Seniors hope for one more hurrah against Texas A&M

WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

WHEN: 6 p.m.

RECORD: Georgia 15-13, 5-10; Texas A&M 15-13, 6-9

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

Senior Days aren’t quite what they used to be.

With the transfer portal, players have more freedom to move than ever, rarer is the time when someone starts and finishes his college career in the same place.

That’s going to be the case Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum when Georgia will hold its Senior Day festivities before the Bulldogs’ game against Texas A&M (6 p.m., SEC Network).

None of the seven seniors being honored before tip-off began their careers in Athens.

The Bulldogs have one more home contest Tuesday against Ole Miss before closing out the regular season on March 9 at Auburn.

“It’s another day to celebrate our seniors, great guys, great guys who have worked hard and represented us well and built the foundation of the rebuild of this program,” said head coach Mike White, who will honor seniors Jabri Abur-Rahim, Noah Thomasson, Frank Anselem-Iba, Russel Tchewa, RJ Sunahara, Justin Hill, and Matthew Alexander-Moncrieffe before the game.

All seven players transferred to Georgia over the years, but for Thomasson, being honored is still a big deal.

“Georgia is like a second home to me, even though I haven’t been here that long,” Thomasson said. “They did right by me, so it was a place I’ll always call home.”

Moncrieffe hasn’t played as much as he did a season ago but when asked about his group of graduates, White shared a story about the Canadian to show what he’s meant to the team.

“We put him in at a media timeout in Baton Rouge. We were having a staff meeting separate from our team huddle as our guys were sitting down,” White said. “As I was addressing the other coaches, you could hear a roar of excitement 20 feet to my left. That was how excited his teammates were that he was getting put in the game. It was the whole team, it wasn’t just the four in the game and it just kind of showed who he is, what he means to his teammates.”

White also praised Anselem-Iba’s consistency, and Sunahara, who he said “has done everything that he’s been called to do while being injured and before he was injured.”

Abdur-Rahim and Hill have been constant contributors, with Tchewa and Thomasson being two of Georgia’s better players.

“They’ve played a ton of minutes, and thank God they’ve avoided injury throughout the season and they’ve been able to log those minutes and be the impact players they’ve been,” White said of Tchewa and Thomasson. “Obviously, we’re not predicted to be a five seed in the NCAA Tournament, we’re a few wins away from where we’d like to be, but we are improved, we’ve been competitive even in our losses and those two guys have been a big reason why.”

Although he will not be part of the program next year, Thomasson insists the Bulldogs are in good hands.

“Our record may not show it, but I think it is a process. I think they’ll keep making strides year in and year out with Coach White,” Thomasson said. “We’ve seen the process from where were last year and where we’re going to be in the future, even though I won’t be there.”

When asked why he’s so confident, Thomasson said it’s easy.

“I see what happened with them last year, what’s going on this year. I see what they’re building. They’re bringing in a guy like Asa, they’re bringing in Dominique Wilkins’ son (Jacob Wilkins) the year after that,” Thomasson said. “He’s bringing in good guys, so I hope it works out for Georgia and it gets back to where it should be.”

Pregame Notes

• Tuesday’s heart-breaking 67-66 setback at LSU marked just the second time the Bulldogs have lost while holding their opponent under 70 points during Mike White’s two seasons in Athens. Georgia is now 25-2 in those contests.

• Georgia has now used 10 players to comprise nine different starting fives this season. Over the last nine games, the Bulldogs have utilized six different quintets of starters.

Texas A&M sports records of 15-13 overall and 6-9 in the SEC entering Saturday’s game. The Aggies have dropped five straight; however, A&M owns wins over four teams ranked in the top 25 this week: No. 4/4 Tennessee, No. 8/6 Iowa State, No. 16/15 Kentucky, and No. 24/24 Florida.

Wade Taylor IV leads the Aggies offensively at 18.7 ppg and ranks among the league’s top 10 leaders in no less than five stats – No. 4 in scoring, No. 3 in steals, No. 5 in 3-pointers per game, No. 6 in minutes played and No. 9 in assists.

Tyrece Radford is averaging 15.3 ppg, and Anderson Garcia is the SEC’s leading rebounder at 9.5 rpg.