Georgia-Florida Game Notes

Jan. 10, 2003

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Game 13: #20 Georgia (9-3, 1-0) at #11 Florida (12-2, 1-0) Saturday, January 11, 2003 - Gainesville, Fla.

Broadcast Information TV: Live telecast by JP Sports (Paul Kennedy and Joe Dean, Jr.) Georgia Radio: Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (74 stations for basketball), broadcast by Scott Howard (Play-by-Play) & Jeff Dantzler (Color). Local stations: WSB-AM (750) in Atlanta & WNGC-FM (106.1) in Athens. Actual Tipoff Time: 3:06 p.m. (EST)

On the World Wide Web For up-to-date stats, notes and other information, log on to: www.georgiadogs.com To follow Georgia games via the internet, log on to the following address: http://georgiadogs.fansonly.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/geo-m-baskbl-sched.htm l

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS Georgia Bulldogs (9-3 overall, 1-0 in SEC games) Head Coach: Jim Harrick (57-48 in fourth season at Georgia)

Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG F - 24 Jarvis Hayes 6-7 220 Jr. Atlanta, Ga. 17.9 4.3 F - 50 Chris Daniels 6-7 220 Jr. Albany, Ga. 11.4 6.6 F - 55 Steve Thomas 6-8 240 Jr. Carrollton, Ga.12.0 8.4 G - 5 Ezra Williams 6-4 235 Sr. Marietta, Ga. 17.6 5.9 G - 3 Rashad Wright 6-3 190 Jr. Statesboro, Ga. 8.5 5.4* Top Reserves F - 33 Jonas Hayes 6-8 240 Jr. Atlanta, Ga. 8.6 5.4 G/F- 12 Damien Wilkins 6-7 220 Jr. Washington, N.C.7.4 4.0

Florida Gators (12-2 overall, 1-0 in SEC games) Head Coach: Billy Donovan (136-67 in seventh season at Florida)

Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG F - 15 Matt Bonner 6-10 240 Sr. Concord, N.H. 14.4 5.8 F - 44 Matt Walsh 6-6 205 Fr. Holland, Pa. 15.9 4.5 C - 24 David Lee 6-9 240 So. St. Louis, Mo. 9.9 6.6 G - 10 Brett Nelson 6-4 205 Sr. St. Albans, W.Va. 5.9 1.6 G - 12 Justin Hamilton 6-3 225 Sr. Sarasota, Fla. 10.2 4.7* Top Reserves G - 1 Anthony Roberson 6-1 180 Fr. Saginaw, Mich. 14.2 2.4 F - 4 Adrian Moss 6-9 238 RFr. Houston, Texas 3.1 2.9 *Assists Per Game

Homestand Over, Dogs Hit Road to Face #11 Gators Georgia continues its SEC schedule today with its first matchup of the season against Florida. The Bulldogs bring a 9-3 overall record into today's game, having won their league opener in Athens last Sunday, an 89-63 decision over #21 LSU. That outcome extended their current winning streak to eight games, the longest in five years for any Bulldog team. The last 9-game streak for a Georgia team? During the Final Four year of 1983. The current 8-game streak, paired with the quality of Georgia's past two wins, have gotten the Bulldogs back into the weekly national polls. They began the season ranked 16th in both polls but were dropped after going 1-3 out of the starting blocks.

Home Games Prove to be Best Medicine Georgia spent most of the season's first four weeks on the road, one reason among several that explain its slow start. The Bulldogs seem to have found their stride over the past five games, all at home. During that homestand, they defeated their opponents by an average score of 90-68, with 53 percent shooting from the field, 48 percent from 3-point range and 76 percent from the line. They've also outrebounded those opponents by an average margin of 11 boards per game.

Georgia vs. Florida Today's game is the 185th all-time meeting between Georgia and Florida in basketball. Georgia leads the overall series 94-90. Following is a breakdown of the series:

Games in Athens: Georgia leads 57-32

Games in Gainesville: Florida leads 51-33

Neutral-Site Games: Florida leads 7-4

SEC Tournament Games: Georgia 1, Florida 1

Some more tidbits about the series:
> The visitor has won each of the past five meetings.
> Just three of the past 18 meetings could be classified as "close" games (final margin of five or fewer points). Two of those games have occurred in the past two seasons. The average margin of those 18 meetings was 13.2 points.
> Georgia's win in Gainesville marked the highest-ranked opponent a Bulldog team had ever beaten (Florida was 2nd at the time.). This year's team equalled that with a win over #2 Pitt on Dec. 31.
> The Bulldogs played without today's starting center Steve Thomas in both games last season.

Leftovers from the LSU Game
Following are a few tidbits from Georgia's 89-63 win over #21-ranked LSU last Sunday.
> The Bulldogs shot 55 percent for the game, 62 percent in a runaway second half.
> Offensively, the Bulldogs set seasonal superlatives in these categories: 2nd-half points (54), 3-pointers made (11) and 3-point percentage (64.7). They also committed a season-high 22 fouls.
> John Brady's first-half technical foul was the first such infraction by an opponent's head coach in almost two years, going back to a technical incurred by Florida's Billy Donovan in the Georgia-Florida game in Gainesville during the 2001 season.

Footballers Gibson, Moses Join Dogs
Georgia added two more players to its teeming roster this week, bringing to 16 the total of active Bulldogs. On Tuesday football players Fred Gibson and Quentin Moses suited up and have practiced all week with their new teammates.
Gibson is surely no stranger to the Georgia basketball program. He averaged 4.9 points in 18 games last season. Three times during the SEC schedule he scored in double figures, most notably at Florida, where he had 13 points, including six in the final 51 seconds.
Moses, a freshman from Athens, was redshirted as a defensive end in football this past season. In basketball, he averaged 20.3 points and 10 rebounds for Cedar Shoals High School last season, playing primarily in the frontcourt for the Jaguars.

Of RPIs and Other Such Listings
Georgia's recent on-court surge < combined="" with="" some="" stellar="" play="" by="" its="" non-conference="" opponents="">< have="" caused="" a="" meteoric="" rise="" by="" the="" dogs="" in="" the="" national="" power="">
Just in the past two weeks, they've risen from the mid-30s in the RPI listings to their current spot at No. 2. In addition, their strength of schedule rating has risen on a parallel path, going from the low-30s to its spot today at No. 3.
In the Sagarin ratings Georgia is currently 13th, with a strength-of-schedule rating of 9th. The average rating of all 11 of the Bulldogs' non-conference opponents is 58, ranging from Pitt's No. 8 standing to a 153 by Belmont.

Dogs Back on National Radar Screen
Georgia began this season ranked 16th in both national Top 25 polls, probably an inflated standing, given the Bulldogs' partial roster. They lost their season opener to then-No. 5 Texas, thanks to a starting lineup that was only three-fifths intact.
Two more losses in the next three games caused Georgia to drop from the polls and, in essence, the national college basketball radar. Wins in December over Colorado (current RPI of 69) and California (RPI of 38) went virtually unnoticed as the Bulldogs failed to get even a single vote in the Dec. 16 AP poll.
Their current 8-game winning streak, the past two of which were over Top 25 teams, has boosted the Dogs back into those polls for the first time since November 25.

TV, TV and more TV
Never before has Georgia been slated for more television appearances than in 2002-03. Today's game is the 12th television appearance in 13 games thus far.
How ironic that, in this season of almost total TV coverage, the year's most dramatic moment went almost unnoticed because of a lack thereof. No broadcast-quality footage exists of Jonas Hayes' game-winning shot against Colorado on Dec. 3.
All but four of the Bulldogs' 27 games are being carried by some TV entity, including seven times with national coverage: three times each on CBS and ESPN and another on ESPN2. Through a new agreement with the UGA Athletic Association, Comcast Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) carried four of Georgia's non-conference home games: Belmont, South Alabama, Appalachian State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
What a difference a year makes! Before the postseason, the 2002 team played just twice on national TV and only 14 times overall. It also went four straight games in the middle of the SEC schedule between TV appearances.

Schedule Difficulty A UGA Trademark
Since coming to Athens, Georgia coach Jim Harrick has developed a knack for putting together a rigorous pre-conference schedule. The past two schedules have ranked in the nation's tp 10 in degree of difficulty. The 2001 slate, in fact, rated #1 nationally and was the biggest reason Georgia was invited to the NCAA Tournament with only a 16-14 record.
This season is no different. The Dogs' schedule currently ranks 3rd in the latest CollegeRPI listings. That number is sure to rise as the Bulldogs march through the 16-game SEC slate. The Pittsburgh game last Tuesday marked Georgia's second Top-Five opponent of the season; then-No. 5 Texas was the other in the season opener.

Hayes Named to SEC "Good Works" Team
Georgia junior Jonas Hayes has been selected to represent the Bulldogs on the 2003 SEC "Good Works" team. This squad, which includes one player from every league member, is chosen to showcase players that contribute their time to acts of community service.
During the Christmas holidays, Hayes visited Fourth Street Elementary School in Athens and entertained kindergarten students as Santa Claus. He's also been a volunteer for the Toys for Tots program; the Northeast Georgia Food Bank; the Athens Boys & Girls Club; and a participant in the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches Reading Program.
Hayes will be featured in the JP Sports telecasts of SEC games during the week of Jan. 22-25.

Signing Period Nets Fivesome
In the early national signing period, Georgia basketball coach Jim Harrick signed the following high school seniors to national letters-of-intent: Mohamed Abukar of Escondido, Calif.; Corey Gibbs of Lithonia, Ga., and Jordan Howell of Madison, Ala.
In addition, he also added junior-college players Marcus Jackson, a 6-9 forward from Peoria, Ill.; and Cassiano Matheus, a 6-10 forward from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Both players currently attend South Plains College in Levelland, Texas.
The 6-9, 200-pound Abukar has just begun his final season at Rancho Bernardo High School. As a junior there last season, he averaged 20.3 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists, shooting 48 percent overall and 41 percent from 3-point range.
Last summer Abukar was the youngest member of the U.S. team at the World Junior Championships Qualifying Tournament in Venezuela.
Abukar, who made his official visit to Athens in the off-season, got an early in-person glimpse of his future teammates. He watched Georgia's win over California at the Pond in Anaheim on Dec. 7.

Short Shots... > In the most recent NCAA statistics, Georgia leads the nation in assists at 20.3/game. No Bulldog team has ever claimed a statistical national championship in any category.
> In those same NCAA stats, the Bulldogs also rank 14th in scoring (83.2 ppg) and 9th in 3-point percentage (.424). Ezra Williams ranks 20th among individuals in 3-point percentage.
> Georgia currently leads the SEC in assist/turnover ratio at +1.55/1. That mark is a significant improvement from last season, when the Bulldogs ranked 3rd in the league at +1.08 assists per turnover.
> Georgia also leads the SEC in 3-point shooting and is its only school making over 40 percent from behind the arc. In the 17-plus years of the 3-point goal in college basketball, Georgia has led the SEC in shooting the trey just once: 1990.
> Five times in their 1 1/2 seasons together have Jarvis Hayes and Ezra Williams hit for 20 or more points apiece in the same game. Last Sunday's win over LSU marked the most recent occurrence. Georgia is 5-0 in those games: 43 pts (EW 22/JH 21) vs. Ga. Tech in O02 50 (JH 30/EW 20) vs. Kentucky in O02 43 (EW 23/JH 20) vs. Cal in O03 50 (JH 29/EW 21) vs. Gonzaga in O03 45 (EW 25/JH 20) vs. LSU in O03 > When Ezra Williams won SEC Player-of-the-Week honors this week, it marked the fourth time of his career he's won it. In doing so, he became Georgia's career leader in that honor, passing Alec Kessler, who thrice won the award during the 1990-91 seasons.
> What's the biggest difference in Georgia with Steve Thomas, compared to the seven games without him? The Bulldogs seem to be much better defenders with him. The past five opponents have shot 41.0 percent, compared to 45.1 percent by the first seven teams. Georgia has gotten over half (34) of its 60 total blocked shots in its last four games, an average of 6.8 per game.
Georgia has also outrebounded its last five opponents by an average margin of +11.0 (42-31).
> Sophomore guard Mike Dean, who had appeared in the first six games, was given a release from his grant-in-aid on Dec. 10 by head coach Jim Harrick. Dean had averaged 2.8 points in 10.3 minutes thus far this season. His exodus leaves Georgia with just nine players on scholarship
> In the win over Appy State, guard Rashad Wright joined a list of 10 players in UGA history to have amassed 500 points and 300 assists in their careers. Litterial Green leads this list with 2,111 points and 466 assists, both school records. Wright has a chance to surpass Green's assist total, with 1 1/2 more solid sesaons.
> Jim Harrick described the game-winning 3-pointer made by Jonas Hayes against Colorado on Dec. 3 as "the luckiest shot I've ever seen in all my years of coaching." Perhaps it was, for how often does a player kiss in a 30-footer at the buzzer? Especially a player who had never before attempted a 3-pointer in a game! Hayes deserves high praise, however, for the presence of mind he displayed in flagging down his brother's errant pass that seemed headed out of bounds.
> Georgia's annual allotment of student season tickets sold out this season for the first time EVER. "Harrick's Hounds," the exclusive club of die-hard student fans, had its membership top out at 1,700 this season, with several hundred turned away on Registration Day...
> The Bulldogs have added four walk-ons through open tryouts in mid-October. They are Jay and Nick McAuley, freshmen from Marietta (Pope HS); Daniel Laird, a freshman from Dalton (Dalton HS); and Michael Bucklin, another freshman from Marietta's Pope High School. Jay McAuley was the only one to make the travel squad and will remain as a backup point guard...

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