No. 23 Georgia at No. 6 Tennessee

WHERE: Food City Center, Knoxville, Tennessee

RECORDS: Georgia 14-2, 2-1; Tennessee 15-1, 2-1

TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Brian Custer, Richard Hendrix); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie).

PREGAME NOTES: Click here

Georgia sophomore Blue Cain was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Wednesday night at Food City Center, he’ll be back in a building he’s pretty familiar with as No. 23 Georgia takes on No. 6 Tennessee.

“I wouldn’t say I really grew up a Vols fan, but I’ve obviously been to a couple of games,” Cain said. “I mean, it will be exciting just to be in front of my family and friends. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Bulldog sophomore made a name for himself during his high school playing days. Cain was named All-State by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association in 2021 and 2022 while playing at Knoxville Catholic. He played there for three seasons before finishing his prep career at IMG Academy.

In 86 outings with the Fighting Irish, Cain scored 1,213 points, grabbed 400 rebounds, dished out 253 assists, and collected 191 steals. Cain helped Knoxville Catholic compile a 74-12 record over three seasons, including winning the 2020 Tennessee Division II-AA state title.

However, despite his impressive numbers, the Tennessee Volunteers never showed much interest, leaving Cain to ultimately commit to Georgia Tech before settling on the Bulldogs.

“Not particularly,” said Cain, who has started all 16 Georgia games as a part of a five-guard rotation for the Bulldogs that continues to improve.

“We’ve got a very, very talented group deep group versatile group of guards We’re probably A little bit unique in that they're some diversity there, but there's probably more similarity,” head coach Mike White said. “Amongst the group of five, we're playing them more so than any group that I've coached. We've got a bunch of 6-4, 6-5 guys that can make a shot that can drive it. We've got some weaknesses, too. We’ve got to work on our turnover margin and work on our decisions, our execution, a lot of stuff. We play well together, but we've got a ways to go.”

Cain hopes to show the Vols what they missed out on.

“I think we're one of the deeper guard rooms in the country,” Cain said. “We have five dudes who can really get after it, can really affect the guy. I think we have five dudes who can take over the game. So, I mean, it's a great feeling to have out there.”

Tennessee’s five-week run atop the AP and coaches polls ended on Monday when the Volunteers slipped to No. 6 in each.

Graduate Chaz Lanier tops all Vols in scoring and entered this week a single point shy of leading the SEC. He has scored much of his 19.0 ppg from behind the arc, pacing the league and ranking No. 4 nationally in 3-pointers per game at 3.7 and ranking second in the SEC 3-point percentage at .437.

Tennessee has an additional trio of double-figure scorers – Zakai Zeigler at 11.9 points per game, Jordan Gainey at 11.2 points per game, and Igor Milicic Jr. at 10.4 points per game. Zeigler leads the SEC and is No. 5 in the nation in assists at 7.6 assists per game while Milicic is fourth in the league on the boards at 8.6 rebounds per game.

• The Bulldogs are ranked No. 23 in both the AP and coaches polls this week, UGA’s first AP poll appearance since Jan. 10, 2011, and the first time the Dogs are in both polls since March 10, 2003.

• Mike White has led three different programs with losing records the season before he arrived to top-25 rankings in the AP poll, also doing so at Louisiana Tech in 12-20 in 2010-11 to No. 25 in 2013 and Florida 16-17 in 2014-15 to No. 12 in 2017. UGA was 6-26 in 2021-22, the season before White’s arrival.

• The Bulldogs entered the week ranked 29.3 in an average of six popular metrics (NET, KenPom, Torvik, KPI, BPI, and SOR) – an increase of 189.7 spots since Mike White became UGA’s head coach.

• Tennessee is UGA’s fourth straight ranked opponent, the first time the Bulldogs have ever played a quartet of ranked foes in successive outings. Last Saturday vs. Oklahoma was just the fifth time Georgia faced a trio of consecutive ranked foes.

• Georgia’s balanced offense features seven players who have led the Bulldogs in one or more games. Two more players have posted double-figure scoring outputs. All told, those nine Bulldogs have produced 65 double-digit performances, an average of 4.1 per game.

• Asa Newell, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the third time this season on Monday, is averaging 15.4 points per game. He also paces UGA on the boards at 6.8 rebounds per game. Among league leaders, Newell entered this week ranked No. 17 in scoring and No. 13 in rebounding – including an SEC-best 3.6 offensive boards per game. He also is No. 3 in the SEC and No. 39 nationally in field goal percentage (.581).

• Rounding out the double-digit point producers in the scoring column is Dakota Leffew at 12.4 ppg, Silas Demary Jr. at 11.9 ppg, and De’Shayne Montgomery at 11.3 ppg.