Dorsey	646	1975	25	25.8
2.	Anthony Edwards	587	2020	30	19.6
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	129	2020	29	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

 

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.

That trifecta was his 172nd at UGA and equaled the existing No. 10 effort of Jody Patton. Crump moved into sole possession of the spot against Arkansas.

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

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.	524	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.	176	Tyree Crump	2016-19	524

 

The Stegeman Coliseum turnstiles have been quite busy since Tom Crean‘s arrival.

This season, the Bulldogs broke their all-time home attendance record for the same time in as many years and recorded the second-best average attendance in school history as outlined below.

The Bulldogs broke last year’s total turnstile count at Stegeman Coliseum by 15,371. Georgia drew 11 crowds of 10,000-plus fans this season, also a school record. Previously, the most tallies of 10,000 or more fans was nine during the 2002-03 season.

An outstanding indicator that the Bulldogs would draw well this season ocurred in October when Crean announced that had Georgia sold out the season ticket allotment for Stegeman for the first time ever.

Single-game tickets also moved rapidly as six of Georgia’s nine SEC home dates were sold out before conference play started and another contest also became a sellout.

The Bulldogs were 12-5 at Stegeman this season and Crean credited the arena atmosphere as a major factor in several games, most notably a double-overtime decision over SMU and an upset of No. 13/12 Auburn.

“We don’t win this game without this crowd,” Crean said bluntly in his postgame press conference after beating the Mustangs. “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.”

UGA Total Attendance
Rk.	Season	Games	Total
1.	2019-20	17	164,071
2.	2018-19	17	148,700
3.	2003-04	16	137,902
4.	2006-07	18	132,048
5.	2010-11	16	131,998
6.	1990-91	12	8,822

 

UGA Average Attendance
Rk.	Season	Games	Avg.
1.	2002-03	13	9,857
2.	2019-20	17	9,651
3.	2001-02	13	9,064
4.	1990-91	12	8,822
5.	2018-19	17	8,747

 

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.