Georgia versus Notre Dame
WHEN: Sunday, 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: State Farm Arena, Atlanta
RECORDS: Georgia 7-3, Notre Dame 7-3
TV/RADIO: ESPN2 (Tom Hart, Dane Bradshaw); Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Adam Gillespie)
The ties between Sunday’s opponent Notre Dame and Georgia head basketball coach Mike White could not be much deeper.
White’s father Kevin served as Notre Dame’s athletic director from 2000 to 2008, and actually hired current Irish coach Mike Brey.
That’s not all.
White’s brother Danny, currently the athletic director at Tennessee, played for Brey for two years.
Sunday at 5:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena, acquaintances will be renewed.
"It (the game) happened probably my first month on the job here. Who is available? Who has an interest in playing in Atlanta? That's it,” White said. “I'm not overly excited to play Mike Brey, if I am going to be honest. I don't know who is. It's a program that I have a ton of respect for. My father hired Mike Brey. It's arguably one of his greatest hires of his incredible career. It will be neat to see Coach Brey and to compete against the Irish. It's an incredible honor for our program."
Unsurprisingly, Mike White grew up a fan of Notre Dame, although it was football that first caught his eye.
Quarterbacks Rick Mirer and Tony Rice were heroes.
"Those guys were studs. I was locked into Notre Dame football as a kid,” White said. “That was my lifelong dream, to play quarterback at Notre Dame."
White laughed that he quickly learned that football wasn’t in the cards. "I did until I transferred to Jesuit High School from Orono High School in Maine,” White said. “The Jesuit High School in New Orleans, you learn very quickly if you are the freshman quarterback, you should probably be focusing on another sport."
Fortunately, White was pretty good at basketball, although his hopes of playing hoops for the Irish did not work out, either.
"Midway through my freshman year of high school, I put all of my focus into hoops. I got cut by varsity and the JV. I played on the freshman team. At that point, it was, I was going to commit to basketball at Notre Dame,” White said. “They did recruit me a little bit. An assistant, Jimmy Black, would send me letters from time to time. It didn't work out, obviously. My brother, Danny, actually played for Coach Brey at Notre Dame. He got a chance to live it. My older brother Brian is a Notre Dame graduate as well."
White said both his parents are expected to be in Atlanta for the game, which will be Georgia’s first since dropping a 79-77 decision at Georgia Tech on Dec. 6.
At least the Bulldogs will come into the game healthy after battling illness and injuries for the better part of the past month.
“(Wednesday) we're at full strength yesterday for the first time in a long time. You do the best you can with what you have got. The guys that played last week played well. It was arguably one of our best performances,” White said. “I thought Georgia Tech played really well, too. It was possession error, possession error, turnover, and missed shot. A mishap was one responsibility, and it was block-heavy. It could have gone either way. I was proud of that performance."
Scouting the Irish
The Irish sport one of the nation’s most balanced offensive attacks. All five starters are currently averaging double figures, led by Nate Laszewski’s 14.9 ppg. He also paces the Irish on the glass at 8.3 rebounds per game. In addition, Dane Goodwin is contributing 12.9 ppg, JJ Starling and Cormac Ryan both are chipping in 12.5 ppg, and Trey Wertz is posting 10.8 ppg.
Other than the starters, only one other player, Ven-Allen Lubin, has played in every game.
