Exhibition: Eastern Kentucky at Georgia

WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

WHEN: Monday, 6;30 p.m.

TICKETS: $5 to the public; Students free

Georgia basketball fans will get their first look at the team on Monday night when the Bulldogs host Eastern Kentucky in an exhibition at Stegeman Coliseum.

Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us,” head coach Mike White said. “They do a great job, have good players, and have a good staff. It’s going to be a good test for us.”

The Colonels return four starters and 11 lettermen from last year’s 23-14 team. Eastern Kentucky has led their league in scoring in each of the past three seasons.

Georgia, meanwhile, features just six returnees, having added five transfers and five freshmen.

With the regular-season opener in Las Vegas against Oregon just a week away on Nov. 6, White says his team is making progress.

“We’re getting there. Italy helped us. We’re further ahead of where we were at this point last season. I think we’re a better team,” White said. “We still have some stuff to install, but not a bunch. It’s more about, at this point, honing in on what we can get a little better at because we’ve got some high-level opponents coming up.”

After the game with Oregon, Georgia entertains Wake Forest in the home opener on Nov. 11.

Monday’s exhibition will actually be the second time the Bulldogs have seen the court against a different opponent.

Georgia played North Carolina State in a “secret scrimmage.” NCAA rules prohibit coaches from speaking about the scrimmage, but White acknowledged he recently learned more about his team than he previously knew.

“Yeah, we had some adversities. I liked some of our responses. Some weren’t quite on point, but we’ll get there, or we’ll swing to get there,” White said. “We’re trying to play really, really fast. We’ve been doing that, but we’ve got to continue doing better with our decision, especially with different defenses that we’ll see.”

White said he’s looking forward to seeing how his team responds with fans in the stands.

“Those are really, really big factors,” White said. “How do we respond to playing in front of people, and can we replicate what we’re doing between the lines with no one in the gym? The good teams do that and they find ways to remain focused on us and limit the amount of noise going in our heads mentally while we’re playing the game.”