By: Matthew Weatherby
Georgia basketball beat Georgia Tech in the Clean Old-Fashioned Hate on Friday and then backed it up with a win over Florida A&M on Monday night. The two wins moved Mike White’s team to 5-0, making that the second year in a row that the Bulldogs have reached that mark under White.
While both were wins, they did bring up more questions than answers about the Bulldogs in the 25-’26 season. The narrowly scraped out a win against a Georgia Tech team that had struggled with their non-P4 opponents coming into their contest last Friday in Athens. But the Yellow Jackets came prepared to play and honestly looked like a better team for a good portion of that basketball game. Luckily for the Bulldogs, they had a rather large talent advantage over Tech that eventually won out.
3-Point Struggles
Georgia’s struggles with Georgia Tech Friday night stemmed from a similar issue the Bulldogs dealt with last season: shooting struggles. In particular, from long range. The Bulldogs were 6-29 from behind the arc, good for 21%. But as everyone should know, we need more than one data point in order to establish this as a legitimate concern. So, against Maryland Eastern Shore, the Bulldogs were 8-40 from behind the arc, good for 20% shooting, and against Florida A&M, they were 2-26, good for about 7% shooting from downtown.
That means in 3 of their 5 wins, Georgia has not eclipsed 21% from beyond the arc. Luckily for Georgia, they have time with no world beaters scheduled in their non-conference slate and a relatively tame grouping for the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic that tips off this weekend. But even with a schedule that is a bit lighter in nature, they still will need to find ways to address their shooting concerns. Otherwise, they will be walking a tightrope all year.
Georgia’s Balance
The Bulldogs may not be very consistent in their shooting from long range, but they do possess balance in their talent. I mentioned the shooting struggles, and yet the Bulldogs are 5-0, and it is coming from all spots along Mike White’s roster.
I had hypothesized, in an earlier article, about Georgia’s potential 8-man rotation. Teams typically do not play a whole bunch of guys as they try and build a connection amongst a smaller group of players. It honestly typically has to do with teams not feeling like they can go more than 8 deep talent-wise for their roster. This has not been the case for Georgia; even in their matchup against Georgia Tech, they played 11 guys.
Georgia has gotten great production from returning players such as Blue Cain and Somto Cyril, who anchor their starting lineup. But the rest of the roster makeup is what has brought them balance. They have a couple more established guys who come off the bench in Justin Abson and Dylan James, along with freshmen Jake Wilkins and Kareem Stagg, giving them good minutes off the bench. When you couple that with the 4 transfers that typically rotate in the starting lineup. Mike White has created a roster that is complete from all aspects of roster building.
Georgia’s Havoc
This seems to be the early theme of this Georgia Basketball team. They play well on defense and pressure you on defense; that is where they want to win basketball games. It appears White may have taken a cue from the university’s head football coach on that philosophy.
But in an actual basketball sense, they do a great job of creating havoc. So, what would I define as Havoc?
Turnovers, defensive pressure, and fastbreaks are all contributors to havoc.
White’s philosophy is just that. They bring full-court pressure almost every time following a made basket. They have done a good job of maintaining that pressure with how they defend on ball screens and picking ball handlers up well outside of the arc. That leads to more steals and turnovers, and leads to more highlight plays like videos you may have seen of Jake Wilkins pulling out some moves that would make his dad proud.
What’s Next?
On Friday, Georgia is set to face Xavier in the first round of the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic. ESPN Analytics currently has Georgia at an 83.4% chance to win. There is currently no betting information I could find. But as a comparison, ESPN Analytics gave Georgia roughly a 90% chance to win against Georgia Tech, and the line was set at -13.5 in favor of Georgia. I would expect the line in the coming days to be Georgia favored by 8 or 9 points.
After Xavier, Georgia will face one of West Virginia or Clemson on Sunday.
