To say that freshman Silas Demary Jr. has already made a significant contribution to Georgia’s basketball team would be one of the bigger understatements in the entire SEC.
This isn’t hyperbole.
Bulldog head coach Mike White has coached a lot of talented players q his career, and Demary Jr. is already standing out, perhaps in ways not a lot of people initially expected.
During his post-game Zoom following Georgia’s 74-69 win at South Carolina, White was asked if Demary Jr. was one of the more confident freshmen he’s been fortunate to coach.
White’s response was telling.
“I haven’t had a freshman any more physically and mentally tough than him,” White said. “By the end of the year, I might say he’s No. 1 (overall). He’s definitely in the conversation.”
Demary led the Bulldogs with 15 points against the Gamecocks, but his contributions went way beyond that.
The 6-foot-5 guard also led the team with seven rebounds, with two blocks and two steals.
“I’m just picking and choosing what I can do to take advantage of my teammates,” Demary said after Georgia lost to Tennessee. “If I can make my teammates better,, it makes my job easier, helps get them to the paint, score, drop it off to the bigs or hit kick-outs. I just want to create as many disadvantages for the defense as I can.”
No better example of his toughness came with 2:46 left in Tuesday night’s game when Demary Jr. was knocked to the floor on a flagrant foul by Meechie Johnson.
Undaunted, Demary Jr. stepped to the line and ultimately hit two of his six late free throws, enabling the Bulldogs (13-4, 3-1) to win the game.
“His confidence, too, but again, it’s his toughness. It’s a mixture of both,” White said. “He took a really tough fall, a scary fall, and that’s where he steps in and makes a couple of those big free throws late and continues to help us get stops, defending the glass, flying around, and the ball security, too, for a true freshman is pretty impressive.”
Demary’s ball security is of special note.
After committing three turnovers in Georgia’s first two conference games against Missouri and Arkansas, Demary did not lose the ball against Tennessee and turned it over just once against South Carolina.
“My confidence is God blessed me with a lot of abilities, so I want to thank him first,” Demary said. “But my teammates who put in the work every day, they tell me to be aggressive, because when I’m aggressive I can get a lot of my teammates open shots.”
The next test for Demary and Georgia comes Saturday afternoon at Kentucky when the Bulldogs and Wildcats face off in a 6 p.m. tipoff on the SEC Network.
If the Bulldogs can avoid the kind of late-game meltdown they did against Tennessee (zero field goals in the final 5:03), then what’s been a very resilient team will take its chances.
“We can be in those big-time games. We believe in ourselves, we practice hard every day,” Demary said. “I do feel we can execute better down the stretch and learn how not to get comfortable at times. When we got comfortable, I think Tennessee took advantage of that. We need to stop feeling comfortable and complete games.”
