UGA Men’s Basketball: Dawgs Winning in Different Ways

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

In the fourth game of the Georgia men’s basketball team’s season, Tuesday night against Montana at Stegeman Coliseum, we got to see these Bulldogs continue to evolve as a unit. With eight new players on this year’s team, the Bulldogs will continue to take shape as the season progresses.

What we saw Tuesday, in Georgia’s 63-50 win over the Grizzlies, was a team with depth and muscle and speed. The Bulldogs made 10 of their first 12 shots and jumped out to a nice lead, 21-7, but the rest of the night was more of a struggle from the floor.

Despite the shooting difficulties — Georgia (4-0) finished 27 of 68 from the floor and 5 of 23 from 3-point range — the Bulldogs kept pushing and persisting at both ends of the floor. The game was, in coach Tom Crean‘s words, “the definition of a grinder.”

There was 6-foot-8 sophomore Toumani Camara grinding away inside, making plays on his own and cleaning up his teammates’ misses with put-backs, and finishing with a team-high 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, as well as three steals.

There was one of the newcomers, the muscular 6-6 Andrew Garcia, a graduate transfer from Stony Brook, using his power in the paint to get quality shots. In 22 minutes off the bench, he hit 5 of 8 shots, scored 13 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots. He also attempted seven of Georgia’s nine free throws in the game.

There on the perimeter and in the paint, running the show, was the 5-10 Sahvir Wheeler. He struggled from the field, hitting 4 of 14 shots, but he still managed to impact the game in numerous ways, finishing with 9 points, six rebounds and five assists.

There was the 6-4 Justin Kier, the graduate transfer from George Mason, hitting a couple of 3s, getting six rebounds and making an impact inside and out. There also was the 6-6 graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, P.J. Horne, hitting a pair of 3s, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds, in 21 minutes.

Of those five players that had a tremendous impact on the game, three weren’t Bulldogs last season, but all five have loads of experience. And that experience showed, particularly on the defensive end when things weren’t going as well on offense. Georgia held Montana to 18-for-51 shooting and forced 20 turnovers, The Bulldogs also outrebounded Montana 49-30, with 18 offensive rebounds to the Grizzlies’ three.

“That’s the maturity when you have older guys,” Crean said, adding, “Bottom line is that a really good sign of future maturity is when it’s not going great for you personally offensively or we’re not scoring the way we want to, but we’re still coming down and putting stops together, getting deflections, and eliminating the one shot. That’s important stuff.”

As a freshman, Camara started 23 games last season and averaged 6.6 points and 4.3 rebounds a game. Through four games this season, he’s averaging 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds, and shooting 50% from the field.

Wheeler started 17 games last season, averaging 9.0 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds a game. This season, he’s at a team-high 14.8 points, 9.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game.

Camara, Wheeler and Tye Fagan, who had a stellar game in the opener against Florida A&M with 21 points and 10 rebounds, as well as Christian Brown, are the primary returning players from last season. The 2019-20 squad was led by Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, and Rayshaun Hammonds, who combined for 32.0 points and 12.6 rebounds a game, and took a combined 850 shots from the floor last season.

This season’s Bulldogs have a lot of new players, with their developing skill-sets being integrated into how Crean wants his team to play, and some key returning players in expanding roles. It’s a team that will continue to grow and take shape as December non-conference matchups — there are three remaining, starting Saturday against Samford — lead to Georgia’s SEC opener on Dec. 30, against Mississippi State.

“I believe we are a completely different team than last year. I believe defensively, we can have a great game every time,” Camara said. “It’s just offensively, sometimes we are going to have some games where shots are not going to fall, and we need to be focused on team play. I think that is the main thing we need to work on as a team—playing collectively as a team and stay focused on that and try not to make all on one play.

“I believe it is all about energy. If you have the energy and if you have the will to play defense every time, it is something that is going to stay. If we have this anger and have this willingness to play defense every day, we will be able to have a good defensive game.”

Through four games, Camara has led Georgia in scoring twice, Garcia once (22 points against Florida A&M), and Wheeler once (21 points and 10 assists against Jacksonville). In all, seven different players have already reached double figures in a game, and six are averaging 9.3 points or more through four games.

Georgia is winning with different players leading the way and winning in different ways, whether it’s a grinder like Tuesday or scoring in the 80s or high as the Bulldogs did in their first three games.

These early-season games, Crean said, “are so important for learning how to win in different ways, and tonight was certainly different from any game that we’ve played up to this point. It was a great way to find a way to win it”

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He’s also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.