Preview: Georgia at South Carolina

Georgia at South Carolina

WHERE: Columbia, S.C.

WHEN: Saturday, 7 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 9-9, 1-4; South Carolina 12-8, 3-3

TV: FSN South

RADIO: Georgia Bulldog Radio Network

NEXT GAME: Wednesday, Arkansas, 7 p.m.

Saturday's Game

Georgia wraps up a week of traveling with a Saturday night contest at South Carolina. The Bulldogs arrive at this game with 9-9 overall record, 1-4 in SEC play, after dropping an 87-71 decision at Florida on the first leg of this road swing Wednesday night. ... Saturday's game is the 93rd all-time meeting be¬tween these two programs. Most of these meetings (55, in fact) occurred before they became conference brethren in 1992. Each school has won 46 times in the series. South Carolina won both of last year's meetings, 79-68 in Columbia and 68-51 in Athens. These two teams will complete their regular-season series two weeks from today in Athens. … This game completes perhaps the most difficult portion of the Dawgs entire 2010 schedule. Since the calendar turned to January, they've begun a month-long stretch of eight games whose opponents have a combined W/L record of 122-37 (.767) and an average RPI of 41. According to the latest RPI listings, Georgia's schedule is considered the 7th most difficult in the country. … As Georgia continues its quest for a first road win of the season, it is worth noting the lineup of teams the Bulldogs have played in true road games. That list of seven teams has a 110-29 aggregate record and includes 19-1 Kentucky, 18-2 UAB and 16-3 Virginia Tech.

This and that

There are currently 10 sophomores among the SEC's top 30 scorers. Of those 10, only Storm Warren of LSU has upped his freshman-year scoring average greater than Travis Leslie. Additionally, Trey Thompkins has pushed himself into the top five on this list, which includes Auburn's Franke Sullivan and Arkansas' Rotnei Clarke. … A couple of trends perhaps through the Bulldogs' first five SEC games: 1) Despite getting outrebounded Wednesday by Florida for the first time in the SEC, Georgia still leads the league in rebounding margin at +6.2. 2) The Bulldogs' per-game scoring average through five SEC games (72.4 ppg) is actually 5.1 points higher than their overall average. That's a rarity indeed; not since 2001 has a Georgia team's final SEC-games average been higher than its final overall scoring average. … The Tennessee game last Saturday was the first and only time in five SEC games that a Georgia sub logged at least 20 minutes. The first unit has logged almost 77 percent of the Bulldogs' minutes and scored 306 of their 362 points (85 percent). Four of those five starters (Thompkins, Leslie, Ware and McPhee) established career highs in minutes during the preceding four games, including the Georgia Tech contest. ... A couple of other stats that merit a mention: the 3-point shot is not the preferred weapon of choice for this Georgia team. In fact, the Bulldogs don't average enough 3-pointers to qualify for national rankings in accuracy. However, the Bulldogs do rank 2nd behind only Vanderbilt in 3-point percentage in SEC games, including 15-for-26 (58 percent) in their past two games.