Jacksonville at Georgia

WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

WHEN: Saturday, 7 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 6-1, Jacksonville 4-3

TV/RADIO: SEC Network+ (Jeff Dantzler, Marcus Thornton); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie)

PREGAME NOTES: Pregame Notes

After beating a ranked St. John’s team Sunday in the Bahamas 66-63, Georgia basketball coach Mike White believes his team’s confidence is starting to grow.

It wasn’t just the fact that his team earned the win that made him feel that way. It was how the Bulldogs pulled it off.

After star freshman Asa Newell fouled out with just over three minutes left, one might not have liked Georgia’s chances. Instead, the Bulldogs still found a way to finish strong and hold off the Red Storm for what thus far has been the team’s biggest win.

The Bulldogs (6-1) return to the court Saturday night against Jacksonville. Tipoff at Stegeman Coliseum is set for 7 p.m.

“That was really big. I think overall for the youth of this team we've got a pretty high level of quiet confidence,” White said. “Maybe Silas (Demary Jr.), Tyrion (Lawrence) probably exudes some of that. Dakota (Leffew) probably exudes some of that. We're still defining roles and we're still learning as I just talked about who we are, especially offensively.”

Defensively, the Bulldogs are also living up to White’s early expectations.

Seven games in, Georgia is currently No. 1 in the SEC in both rebounding margin (+13.71) and blocked shots per game (6.71).

“I don't know that we're going to have many more or a bunch of defensive efforts that will be better than that,” White said of the win over St. John’s. “We defended at a really high level. When we have games where we've got our entire front court clicking on all cylinders and figuring out what type of actions are best for us with all of these new guys and all of the youth, of course we'll continue to trend upward offensively and get better.”

However, turnovers are a concern.

Against Marquette and St. John’s, the Bulldogs turned the ball over a combined 42 times in the two games, dropping them to last in the SEC at -2.71 turnovers per game.

“Our turnovers of course have got to go down. All that said I think we've got a few guys that whether one guy's out or two guys are out as was the case today with multiple guys fouling out it wasn't a couple of guys' best offensive performance who have had some better games in these past few years,” White said. “We were searching a little bit there but overall I think one through 15 in our locker room, whether one guy's out or three or four guys are out, we feel like we've got enough to be competitive.”