Florida at Georgia

WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

WHEN: Saturday, 1 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 14-10, 4-7; Florida 17-7, 7-4

TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Mike Morgan, Mark Wise); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie)

While Mike White appreciated having a rare February off-day earlier this week, when you’re in the midst of a five-game losing streak, it’s not so easy to do.

“I'd have rather have played, but we tried to be as creative as we could this week,” said White, whose Bulldogs host Florida Saturday afternoon (1 p.m., SEC Network). “We actually gave our guys a little bit of time to rejuvenate physically, but we got after it a little bit, too.”

Freshman Silas Demary, Jr. felt basically the same.

“It was a little bit of both. It was a little reset for us, give everybody a chance to sit down, and just focus on one game this week,” Demary said. “But yeah, like you said, it let us reset, but at the same time you kind of want to get back out there.”

It’s easy to understand why Demary and White would rather have played.

Of the Bulldogs’ last five games, Geogia held second-half leads in four, including a late advantage over Florida before the Gators pulled away in overtime, 102-98, to start the current skid.

“We’ve been competitive. Now, I don’t think we’re pleased with our record, including me or guys or our staff,” White said. “We would like to have a few more wins at this point, of course. That said, I thought we’d be a lot more competitive this year, and we have been.”

The Bulldogs won’t receive any breaks moving forward.

Starting with Florida, five of the final regular season games are against teams predicted to be in the NCAA Tournament.

While Georgia’s chances of joining the fun are obviously low, Demary said the team’s mindset remains the same.

“It hasn’t changed. You never want to get too high or too low. We’ve still got some big-time games ahead, and we’re definitely looking forward to tomorrow,” Demary said. “A win over Florida would really boost our confidence, but we want to stay even keeled and stay the course.”

White said he expects his team to play well against the Gators.

“We had some ugly Ls in Year 1 of this rebuild, and we were right there with a few of our losses and have really been competitive in all of them, or at least nearly all of them,” he said. “But we’ve got more opportunities ahead, so we’ll see what happens, but I’ll be surprised if we don’t come out tomorrow and are really competitive and hard, because this is team has done that.”

Game Notes

• Georgia has used nine Bulldogs to comprise seven different starting lineups this season, including four variations in the last five games.

• Georgia is 24-1 when holding its opponents to less than 70 points during Mike White’s two seasons with the Bulldogs–2-0 in the 40s, 7-0 in the 50s and 15-1 in the 60s.

• Georgia will play 16 regular-season games against teams mentioned in the most recent edition of ESPN.com’s Bracketology...51.6 percent of the Bulldogs’ schedule.

• Georgia entered this weekend No. 18 nationally in bench points, with UGA’s reserves contributing 29.4 ppg. The Bulldogs sport a bench scoring margin of plus-280 (plus-11.7 ppg).

• Georgia is has climbed 244 spots in kenpom.com’s defensive efficiency rankings during White’s two seasons with the Bulldogs, the biggest jump of any Division I program.

• The Bulldogs entered this weekend ranked No. 74 nationally on the defensive end. That’s after the Bulldogs finished No. 318 during the 2021-22 season.

Florida is 17-7 overall and 7-4 in the SEC after winning six of its last seven outings. That stretch includes back-to-back overtime decisions against Georgia and at No. 6 Kentucky.

No less than five Gators are currently scoring at a double-digit pace. Walter Clayton Jr. leads that quintet at 16.3 points per game, followed by Zyon Pullin at 15.5, Tyrese Samuel at 13.1, Will Richard at 11.1, and Riley Kugel at 10.8.

A pair of Florida players lead the SEC in individual statistics, with Samuel sporting the best field goal percentage (.563) and Pullin pacing all league players in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.92).

Three weeks ago on Jan. 27 at Exactech Arena in Gainesville, the Gators survived a furious rally by Georgia before garnering a 102-98 victory in overtime.

RJ Melendez exploded for a career-high 35 points off the bench to lead the Bulldogs, while Russel Tchewa notched his second-straight double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Reserves Blue Cain (14) and Justin Hill (11) also scored in double figures as Georgia outscored the Gators in bench points, 62-15.

Georgia trailed by as many as 21 points four times in the second half, lastly at 68-47 with 12:52 remaining. After Florida led 77-61 at the 7:47 mark, the Bulldogs closed out regulation on a 24-8 surge to knot the score at 85-85. Melendez and Cain combined to score 20 of UGA’s points during the comeback.

The Gators then outscored Georgia 13-7, in the extra period.