UGA Men’s Basketball: Game Notes – Bulldogs Host Memphis On Wednesday

2020-21 STATISTICS	GEORGIA	MEMPHIS
Points Per Game	66.0	78.5
Opp. Point Per Game	69.0	65.2
Scoring Margin	-3.0	+13.3
Field Goal Pct.	.440	.477
Opp. Field Goal Pct.	.428	.354
3-Point Pct.	.300	.360
3-Pointers Per Game	5.6	6.8
Opp. 3-Point Pct.	.310	.273
Free Throw Pct.	.654	.667
Free Throws Per Game	12.1	17.3
Rebounds Per Game	35.3	41.5
Opp. Rebound Per Game	34.3	36.2
Rebound Margin	+1.0	+5.3
Assists Per Game	14.3	13.7
Turnovers Per Game	14.4	20.3
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio	0.99	0.67
Turnover Margin	-3.3	-2.3
Steals Per Game	5.7	9.8
Blocks Per Game	2.9	9.7

 

• Jabri Abdur-Rahim scored 20 points vs. Wofford, five shy of his output in the first six games combined.
• Aaron Cook entered the week ranked No. 4 nationally in total assists (49) and No. 5 in assist average (7.0).
• Kario Oquendo delivered his second #SCtop10 dunk of the season against Northwestern.
• Tom Crean is one win shy of his his 400th career W, with 190 at Marquette, 166 at Indiana and 43 at Georgia.
• UGA’s seven first-year transfers combined to score 4,782 points at their previous schools.

 

Georgia hosts No. 18/19 Memphis on Wednesday evening in the second outing in an eight-game, 37-day homestand.

The Tigers one of 11 opponents representing 13 games on the Bulldogs’ schedule mentioned in the latest (Nov. 26) edition of ESPN’s bracketology. Memphis was one of nine teams projected into the field, along with eight SEC squads. In addition, Virginia was among the “first four out” and Cincinnati was in the “next four out” of the bracket.

Georgia enters Sunday’s matchup with a 9-1 lead in the all-time series with the Terriers, including a 5-1 mark here in Athens.

The first five games date back to the 1920s. The next canine contest did not occur until Dec. 19, 2004.

The most recent meeting came in the season opener of the 2013-14 campaign on Nov. 8, 2013 when Nemanja “Nemi” Djurisic scored 12 points to lead a trio of Bulldogs in double figures in a 72-52 win.

Georgia took control with a 14-0 surge late in the first half to build a 39-20 advantage at the intermission and bulged that margin to 25 points early in the second half.

Entering Tonight’s Game:

Tom Crean is…
• 1 victory shy of his 400th career win

Jailyn Ingram is…
• 1 assist from 200 for his career
• 4 steals from 100 for is career

Georgia owns a 2-1 lead in the series with Memphis by virtue of a 65-62 upset of the No. 9-ranked Tigers on Jan. 4, 2020 at the FedEx Forum. Rayshuan Hammonds’ double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds paced the Bulldogs in the historic outing.

The win was Georgia’s first road W over a top-10 team since defeating No. 10 Kentucky on Jan. 17, 2004 and the first road win over a ranked, non-conference foe since topping No. 7 Louisville on Dec. 28, 1977.

In fact, the victory was only Georgia’s second ever on the road over a ranked, non-conference opponent in the 2,714 all-time games the Bulldogs had played to that point over 115 seasons.

The back-and-forth contest featured no less than 10 ties and 20 lead changes.

After a 37-37 tie at the intermission, Memphis opened up a 47-39 advantage with 15:44 remaining. The Bulldogs rallied, with 3-pointers from Anthony Edwards and Donnell Gresham Jr. helping cut the deficit to one.

The Bulldogs took the lead for good on a 3-pointer from Hammonds with 4:05 left that made it 62-61.

Memphis is a 5-1 on the season and coming off a loss to Iowa State. The Tigers were ranked No. 9 by the AP and No. 10 in the coaches polls last week but dropped to No. 18 and No. 19 following the setback in the championship game of the Upsie NIT Preseason Tip-off.

Memphis won its first five games by an average of 19.8 points per game before falling to the Cyclones.

Freshmen Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren, both top-10 recruits in the Class of 2021, lead Memphis with double-digit scoring averages of 12.3 and 11.3 points per game. Duren also paces the Tigers on the boards at 9.3 rpg.

Senior DeAndre Williams, one of eight Memphis natives on the Tigers’ roster, is a single point shy of supplying a third double-figure average at 9.8 ppg.

Sophomore Jabri Abdur-Rahim scored a career-high 20-points; however, Georgia dropped a 68-65 decision to Wofford on Sunday at Stegeman Coliseum.

Graduate Jailyn Ingram chipped in 13 points and sophomore Kario Oquendo added 10 points and three blocks for Georgia.

The Bulldogs shot a season-best 54.3 percent from the field, connecting on 25-of-46 field goal attempts.

“It was clear early that it was going to be a grinder for us to get through this,” head coach Tom Crean said. “We had some (players) that gave their very best and some who just weren’t up to the challenge of it. We have to keep finding ways to make the game simpler for them, not try to make plays that aren’t there. We will. The turnovers in the second half and the amount of free-throws that they shot in the second half, those were big turning points.”

A back-and-forth first half featured five ties and seven lead changes, the last of which came when Abdur-Rahim drained a long 3-pointer to put Georgia up 33-32 at the intermission.

The Terriers used a 7-0 surge to grabe their largest lead of the day, 57-50, with 6:35 left. The Bulldogs pulled with two points on three occasions, lastly at 67-65 on an Ingram layup with eight second left. After Wofford converted on one of two free throw attempts, Oquendo’s potential game-tying three was off the mark.

As impressive as Jabri Abdur-Rahim’s career-high 20 points against Wofford was the efficiency in which he did so.

The sophomore from South Orange, N.J., converted on a 6-of-7 shots from the field, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, and 4-of-5 trips to the line.

In the process, Abdur-Rahim scored 20 points in 18 minutes of action versus the Terriers. Conversely, he had scored 25 points in 119 minutes of playing time in the first six games of the season.

Braelen Bridges and Aaron Cook entered this week ranked among SEC and NCAA leaders in field goal percentage and assists, respectively.

Bridges was No. 1 in the league and No. 28 nationally in shooting efficiency, converting on 63.2 percent (38-of-60) of his shots from the floor.

Cook ranked second in the SEC in both total assists and assist average. Nationally, his assist total of 49 passes-to-points was No. 4 and his 7.0 apg effort was No. 5.

If it’s a Tuesday and the Bulldogs are playing, go ahead and set your DVR for SportsCenter if you want to see a Kario Oquendo highlight.

On Tuesday, Nov. 16, Oquendo came it at No. 3 on SportsCenter’s top-10 plays after his third highlight reel effort of the night against South Carolina State. He stole the ball at midcourt and windmilled home an uncontested dunk.

Oquendo came in at No. 6 on Tuesday, Nov. 23 with a posterized effort. The Titusville, Fla., native, who’s 6-4, gathered a steal in the Northwestern lane and drove the length of the floor before delivering a thunderous dunk over 6-9 Robbie Beran.

If you want to rate Oquendo’s SportsCenter dunks, you can find the S.C. State slam at gado.gs/kariosctop1116 and the Northwestern effort at gado.gs/kariosc1123.

The phrase “defense travels” is a well-known in the sports world.

The slogan “experience has traveled” may become a more appropriate for the 2021-22 Georgia Bulldogs.

Georgia’s lineup this season is anchored by five Division I transfers, sixth-year “super seniors” Aaron Cook and Jailyn Ingram, graduate transfer seniors Noah Baumann and Braelen Bridges and sophomore Jabri Abdur-Rahim. That quintet has accounted for 27 of 35 (77.1 percent) of Georgia’s starting nods to date as well as the majority of its production in virtually every statistic.

D-I transfer contributions
Minutes	1400	813	58.1
Scoring	462	312	67.5
Rebounds	221	141	63.8
Assists	100	73	73.0
Blocks	20	7	35.0
Steals	40	20	50.0

Freshman Christian Wright earned his first career start against Wofford on Sunday and dished out a team and career-high five assists on the day. Wright became the first Bulldog other than Aaron Cook to lead Georgia in dimes delivered.

Sophomore Josh Taylor checked in for his first PT of the campaign versus the Terriers and scored a career-high four points in three first-half minutes.

Georgia head coach Tom Crean is now just one win shy of his 400th career victory. He compiled 397 W’s in his first 21 campaigns as a collegiate head coach, an impressive average of 18.9 wins.

Prior to arriving in Athens, Crean was 190-96 in nine seasons Marquette’s coach from 1998-2008 and the recorded a 166-135 mark in nine campaigns at Indiana between 2008-17.

Tom Crean‘s Milestone Wins
No. 1 – Nov. 20, 1999 – Marquette defeats Chicago State, 62-43, in Tom Crean‘s first game as a collegiate head coach.
No. 100 – March 6, 2004 – Freshman Dameon Mason’s three-point play with eight-tenths of a second left lifts Marquette over No. 25 Louisville, 81-80.
No. 200 – Dec. 8, 2009 – Indiana knocks off Pittsburgh, 74-64, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
No. 250 – Nov. 20, 2012 – A day after beating Georgia, 66-53, in the first round, IU tops Georgetown, 82-72, to win the Progressive Legends Classic at Barclays Center.
No. 300 – Dec. 20, 2014 – Indiana tops No. 23 Butler, 82-73, as Yogi Ferrell became IU’s 48th 1,000-point scorer.

Noah Baumann had an eventual Sunday, November 14. The graduate transfer from Southern Cal proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Mackenzie Moore, beside Lake Herrick at the intramural fields on the UGA campus.

Baumann and Moore have known each other since they were 7th graders at Akimel (pronounced ah-kee-mull) Middle School and started dating during their senior year at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix.

They have endured a long-distance relationship for the past four years.

Moore was a four-year starter on the Miami (Ohio) softball team, batting .279 with seven homers and 66 RBI. She was named second-team All-MAC as a senior, leading the RedHawks to a 46-10 finish, the MAC Championship and an NCAA Tournament bid.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim is from South Orange, N.J., where he attended Blair Academy about an hour from the Prudential Center where the Roman Legends Classic was played.

Abdur-Rahim was named the 2019 Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year after leading Blair’s Buccaneers to the Prep A state title. A two-time high school All-American, he missed all but two games of his senior season due to a foot injury. Abdur-Rahim was a consensus top-50 prospect in the Class of 2020, including being listed at No. 38 by ESPN.com.

Jabri’s uncle, Amir, was an assistant coach on the Georgia staff during Tom Crean‘s first season in Athens before being named head coach at Kennesaw State.

The Bulldogs’ five-game winning streak over Georgia Tech marked only the fifth time in 196 meetings that Georgia captured five consecutive victories over the Yellow Jackets.

The Bulldogs’ longest winning streak in the series covers seven games twice, in spans from 1909-21 and 1980-84. Georgia also won five straight between from 1929-31 and 1939-41.

Aaron Cook blew past the 1,000-point career scoring mark on Nov. 16 against South Carolina State.

The “super senior” was eight points shy of that plateau entering the game. He inched past the milestone on a jumper with 2:21 left in the first half. Cook finished the night with 22 points, three of his career high versus Indiana State on Jan. 24, 2018.

Cook scored 845 points at Southern Illinois from 2016-20. He competed for four seasons at SIU, including a redshirt campaign in 2019-20 due to a broken hand.

Cook transferred to Gonzaga and added 127 points for the Bulldogs en route to their NCAA runner-up finish last season.

Cook scored 10 points in each of his first two outings at UGA, pushing him to 992 prior to the S.C. State matchup.

Kario Oquendo and Dalen Ridgnal have been ranked among the top junior college transfers expected to make the biggest marks at the Division-I level this season.

On August 25, bustingbrackets.com ranked the top-25 junior college players moving to the “high-major” level. Ridgnal was tabbed No. 2 on that ledger, while Oquendo was ranked No. 23.

On Nov. 1, college basketball guru Jon Rothstein tabbed his top-10 “JUCOs to watch” that also included Ridgnal.

Aaron Cook arrived in Athens having already participated in 133 games. Cook logged action in 103 contests in four seasons at Southern Illinois, including six in a 2019-20 redshirt campaign. He then played in 30 contests last season at Gonzaga.

Cook’s was the third-most experienced player – game wise – in Division I entering this season as outlined in the next column.

As a point of reference for Georgia’s record for career games played is 133 contests by Marcus Thornton from 2011-15. Thornton’s tally covers five seasons, including a redshirt season with nine GPs.

In addition, Jailyn Cook ranked among D-I’s top-50 players in career outings entering 2021-22, having played in 122 contests at FAU prior to joining the Bulldogs.

D-I’s career GPs Leaders
Rk.	Player, School	Games
1.	Jordan Bohannon, Iowa	142
2.	Chevez Goodwin, USC	138
3.	Aaron Cook, Georgia	133
	Garrison Brooks, Miss. St.	133
	Jalen Coleman-Lands, Kansas	133
	Justin Kier, Arizona	133

Anyone who knows anything about college athletics is well aware that Georgia and Cincinnati, which met on the hardwood on Nov. 13, are undefeated in football.

In fact, there were only four FBS football programs that entered last weekend with unblemished records. In an almost unfathomable coincidence, the other two unbeatens – Oklahoma and UTSA – also played basketball against each the day before Bulldogs and the Bearcats did so.

With their win over FIU, the Bulldogs improved to 84-33 in the opening contests of 117 seasons of basketball.

That tally includes an even more impressive 38-6 mark in openers contested at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia’s most significant win in an opener at the Coliseum also was its first. In the Bulldogs’ initial season opener in their current arena on Dec. 3 1964, Georgia bested No. 13 North Carolina, 64-61.

Of the 10 newcomers on the Bulldogs’ roster seven are transfers – five from the Division I level (Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Noah Baumann, Braelen Bridges, Aaron Cook and Jailyn Ingram) and a pair from the junior college ranks (Kario Oquendo and Dalen Ridgnal).

Those players arrived in Athens having already scored 4,782 points at their previous schools. That represents the largest addition of scoring by any Division I program for the 2021-22 season as outlined below.

In their previous stops, the D-I quintet of the group also logged 8813 minutes in 404 games played, while grabbing 1283 rebounds, dishing 643 assists, swatting 116 blocks and collecting 304 steals.

Top Scoring Influx’s In D-I hoops
Rk.	School	Players	Points
1.	Georgia	7	4782
2.	Duquesne	5	4695
3.	Florida	5	4144
4.	Arkansas	6	4125
5.	Penn State	7	5183
6.	Washington St.	4	3785
7.	SMU	4	3733
8.	Kentucky	4	3538
9.	Utah	6	3175
10.	Arizona St.	3	3132

While Georgia welcomed a huge influx of college scoring from its newcomers, the Bulldogs returned a minuscule portion of their scoring from last season.

P.J. Horne was Georgia’s only returning starter but was lost for the season after suffering a knee injury during preseason practices. The Tifton, Ga., native put up 222 points – 8.5 ppg – last season, largely due to connecting on a team-high 46 3-pointers.

“This is such a major blow to us because P.J. was playing so well and showing great leadership as our leading returning player, but more so because he is such a great person and one of the finest people I’ve ever coached,” Tom Crean tweeted on Oct. 20. “He cares about his teammates deeply.”

With that, the four returning Bulldogs accounted for only 1110 of Georgia’s 2014 points a year ago, or 5.5 percent. Walk-on Jaxon Etter is the top returning point producer with 47 points.

Georgia has certainly been keeping scoreboard operators busy since Tom Crean arrived in Athens in 2018.

The Bulldogs reached the 90-point plateau 15 times in 90 games during Crean’s first three seasons. That’s a relatively healthy 16.7 percent of the team’s total contests.

By comparison, Georgia scored 90 or more points just 15 times in 387 games before Crean’s arrival, or .038 percent of the outings in a span that dates back a dozen seasons to the 2006-07 campaign.

The big numbers by the Bulldogs aren’t just a single-game thing.

In three seasons under Crean, the Bulldogs have averaged two of their top-5 scoring outputs of the 2000s.

Top Scoring Averages In 2000s
Rk.	Season	Points	Games	Avg.
1.	2002-03	2138	27	79.2
2.	2020-21	1944	25	77.8
3.	2001-02	2444	32	76.4
4.	2019-20	2428	32	75.9
5.	2006-07	2477	33	75.1

You may notice on Georgia’s roster that the Bulldogs have gone away from listing traditional positions – guard, forward and center. All 15 players are now simply listed as “B” for “Basketball Player.”

Tom Crean is a proponent for “position-less basketball.”

“That’s what they are,” Crean said. “It’s not valid to call them centers and power forwards and things like that as much with the way that we’re trying to play. They’re being trained as basketball players, every day… in the sense of how we train with the ball handling, the driving, the shooting – all those type of things. That’s big to me.”