WHEN: Saturday, Noon ET.
WHERE Oxford, Mississippi
RECORDS: Georgia 12-1, Ole Miss 11-2
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Richard Cross, play-by-play; Pat Bradley, analyst) Georgia Bulldog Radio Network: (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst)
Off to their best start to a season in 94 years, the Georgia Bulldogs are now set to begin to begin SEC conference play. They will do so on the road where they will take on the No. 24 ranked Ole Miss Rebels (Noon, SEC Network), a team that they’ve had their way with historically.
Georgia holds a 78-47 record versus the Rebels. However, only 27 of those wins have come while playing on the road in Oxford.
The Rebels will be just the start to a potentially tough opening month of conference play for White’s Bulldogs. Seven of Georgia’s eight games in the month will see them face ranked opponents, including the conference home opener on Tuesday against No. 10 Kentucky. The only unranked opponent, South Carolina, currently sports a 10-3 record.
“If you get caught looking ahead in this league this year, you're putting yourself in peril,” Head coach Mike White said about back-to-back games against ranked opponents. “In my opinion, at least that's that's the way that that we're operating. We've got our hands full (Saturday) with Ole Miss. It's going be a really tough game for us, but a great opportunity.”
Georgia finds itself with a 1-1 record versus ranked opponents (an 80-69 loss to No. 8 Marquette, and a 66-63 win against St. John’s).
While Georgia does enter Saturday’s matchup riding high on a seven-game winning streak and is currently projected to be the No. 9 seed in Joe Lunardi’s most recent 64-team bracket projection; the Bulldogs’ most recent win didn’t come without a scare.
Last Saturday at Stegman Coliseum, Georgia found itself in a 17-point first-half hole versus South Carolina State. It took a 13-point second half from Tyrin Lawrence, the senior guard to help Georgia turn a 17-point deficit into a 79-72 win over the 6-9 Bulldog.
Lawrence’s 14 points on four of 10 shooting from the field finished joint-highest on the team for the Bulldogs with RJ Godfrey matching him on five of eight shooting. Yet, there wasn’t much to separate those two from the rest of their teammates on the scoring sheet.
Georgia finished with six different players with double-digit points in the come-from-behind win. This continues a committee approach to scoring for the Bulldogs.
As for the Rebels, they fell from 11 spots in the AP Poll following their 87-70 loss to Memphis. Despite Sean Pedulla finishing with 13 points on Saturday, which is just below his average of 14.7, the Rebels were no match for Memphis’ Colby Rogers. The Tigers’ senior guard finished with a team-best 28 points on 10 of 16 shooting from the field while knocking down six of his nine three-pointers.
Now as the Bulldogs are set to open conference play on the road, sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr. feels the team is “ready.”
“I mean, I just think seeing these guys every day in practice, the dedication guys have, just being in the gym every day, not slacking days,” Demary said. “Just being in the weight room with them, practicing with those guys, you know, going on lulls, where we might not play for six or seven days, seeing how everybody responds to just us, practicing longer, practicing harder.”
