Georgia at No. 4 Tennessee: Shoring up the defense a focus

WHEN: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tenn.

RECORDS: Georgia 13-6, 3-3; Tennessee 16-3, 6-1

TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Dave Neal, Jon Sunvold); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie)

Considering the emphasis Mike White places on defense, Georgia’s last two games against Kentucky and Vanderbilt have been difficult to stomach.

After allowing an average of 63.5 points in its first four SEC games against Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State, the Bulldogs have allowed 85 points in their last two, both losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

With No. 4 Tennessee up next Wednesday (7 p.m., SEC Network) in Knoxville, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out White’s focus going into his team’s game against the Volunteers.

“It was just a poor defensive performance by us, and it’s on me. I just didn't have our guys prepared to play with the intensity level necessary to get stops,” White said of Saturday’s loss to the Commodores. “Vanderbilt was great, of course—they can shoot, and they can execute. But we’ve defended at a higher level, especially at home. It’s unfortunate, but it’s over and we can bounce back, and moving forward, put that behind us.”

Even with the recent issues, the Bulldogs remain the SEC’s sixth-best defensive team, tied with Texas A&M, allowing 66.11 points per game.

Georgia is also fourth in the conference in three-point defense, allowing opponents to convert just .288 percent of their shots from beyond the arch. The fact Vanderbilt made 10 of 21 three-point attempts did not help the Bulldogs’ cause.

“We were just a step slow. We were a little bit late, jogging back in transition—things we've done a pretty good job of this year. They hit a couple of big threes off of makes when they were not in any kind of press, no reason for us to not have a man and still be dwelling on the make, feeling pretty good about it. Full crowd, celebrate few seconds—you can’t do this in this league against good offenses. I’ll be surprised if we see that again.”

Braelen Bridges agreed.

“Just things (going for) like 50-50 balls on the ground, we’d been doing that all season,” Bridges said. “We didn’t do that the last game—little stuff like that, which we can’t keep doing moving forward.”

Tennessee’s 74.6 points-per-game average is a modest sixth in the SEC, but the Volunteers lead the conference in scoring defense at 54.37.

Georgia is 10th in the league in offense, scoring 71.11 points per game.

“We definitely took a step back (against Vanderbilt),” Frank Anselem said. “I don’t know. Maybe we got a little too comfortable because they came in here and beat us. In the SEC, if you relax, you’re going to get beat. We just feel as a team and a program, we can’t let that happen again.”

White knows his Bulldogs will have to play their best game if they want to have a chance against the Volunteers, a team many are touting as a possible contender for the national championship.

Practice, thus far, has been good.

“It’s been a really good group of guys. We’ve owned it, all of us. You’ve just got to be better. If we’re not markedly better tomorrow night, it could get ugly,” White said. “There will be a lot of stuff tomorrow that’s harder to control, but I anticipate our effort being really good. Obviously, we’ve got to maintain.”

… White is the older brother of Danny White, UT’s director of athletics.

… With 13 wins, the Bulldogs have already more than doubled their victory total (6) for the entire 2021-22 season.

… Georgia entered the week No. 4 nationally in bench minutes, with subs securing 45.6 percent of the Dogs’ total PT.

… Georgia’s bench has outscored its opponents’ reserves 457-289, an average advantage of 8.9 points per game.

… Georgia’s assist-to-turnover ratio is up by +.24 since Thanksgiving, the best improvement by an SEC team during that span.

Pregame Notes

Tennessee is 16-3 overall and 6-1 in the SEC on the season, leading the Volunteers to be ranked No. 4 in both the AP and USA Today polls this week.

The Vols' last two wins have come with regular starters missing action. Last Tuesday at Mississippi State, guards Tyreke Key and Santiago Vescovi did not play due to illness and injury, respectively. Last Saturday at LSU, Uroš Plavšić registered a DNP due to an illness.

Vescovi leads a quintet of Vols scoring at a double-digit pace for Tennessee at 12.5 ppg, followed by Zakai Zeigler at 10.6 ppg, Olivier Nkamhoua at 10.4 ppg, Julian Phillips at 10.3 ppg, and Josiah-Jordan James at 10.1 ppg.

Georgia hosts South Carolina Saturday night at 6.