WHAT: No. 18 Tennessee at Georgia

WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m

WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum

RECORDS: Georgia 14-11, 4-7; Tennessee 19-6, 9-4

TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Bob Neal, Barry Booker); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone)

It’s taken three-quarters of the season but it finally appears that Mark Fox’s confidence in Tyree Crump has grown to a point that he’s ready to put more trust in the sophomore guard.

At least it seems that way.

Georgia’s head coach certainly seemed to be hinting as much during Friday’s interview sessions to talk about Saturday’s game against No. 18 Tennessee (6 p.m., SEC Network).

After receiving what’s at best been inconsistent playing time for most of the year, Crump’s now averaged 24 minutes in each of Georgia’s last two games, including a career-best 26 in the Bulldogs’ 72-69 win over Florida Wednesday night in Gainesville.

Primarily at point for one of the few times all season, Crump scored 13 points, converting 3 of 8 three-point attempts.

“Tyree has tried to play a couple of different positions for us and learning two spots can be hard for guys,” Fox said. “But he’s had an approach that’s allowed him to get better, to continue to improve at both positions so now he’s able to play both of them and the other night be played the point spot very effectively for us.”

If Georgia (14-11, 5-8) hopes to take down Tennessee in front of Saturday’s sellout crowd at Stegman Coliseum, Fox not only figures to need a similar effort from the sophomore, but an overall effort similar to what the Bulldogs exhibited against the Gators.

“I think we played certainly a lot harder, we had far fewer mistakes,” Fox said. “I just thought we had a better mental attachment to what we wanted to do which allowed us to be much more mistake-free and play fairly effectively.”

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for Georgia which had dropped six of its previous seven contests.

“I think that our team played very committed to each other and they played very committed to their school and they played extremely hard in a tough place to play,” Fox said. “They were very resilient so there were a lot of things to be proud of. We hadn’t played well and they knew they hadn’t played well, but they didn’t quit.”

Fox said he wasn’t surprised.

“Far from it. We weren’t surprised that they were able to regroup,” he said. “We just had to obviously re-invent our rotation a little bit and it took some time to get used to that but they were very determined to play well and that’s what we did.”

NOTES: Fox said he expects junior Turtle Jackson to play after slipping on the court late in the game against the Gators. Jackson failed to return, but is apparently ok for Saturday’s contest. “Turtle wasn’t allowed to finish the game the other night, was not allowed to fully participate in practice yesterday but we anticipate he will be full go today and should play,” said Fox, who declined to elaborate on exactly what the injury was, although from the television replay it appear to be a knee. “It was just obviously a strained area in his leg,” Fox said. … Saturday’s game is also J.J. Frazier Bobblehead Night. The first 1,000 fans to walk through the door will receive a free bobblehead of the former Bulldog star.