Georgia basketball news and notes: Tchewa healthy, more
Center Russel Tchewa appears to be over the illness that kept him out of Georgia’s second-round NIT game at Wake Forest and limited him to just five minutes against Ohio State.
"It was good. I know all my teammates, they're ready when their name is called. It was good to see my teammates, especially Frank (Anselem-Ibe), respond to their time and their names. I'm really happy for him. It's been good."
The status of senior Jabri Abdur-Rahim remains unclear.
Head Coach Mike White once again said Abdur-Rahim’s ankle injury still has him day-to-day. He’s not played since Georgia’s game against Texas A&M on March 7, a span that’s reached eight games.
In Tchewa’s absence, Anselem-Ibe pulled down a team-high eight rebounds against Wake Forest, before his first career double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) against Ohio State.
“Frank has played really well, and in some of our bigger wins this year, he's been on the court. Every Day Frank is what we call him. He had a great practice yesterday. I would bet he has a great practice today; it's who he is,” White said. “He works, he's got great energy, and he really played well the other day. It's why we continue to call his number, and he's continued to earn the right to stay on the floor. We'll evaluate it in real time tomorrow night, but Frank will certainly continue to get opportunities."
Scouting Seton Hall
Seton Hall arrives in Indianapolis at 23-12 overall. The Pirates wrapped up Big East play with a 13-7 record and in fourth place in the league standings.
“They remind me of a couple of teams in our league that really sit down with discipline and physicality on the defensive end. Their positioning is high-high level. Texas A&M comes to mind, Tennessee comes to mind. We’ve got some really good defenses in-league … Mississippi State,” White said. “But they’re tough, physical, sound, committed to the defensive end and they really protect the paint at a high level. They force you to make jump shots. Mixing defenses, their zone is more effective. They’ve got good guard play and they’ve got good length. They’re very, very good.”
One of the players to watch is Kadary Richmond, who leads a trio of Pirates scoring at a double-digit pace with 15.6 points per game, followed by Dre Davis at 14.8 points per game and Al-Amir Dawes at 14.6 points per game. Dawes, Dylan Addae-Wusu, and Jaden Bediako have started all 35 games for Seton Hall. Bediako leads the Pirates in rebounding (6.9 rebounds per game), blocks (1.69 blocks per game), and field goal percentage (.614).
“There are a few guys in our league who have that ability, I should say a couple to a few, but not many that can bring it up versus pressure but can also post up guys their own size,” White said of Richmond. “He’s a really versatile guy who complements the people around him.”
White, assistants already multitasking
Although preparing for the NIT Final Four has garnered most of White’s attention, that hasn’t been all he's working on.
With the NCAA Transfer Portal already open, White said he and his staff have been doing their share of juggling ahead of Tuesday night’s game against Seton Hall.
“We’re all multitasking. We’ve been very active with recruiting throughout this, but it’s like that throughout the year. When the portal opens it ramps up a little bit,” White said. “We’ve had some Zooms; we’ve had some phone calls. We would be remiss though, if we didn’t continue to pour everything into this team and finish as well as we could possibly finish and give to these guys.”
Once the season is over, filling out the roster for next year will be the priority.
‘We owe, Noah (Thomasson), Russ (Tchewa), RJ Sunahara; these guys came here with one year to play to try and do something special,” White said. “They found a way to get that NIT invite and continue to find ways to prolong their season. So, we’re balancing this the best we can and will continue to do that this week.”
This and that
• The Bulldogs are making their third trip to the NIT semis (also in 1982 and 1998).
• With its NIT wins over Xavier and Ohio State both being decided at the final horn, Georgia upped its record to 10-8 in games that were one-possession contests in the final 5:00 and 8-5 in matchups that were separated by three points or less in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
• White is now 16-8 (.667) in the postseason, 6-4 in NCAAs and 10-4 in NITs. He is 7-4 in NIT road games including wins at Ohio State (twice), Florida State, Texas A&M, Wake Forest, and Georgia.
• All 12 scholarship Bulldogs who have played this season have started at least two games, mixing and matching to comprise a dozen different starting quintets.
• April 2 matches the latest the Bulldogs have ever played and is the 41st anniversary of Georgia’s loss to N.C. State–yes, that N.C. State team–in the 1983 Final Four. The Bulldogs bested top-seeded St. John’s and No. 2-seeded North Carolina to win the East Regional at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.