Columbus State at Georgia

WHEN: Wednesday, 5 p.m.

WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

RECORDS: Season-opener

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

Grad transfer P.J. Horne does not expect any butterflies when he makes his Georgia debut Wednesday after playing the last three years at Virginia Tech.

With 89 career games under his belt—the most of any player on the Bulldogs’ 2020-2021 squad—could he be nervous?

“Not at all. Just being on the court with the guys is going to be exciting,” Horne said. “Butterflies? No, I do not have any of those, but as far as excitement goes, anxious, maybe. That’s the biggest part for me.”

He's one of three grad transfers on Tom Crean’s third Georgia team. Horne, Justin Kier (formerly of George Mason), and Andrew Garcia (formerly of Stony Brook) are expected to play key roles for the Bulldogs, who finished 16-16 a season ago.

Of the trio, Kier brings the top scoring average, coming in with 14.5 points a game during his last full season at George Mason, before his season ended on Jan. 14 to repair a stress fracture in his foot.

Garcia, meanwhile, averaged just over 10 points in 77 career starts with Stony Brook.

Horne, meanwhile, averaged 7.6 points last year, but those totals are a little deceiving. After connecting on just one three-pointer as a sophomore, Horne improved that number by 44.

“He’s a winner. He’s someone who has won in the state of Georgia; he’s done a lot,” Crean said. “For a guy who's 6-6 and has had to have the matchups he's had in the ACC and at the same time really change his game, the improvement level was outstanding. We're excited about him. We're very fortunate to have him, and we're glad he wanted to be here.”

Horne said the decision to pick Georgia was an easy one to make. With Covid, the former Tift County standout said playing closer to home became paramount. It was close to the culmination of a lifelong dream.

“Coming home is always a special moment,” Horne said. “I did it for family reasons, but also it gave me the opportunity to come to a school I always wanted to go to. I've been wanting to come to Georgia since I was a little boy. Coming here is amazing.”

Whatever success the Bulldogs manage to have, Horne will be expected to play a big role.

Junior Tye Fagan—the only player on the on squad to have been with Crean all three years—is excited to see what Horne and the rest of the newcomers will bring to a team that must find a way to replace the scoring lost by No. 1 pick Anthony Edwards and Rayshaun Hammonds.

“Life goes on. I wish all the luck to both of them,” Fagan said. “But this is a new team. We're going to be fast; we're going to be tough, and we're going to be strong. We're not the biggest team, but we have other factors that are going to make up for that.”

NOTES: The Bulldogs announced they will host Florida A&M Sunday at 2 p.m. The game agreement was signed Tuesday as a replacement for Gardner-Webb, a game that had to cancelled due to Covid issues. … Crean declined to answer regarding the health of his team and whether he'd have a full squad for Wednesday’s opener. “Right now, we’re getting ready to practice, so I’ll just leave it at that,” Crean said. “As we go through the year, there are going to be all kinds of things that are going to come up, whether it's the scheduling, whatever. In a normal year, you're going to have a lot of discrepancies on your roster—who is available, who's not available, all those types of things. But this is anything but a normal year.”