WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

WHEN: Wednesday, 9 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 15-7, 3-6; LSU 12-9, 1-7

TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Dave Neal, Jon Sunvold); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie)

Pregame Notes

Silas Demary Jr. swears by all that is holy he’s never taken a peek at the projections put out by ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi.

Per sophomore guard, when the subject is basketball, he’s got a one-track mind.

“I don't really look at it. I don't even know what seed we are,” Demary Jr. said after practice on Tuesday. “LSU is our main thing right now. And I haven't looked at Joe Lunardi’s big bracket or ever, I'm not into those things. I kind of just worry about playing basketball. That’s what I love.”

For the record, Lunardi still likes the chances of Georgia (15-7, 3-6) as far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned. Lunardi’s latest bracket has Georgia as an 11th seed in the tournament.

However, the Bulldogs have little margin for error and will need to continue playing well at home where Georgia is 13-1 this year.

That starts with Wednesday night’s game against visiting LSU (12-9, 1-7), and Saturday’s home game against Mississippi State.

“We're just trusting the process, trusting our growth. That's what our emphasis is on, team meetings and practice and what-not,” freshman Asa Newell said. “We’re just staying the course. We all know that God has a plan for us. We're in the palm of His hand, so we're just trusting the process.”

Although head coach Mike White eschews using terms like “must win,” it's fairly obvious that Georgia needs to have a good week to stay in the NCAA conversation.

“It’s important that we play well, and we continue to get better. If we do those things, if we continue to play really well at home, it'll put us in a position to potentially have success,” White said. “We’ve been elite at home with 13 wins and one loss with the only loss to the No. 1 team in the country by a couple of points. Does that mean that we have success tomorrow? No. But it's a factor. More importantly, I think it helps. Our fans have helped us play well, play hard, and play with pride.”

Of Georgia’s nine remaining SEC games, five will be in the familiar confines of Stegeman Coliseum.

While it’s easy to sit there and count the number of victories the Bulldogs would need to assure themselves an NCAA bid, players are apparently not falling into that trap.

“I think our guys are doing a really good job of that. I think they've been bought into that since our first game,” White said. “They continue to embrace the process and move on to the next play, the next-play mentality. Although we're a very young team, we've had a mature approach that we're proud of. We got better today.”

As impressive as Newell’s freshman season has been, his long-range game has struggled in recent weeks.

Newell has converted just 1 of his last 13 three-point attempts. However, White said he’s not concerned.

“He's taken really good ones, and he's got a good stroke,” White said. “But we're also asking a true freshman to bang on the offensive glass and on the defensive glass, and ball screen coverage at 25 feet, and sprint back in transition, and sprint the ball screen. We're asking him to do a ton of things. It's not like he's walking into a wide-open three with other future pros around him like he was a year ago in high school, and the game's a little bit easier for him.”

Newell hasn’t been the only Bulldog struggling from behind the three-point line.

Georgia enters Wednesday night’s game with the fewest three-pointers in the league at 122.

“He's playing against some of the best defenses in the country. He's playing against the best defensive league, arguably, in the history of college basketball,” White said. “He'll continue to shoot good ones and he'll make some.”

White said he hopes to alleviate the recent issues at the free throw line.

“We changed up some of the drill work we're doing with free throws the past couple of days. We'll continue to tinker with that stuff,” White said. “But our guys are working at it and shot it pretty well today. Hopefully, that carries over.”

It had better.

The Bulldogs are coming off a game where Georgia converted just 11 of 23 free throw attempts.

LSU is 12-9 overall and 1-7 in the SEC entering Wednesday’s matchup. The Tigers were 11-2 in non-conference play, including victories over Kansas State, UCF and Florida State.

Cam Carter leads a solid 1-2 scoring punch for LSU at 17.3 points per game, followed by Jordan Sears at 14.8 points per game. Jalen Reed averaged 11.1 points per game before suffering a season-ending injury in the eighth game of the season against Florida State.

• After playing six of eight games against top 25 teams in January, the Bulldogs flipped the calendar to February to find...six of seven outings versus teams ranked this week.

• Georgia has become one of the nation’s premier defensive teams under White. Metrically, the Bulldogs currently rank in the top 25 nationally in defensive efficiency and effective FG pct defense.

• Georgia’s February schedule includes six of seven games against teams ranked in the top 25 when the month began, including three top 10 foes.