Georgia at No. 23 Florida

WHEN: Saturday, noon

WHERE: Exactech Arena, Gainesville, Florida

RECORDS: Georgia 11-5, 3-1; Florida 13-3, 4-0

TV/RADIO: ESPN2 (Beth Mowins, Dalen Cuff); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone)

So, when was the last time Georgia’s basketball team beat Florida in Gainesville?

Try 2002.

To get an even better sense of exactly how long ago that was, senior guard J.J. Frazier was just six years old while the price of gas in January of that year was just $1.14.

Flash forward to this Saturday for a noon tip-off (ESPN2) at Exactech Arena, formerly known as the O’Connell Center.

Under second-year coach Mike White, the 23rd-ranked Gators are 13-3 overall and a perfect 4-0 in the SEC, while Georgia is 11-5 and 3-1 in league play following Wednesday night’s easy victory at Ole Miss.

“They obviously have only played I think three home games the entire year. This will be their fourth home game of the year because of the construction, so the environment may be a little different as far as the sidelines and that kind of thing,” Bulldog head coach Mark Fox said. “We know they will have a great crowd, which they’ve always had--it’s always tough. But really what we addressed with our players is just try to play well and play the right way. That’s what we’ll focus on.”

But will it be enough?

Although Georgia rolled past Ole Miss 69-47 in Oxford, Fox feels the score wasn’t quite indicative of the way his Bulldogs played.

The Rebels played most of the game without Deandre Burnett, the SEC’s third-leading scorer. And with no other players able to compensate for his loss, Georgia was able to roll to the win.

“I think his absence, obviously, impacted their team, their rotations and probably limited what they can run. Our defense at the end of the night was very effective, but I think you have to take it a little bit with a grain of salt because they were missing one of their key pieces,” Fox said. “But I do think for the most part, our preparation and our practice, we defended better leading up to the game in our preparation so we felt like we maybe were about to show some progress at that end. It was more like what we hoped, but part of it was certainly due that injury.”

Either way, there’s not much arguing that Georgia will need to play its best game to take out the Gators, who lead the SEC in steals and feature one of the league’s best defenders in senior guard Kasay Hill.

"I think for us we need a complete game from our team, meaning that we need to do well on both ends. We’ve got to take care of the basketball and have good offense and get good shots at the basket. We need to play balanced offensively and get a number of guys to complete plays but that end is important,” Fox said. “Then you have to go to the other end and really defend an offense that has the ability to spread you out with very good three-point shooting, with great guys off the dribble, great penetration and then powerful interior play. There is a reason Florida is having the kind of year that they’re having because they are very, very complete. For us to win we have to be very complete ourselves.”

NOTES: Fox said that Frazier is fine after taking a hard fall late in Wednesday’s game against Ole Miss, and he will be able to start in Saturday’s game. “We tried to check him back into the game the other night but really didn’t need to,” Fox said. “We pulled him back away from the table, but I think he should be fine.” … Georgia returns home Tuesday night against Vanderbilt. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m.