Georgia at Georgia Tech
WHERE: McCamish Pavilion, Atlanta
WHEN: Saturday, Noon
RECORDS: Georgia 6-4, Georgia Tech 6-4
TV/RADIO: ESPNU (Doug Sherman, Jordan Cornette); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle and Tony Schiavone); XM: 385
After struggling with overall consistency his freshman year, sophomore Rayshaun Hammonds is starting to live up to the reputation that made him a Rivals Top-50 player his senior season at Norcross High.
Check out these numbers.
Hammonds averaged a mere 6.7 points as a freshman last season, but as the Bulldogs (6-4) get ready to take on arch-rival Georgia Tech (6-4) Saturday (Noon, ESPNU) at McCamish Pavilion, those numbers have more than doubled.
With double-figure efforts in eight of Georgia’s 10 games, Hammonds enters play as the team’s leading scorer, averaging 15.1 points.
“I’m a lot more relaxed,” Hammonds said before practice on Friday. “Last year, I feel I was all excited every game.”
Tuesday’s 81-69 victory over Oakland was another example of how Hammonds has grown. Not only did he score 17 points, but his 11 rebounds gave him the first double-double of his career.
“He’s taken a huge step offensively and defensively,” teammate and fellow sophomore Nicolas Claxton said. “He’s got a lot more confidence in himself, and he’s shooting the ball really well. He’s having a pretty big sophomore season.”
Head coach Tom Crean first saw Hammonds during a tournament when he was still the coach at Indiana.
“I'd seen him. I saw him at a Thanksgiving tournament, when we were recruiting Al Durham and another young player, Jordan Tucker, who went to Duke and is now at Butler,” Crean said. “So, I did get to see him (Hammonds) and was highly impressed with him.”
In the eight months since Crean has been Hammonds’ coach, he’s continued to see growth in his game.
“Bottom line for me when getting in workouts with him, we knew we just wanted to get his conditioning where it needed to be. His quickness, his short-space quickness, and build some wiggle in his game. Get him lower, and just work on passing,” Crean said. “Those two guys (Hammonds and Claxton) were highlights in taking this job. I give the former staff credit for bringing a lot of high-quality players in, and you can throw Teshaun (Hightower) in that class as well.”
A 31-point effort back in November at the Cayman Islands Classic stands as a career high. He became the first player in the SEC to have a 30-point effort this season.
Claxton scored a season-high 22 in that same game.
“I think we play like each other, but he's just a little bit bigger than me. At the same time, I just remind him to stay composed and let the game come to him. He reminds me the same thing. We focus on not rushing anything, because when you rush something, you don’t play your best,” Hammonds said. “So, we try and sit back at all times and let the game come to us. It's a different feeling when you do that, and you play better.”
NOTE: Crean hopes to have Jordan Harris available after missing last Tuesday’s game against Oakland. He suffered an undisclosed injury against Arizona State. "I'm not sure yet. We'll find out today,” Crean said. “He isn't yet. He'd done some, but not much, so we'll get better clarification."
