ATHENS – Georgia’s basketball season has been fun so far, an absolute smorgasbord of warm feelings and highlight moments. But all that will be up for grabs tomorrow night at Stegeman Coliseum.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are coming to town. And while they aren’t exactly Digger Phelps’ Irish of the late 1970s, they remain an iconic power-conference opponent making a rare appearance in Athens on the Bulldogs’ home court.
“I mean, they’re very, very good and extremely well-coached,” Georgia coach Mike White said of Notre Dame. “They’re going to be really prepared. They’re just a solid, solid team and program. And, you know, for us, it’s about the preparation, about playing well, continuing to get better, and hopefully that puts us in a position to be competitive down the stretch.”
The Bulldogs (7-1) are looking to make a statement. Riding a 23-game, non-conference winning streak at Stegeman Coliseum, Georgia is hoping the see its arena packed up to its iconic parabola roof for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. game (ESPNU), which is one of several marquee matchups this week that will make up the annual ACC-SEC Challenge.
When White arrived from Florida three years, his primary charge was to make UGA basketball nationally relevant and its home games appointment events in the same way Georgia football has been for decades. For the most part, White has done that. Georgia debuted at No. 27 in the first NCAA NET rankings of the season, released Monday morning.
“Well, we’re hopeful that we get a really good turnout,” White said. “We’ve got guys that are laying it on the line every day and play hard between the lines. We’ve got talented guys that are laying out on the floor and diving for loose balls and sharing it with each other and that I think are doing a really good job representing all of us here at Georgia. And we’d be appreciative for a great turnout and give us a chance to play well against a high-level program.”
To that end, athletic director Josh Brooks was all over the place Monday pumping up the game and imploring fans to put football fever aside for one night to get behind the basketball Bulldogs.
“It’s a great opportunity for us and we really want to make a great impression for the nation, for our student-athletes, for our fans, our students, for everybody,” Brooks said during an appearance on radio station 960 The Ref Monday morning. “This team has been playing really well. I know we’re still in that weird phase where people are, like, ‘is it basketball season already?’ But it’s here, we’re eight games in and this team’s been playing really well. We’d love create that real, true, home-game atmosphere and show the world what Georgia basketball is becoming.”
What the Bulldogs are at the moment is a high-flying, high-scoring bunch. They are putting up 84 points a game and beating opponents by an average of 17.5 per game. Georgia is coming off an breathtaking 102-56 win over Jacksonville this past Saturday and owns away-wins over Georgia Tech (77-69) and then No. 20-ranked St. Johns (66-63). The only blemish so far for the Bulldogs was an 80-69 loss in the Bahamas to an 8-0 Marquette team currently ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll.
They’re getting scoring from everywhere. Five Bulldogs are averaging in double figures, led by freshman forward Asa Newell’s 15.4 ppg and five different players have led Bulldogs in scoring to date. One of those is NOT forward Dylan James, who emerged Saturday to pour in 13 against Jacksonville after scoring only 14 in the previous seven games. In all, Georgia players have scored in double figures a combined 35 times in eight games to date.
Entering this week, Georgia led the SEC in both rebound margin and blocks per game and ranked No. 4 (+13.3 rpg) and No. 5 (6.5 bpg) in the nation, respectively. The Bulldogs whip the basketball around and share it in a way not seen in these parts in a while.
“It’s very important for us to share the ball and get open shots,” said Tyrin Lawrence, a graduate transfer guard from Vanderbilt. “The more of us that score, the easier it is for us as individuals.”
As for the Fighting Irish (4-4), they have a colorful and rich history in college basketball that goes back to winning national championships in 1927 and 1936. But the program has been in a transition period lately. They’re in their first season under the direction of coach Micah Shrewsberry, who succeeded the legendary coach Mike Brey after last season.
Then Notre Dame absorbed a significant blow last week. Playing in the Players Era Festival tournament in Las Vegas, point guard and leading scorer Markus Burton (21.4 ppg) suffered a serious knee injury in a game against Rutgers. While Burton went down just three minutes into that contest, the Irish managed to go toe-to-toe with the Scarlet Knights before finally falling in overtime, 85-84. They dropped the next two games as well and arrive in Athens have dropped four in a row.
Officially, the Irish list Burton’s availability as “week-to-week.” But the 6-2 guard is not expected to play Tuesday. As it is, Notre Dame comes in averaging 78.1 points per game. Braeden Shrewsberry, the coaches’ son and a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, averages 15.4 points and leads a trio of double-figure scorers that includes guards Tae Davis (14.5) and Matt Allocco (10.5).
“I mean, they’re very, very good and extremely well-coached,” White said. “They’re going to be really prepared. They’re just a solid, solid team and program. And, you know, for us, it’s about the preparation, it’s about playing well and continuing to get better. Hopefully that puts us in a position to be competitive down the stretch.”
Playing the Irish is a big deal to White. A devout Catholic, he was a childhood fan of Notre Dame as he grew up following his father Kevin White around the country as an athletic administrator. A graduate of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, Mike White had already completed his college career at Ole Miss and was coaching himself by the time his father landed the family’s dream job as athletic director at Notre Dame.
Kevin White remained A.D. of the Fighting Irish through 2008. He retired as Duke’s athletic director in the fall of 2021 after a 39-year career in athletic administration. Also, Mike White’s brother, Danny White, played for Brey at Notre Dame. Kevin White hired Brey as the Fighting Irish’s coach.
That history and respect is what landed Notre Dame on Georgia’s schedule in 2022. White’s Bulldogs defeated Brey’s Fighting Irish 77-62 in the Holiday Hoopsgiving Classic in Philips Arena in Atlanta a week before Christmas two seasons ago.
“It’s just a program I’ve got a ton of respect for,” Mike White said then.
As for now, the Bulldogs are hot. They scored their most points during Mike White’s three on Saturday while connecting on 34-of-54 shots from the field, a 66.7 percent effort that matched the fourth-best effort in school history. Georgia made 14 3-pointers, matching UGA’s sixth-most ever, and shot 58.3 percent (14-of-24) from behind the arc, their best percentage under White.
Leffew led the Bulldogs with 16 points and a career-high 8 assists against zero turnovers, Silas Demary Jr. and Tyrin Lawrence both chipped in 14 points, 6-11 freshman Somto Cyril had 13 which included a couple of rim-rattling dunks.
“They’ve done a great job and the students have done a great job of creating an atmosphere,” Brooks said. “If we can pack out the Steg (Tuesday) night, not only will it create a phenomenal home game atmosphere, it will show the country that Georgia basketball is ready to take that next step.”
About the Author
