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Published Feb 28, 2025
Preview: Georgia at Texas
Harrison Reno
Staff

WHEN: Saturday, 8 p.m. EST.

WHERE: Moody Center, Austin, Texas

RECORDS: Georgia 17-11, 5-10; Texas 16-12, 5-10

TV/RADIO: ESPN2 (Mike Monaco, Daymeon Fishback); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network: (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst)


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The Game

The Georgia Bulldogs are fresh off the biggest win of the Mike White era, beating No. 3 ranked Florida 88-83, but center RJ Godfrey is telling his teammates that Saturday's game at Texas is the biggest one yet.

He's not wrong.

The Bulldogs and Longhorns are sitting tied with identical conference records of 5-10, and Georgia needs to keep winning if it wants to secure an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

“This is awesome. I think every road win is like the Super Bowl to me," Godfrey said. “I came in joking with Tyrin (Lawrence) like, this is the Super Bowl, man. Get ready, get ready. This game is huge for us.”

Godfrey isn’t wrong.

With three regular-season games remaining, they're all “huge” for the Bulldogs. Even after their upset win over the No. 3 ranked Gators, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has Georgia on the bubble as one of the “first four” teams out.

But it isn’t just Georgia that will be fighting for their postseason hopes. Following an 86-81 loss to Arkansas on Wednesday, the Longhorns also find themselves on “bubble watch,” as they are currently one of the last four teams in according to Lunardi.

The win over Florida came at a much-needed time for the Bulldogs. Heading into the Tuesday night clash inside Stegeman Coliseum, the Bulldogs were riding a four-game losing streak and had just one win in their last six games.

As Georgia gets set to go on the road for the first of a two-game road stretch, they are still looking for their first win on the road in conference play. And while its last road outing, saw them fall at Auburn. There are things head coach Mike White hopes carry over to Austin.

“A lot of things we did really well, of course. And sometimes it's the bounce of the ball, or a made shot, and a missed shot for your opponent, things like that,” White said. “Auburn's terrific; Texas is terrific. Hopefully, we can do a lot of the same things and clean up some things. But I really liked our approach at Auburn, how hard we played, how locked in we were, and our resilience. We need to do a lot of that to have success in Texas.”

Much like Georgia, the Longhorns have been enduring a rough stretch. They have won just one of their last six games, with that win coming at home over then-No. 15 ranked Kentucky.

Yet, despite the struggles of the Longhorns, they do boast one of the top true freshmen in college basketball. Starting guard Tre Johnson is coming off a career-year game where he scored 39 points on 14 of 28 shooting from the field and seven of 11 from three.

At 6-foot-6 and 190 pounds, Johnson has been among the nation’s top scorers, averaging 20.9 points per game.

“He's an elite shooter, playmaker, athlete, strength, and he's 6'6," White said of Texas’s star freshmen. “He's just a really good player. He can catch and shoot it, he can sprint into shots, going left, going right, create his own shot, going left, going right.”

While Georgia will certainly look to slow down Johnson, they know that the Longhorns have others outside of the star freshman.

“Spacing, movement, their bigs playing on the perimeter a lot,” White said. “[Arthur] Kaluma can make threes, he can drive it, he can playmake himself. [Kadin] Shedrick's ability to space the floor, sprinting to ball screens, create that separation, and then diving to the rim.”

Tip-off inside the Moody Center is set for 8 p.m. EST as the Bulldogs will look to further their resume for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

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