University of Georgia Athletics
Men's Basketball Travels To Arkansas
February 28, 2009 | Men's Basketball
GAME 29
Georgia: 11-17 (2-11)
at Arkansas: 13-13 (1-12)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Fayetteville, Ark.
Tip-off Time: 4:05 p.m. (EST)
TELEVISION
Live regional telecast by Raycom Sports (Dave Baker and Joe Dean, Jr.)
GEORGIA RADIO
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network: Scott Howard (Play-by-Play), Jeff Dantzler (Color)
Local stations: In Atlanta: WSB (750 AM) In Athens: WPUP-FM (100.1 FM) & WRFC (960 AM).
SATELLITE RADIO
The majority of Georgia basketball games in 2008-09 can be heard on XM Satellite Radio. Today’s game will appear on XM Channel 199. For up-to-date SEC programming information, see:
http://www.xmradio.com/schedule/sport/get_ schedule_servlet.jsp'sub_cat_id=187
ON THE INTERNET
Online radio broadcasts of Georgia games can be found on GXtra (subscription required).
Today’s game can also be seen on ESPN360.com by logging onto the following link: http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index?id=290240061
TICKETS
Reserved Seat Tickets: $15. Available online at www.georgiadogs.com and by phone at 1-877-542-1231. Also, at Stegeman Coliseum Ticket Booths 1, 2, 5 on the day of the game, starting 1.5 hours before tipoff. UGA Student Tickets: $2 with UGA ID.
Bulldogs Travel to Arkansas
Georgia makes its biennial trip to play at Arkansas in a Sunday afternoon contest. The Bulldogs arrive at this game with an 11-17 overall record, 2-11 in SEC play.
Most recently, the Bulldogs picked up their second victory of the league schedule, a 61-57 win over Vanderbilt in Athens last Wednesday. Georgia got heroic efforts from unlikely sources, namely walk-on reserve guard Ricky McPhee (14 points, 22 minutes) and freshman Dustin Ware (10 points, 38 minutes), who has taken firm command of the point guard position for the Bulldogs.
Forty-nine Sundays ago, these two programs met for the SEC Tournament championship in Atlanta. Georgia prevailed by a 66-57 margin, earning its first NCAA Tournament berth in six years, but much has changed for both teams since that day. Of the 10 players that started that game, just two return for today’s contest.
Sunday’s game is the 25th all-time meeting between Georgia and Arkansas in basketball. Arkansas holds a 14-10 lead in the series, despite Georgia’s having won the past three meetings. These two schools had never met before 1992.
Sunday’s game concludes the portion of Georgia’s SEC schedule against the Western Division. The Bulldogs will attempt to avoid going winless against the West for the first time since the league expanded and was pared into divisions in 1991-92.
Probable Starting Lineups
GEORGIA BULLDOGS (11-17 overall, 2-11 in SEC games)
Interim Head Coach: Pete Herrmann (2-6 as head coach at Georgia)
Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG
F - 30 Terrance Woodbury 6-7 221 Sr. Virginia Beach, Va. 13.8 4.7
F - 33 Trey Thompkins 6-9 247 Fr. Lithonia, Ga. 12.2 7.1
C - 34 Albert Jackson 6-10 265 Jr. Earlington, Ky. 4.4 3.9
G - 23 Corey Butler 6-3 195 Sr. Decatur, Ga. 6.6 4.0
G - 3 Dustin Ware 5-11 182 Fr. Powder Springs, Ga. 7.0 3.2*
Top Reserves
G - 5 Zac Swansey 6-1 175 So. Dunwoody, Ga. 4.7 3.1*
F/C - 4 Chris Barnes 6-8 240 So. College Park, Ga. 4.0 3.8
ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS (13-13 overall, 1-12 in SEC games)
Head Coach: John Pelphrey (36-25 in second season at Arkansas)
Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG
F - 31 Michael Sanchez 6-8 236 Fr. Springdale, Ark. 5.9 4.8
F - 00 Michael Washington 6-9 239 Jr. McGehee, Ark. 15.8 9.6
G - 4 Courtney Fortson 5-11 180 Fr. Montgomery, Ala. 14.8 6.1*
G - 14 Stefan Welsh 6-3 185 Jr. Newport News, Va. 11.7 3.0
G - 15 Rotnei Clarke 6-0 184 Fr. Verdigris, Okla. 11.5 1.0*
Top Reserves
G/F - 1 Jason Henry 6-6 189 Fr. West Memphis, Ark. 8.3 4.6
G - 12 Marcus Britt 6-3 198 So. Madison, Ark. 3.4 1.8
*Assists Per Game
Georgia vs. Arkansas
Sunday’s game is the 25th all-time meeting between Georgia and Arkansas in basketball. Arkansas holds a 14-10 lead in the series. These two schools had never met before 1992, when the SEC expanded and was pared into Eastern and Western Divisions.
Six of Georgia’s wins in this series have come in Athens (1992-96-98-02-04-08). Two have come in Fayetteville (2003-07). The other two took place during SEC Tournament play on neutral courts: 1997 in Memphis and last season in Atlanta.
In just 17 years, these two teams have played in the SEC Tournament seven times already: They are:
1992 (@B’ham) 60-73 2nd rnd
1993 (@Lexington) 60-65 2nd rnd
1994 (@Memphis) 83-95 2nd rnd
1997 (@Memphis) 65-63 2nd rnd
2000 (@Atlanta) 64-71 1st rnd
2006 (@Nashville) 67-80 1st rnd
2008 (@Atlanta) 66-57 C’ship game
A geographical breakdown of the series:
Games in Athens: UGA leads 6-3
Games in Fayetteville: ARK leads 6-2
Neutral-Court Games: ARK leads 5-2
Georgia Bulldog Minutiae...
Searching for trends as the season reaches the homestretch...in the eight games under Interim Coach Pete Herrmann, several themes for the Bulldogs have taken shape:
> the emergence of freshman Dustin Ware as the Bulldogs’ top point guard. Since Herrmann took over on Jan. 29, Ware has averaged 8.4 points, 4.1 assists and, perhaps most important, 30.1 minutes per game.
> the contributions of reserve guard Ricky McPhee. Since Jan. 29, the walk-on has played in all eight games, had 14 points in the win over Vanderbilt and is shooting 46 percent from 3-point range.
> the diminished roles of Zac Swansey, Jeremy Price and Travis Leslie. Each has seen his minutes virtually halved since Jan. 29: Swansey from 24 minutes to 13; Price from 21 minutes to 11; Leslie from 18 minutes to nine. The Bulldogs defeated Vanderbilt on Wednesday night, using essentially a 7-man rotation.
...Georgia’s 88-86 win over Florida on Feb. 14 ended a few streaks of ignominy, including:
> Longest losing streak (11) since 1975.
> A 5-game losing streak at home, also the longest since 1975.
> An 11-game losing streak to the Gators, the previous 10 of which had come by double digits.
> A 10-game losing streak to the SEC East.
...Trey Thompkins’ 14 rebounds against Alabama on Jan. 31 were the most by a Georgia player since Chris Daniels pulled down 16 boards against South Alabama on Dec. 18, 2003...Thompkins’ total also marked the most rebounds in a game by a UGA freshman since Jumaine Jones had 15 against Penn State in the NIT Final Four in 1998...
...Terrance Woodbury became the 39th player in UGA history to score 1,000 career points in the Ole Miss game. Sundiata Gaines was the last Bulldog to do so.
Still rounding into shape after a high ankle sprain in October, freshman Trey Thompkins has nonetheless managed to emerge as the Bulldogs’ leading offensive threat and their top rebounder. Were he to maintain his team-high pace, Thompkins would be the first UGA freshman to lead the Bulldogs in those two categories since Jumaine Jones in 1998. Thompkins also leads the Bulldogs in blocked shots (21)...
...Thompkins has accrued his impressive numbers while playing catch-up with his teammates. A stress fracture and then a knee sprain kept him inactive through the summer and fall.
...Corey Butler joined the Georgia program through on-campus tryouts in October of 2005. Academic commitments prevented him from joining the team until the following January, after which he played in one minute of one game. Three years (and an athletic scholarship) later, Butler is now the Bulldogs’ only player to have started all 28 games to date.
...Rarely-used walk-on transfer Ricky McPhee has now scored 80 points this season. Fifty of those came in four games, during which he made 12 of 20 tries from 3-point range. Scoring ability was never a shortcoming for McPhee, who pumped in 21 points in his collegiate debut at North Carolina, playing for Gardner-Webb in the 2006 season.
...Georgia’s improbable run to the SEC Tournament championship last March ranked as the 7th most memorable college hoops story of 2008, according to a recent story by Mike Huguenin of Rivals.com. Kansas’ miraculous rally in the NCAA title game ranked No. 1 on Huguenin’s list.
...Georgia ranks 11th in the SEC (and 309th nationally) in free-throw percentage at 61 percent, but it’s not because of Terrance Woodbury or Trey Thompkins, who have made 79 percent of their combined 147 attempts from the line. The 10 other Bulldogs who have tried free throws this season have a combined accuracy rate of 56.5 percent (191x338)...
...Small wonder that the Bulldogs are struggling to produce on offense this season. Only two returning players -- Terrance Woodbury and Albert Jackson -- are filling roles that even remotely resemble those from last season. Senior Corey Butler has doubled his playing time from last season, from 13 to 29 minutes per game. In addition, the rookie trio of Thompkins, Leslie and Ware combine to average over 63 minutes of court time...
...Is there any greater testament to Georgia’s predominant youth than this tidbit? Terrance Woodbury is the Bulldogs’ top career scorer with 1010 points before today’s game. The next highest number is that of Jeremy Price, who has 420 career points before today. Both Zac Swansey (so.) and Corey Butler (sr.) scored their 200th career points Dec. 20 against Wofford.
...A few notes about the schedule & RPIs: > Georgia is 3-12 in games against teams with RPIs of 100 or better: wins vs. Va. Tech, Florida and Vanderbilt; losses vs. Western Ky., Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee (twice), Kentucky, MSU, Florida, LSU, USC and Ole Miss.
> Georgia’s win over Florida on 2/14 caused its RPI to jump more than 20 places, from the 210s to the 190s.
> On Jan. 10, the Bulldogs played their only Top 25 opponent to date (#15 Tennessee).
> Just five of Georgia’s 15 non-conference opponents currently have winning records...
What Georgia Has Replaced in 09
Terrance Woodbury is Georgia’s lone returning double-figure scorer from the 2008 SEC Tournament titlist team. Its leading rebounder coming back is junior Albert Jackson at just 4.3 boards per game.
The 2009 Dogs have just 13 letters earned between them, counting walk-on Ricky McPhee’s two letters at Gardner-Webb. If all 14 players were 4-yr. seniors, there would be 42 letters among them.
The Bulldogs lost just three contributors to their 08 squad, but they loomed significantly in their absence as the season began:
> Sundiata Gaines, Pt. Guard, 14.8 ppg (1st on team), 6.0 rpg (1st on team), 4.2 apg (1st on team). Finished career as the school’s all-time leader in steals and ranks 9th in scoring, 11th in rebounding and 2nd in steals. Currently playing professionally for the Pallacanestro Cantu team in Italy.
> Billy Humphrey, Guard, 12.2 ppg (2nd on team), 37% 3-pt. FG (1st on team), 1.7 apg (2nd on team), 32.3 mpg (2nd on team).
> Dave Bliss, Center, 7.6 ppg (5th on team), 5.6 rpg (2nd on team), 34 blks (1st)
Georgia and the SEC
Following are a few tidbits about Georgia’s history in the SEC:
Georgia’s all-time record in SEC games, covering 75 years, is 469-691 (.407). That ranks 10th of the 12 current SEC members.
Georgia can claim one SEC regular-season championship (1990), one regular-season divisional title (2002) and two SEC Tournament crowns (1983, 2008).
Georgia has had just one Associated Press SEC Player of the Year: Dominique Wilkins in 1981 and no POY, as voted by the league’s coaches since 1987.
Wilkins was the first of four Georgia players to lead the SEC in scoring at season’s end. He averaged a league-best 23.6 points per game in 1981. Others to follow him have been Vern Fleming (19.8 ppg in 1984), Jumaine Jones (18.8 ppg in 1999) and Jarvis Hayes (18.6 ppg in 2002).
Georgia has an all-time SEC Tournament record of 36-46. The 2008 tournament marked the first time since 1997 that Georgia has reached the semifinals, and also the finals.
Since the league expanded and was pared into East and West Divisions in 1992, Georgia has a 124-160 (.435) record. Eight times since 92 Georgia has had a league record of .500 or better (1993, 95, 96, 97, 01,’03, 07).
Since the league’s expansion, Georgia has a 67-111 record (.373) record against the Eastern Division, a 57-50 mark (.533) against SEC Western Division teams. Bulldog teams have had winning records against the West in 12 of 16 years. Georgia’s only undefeated season against the West came in 2003.
In the 16-game SEC schedule format, Georgia’s most wins came in 2003, when it compiled an 11-5 mark. The Bulldogs’ timing, however, left much to be desired. That same year, Kentucky won the East with a perfect 16-0 mark and Florida placed second at 12-4. Georgia’s 11-5 mark would’ve won the West by two games.
Woodbury Tapped 2nd team All-SEC
Senior forward Terrance Woodbury was named to the Coaches’ Pre-Season All-Southeastern Conference 2nd team. The 6-7 swingman was a key figure in Georgia’s run to the SEC Tournament championship last March, averaging 15.8 points over the 4-game weekend, including a career-best 25 points against Ole Miss in the first round.
In other pre-season picks, the Georgia team was predicted to finished 6th in the SEC East by selected media in the league.
Georgia Gets Two Early Signees
In the early national signing period that began Wednesday, Nov. 12 and concluded a week later, Georgia signed a pair of two local prospects:
DeMario Mayfield, Guard, 6-4, 190, Carnesville, Ga. (Franklin County High School) Regarded as a combo guard prospect in the college ranks. Averaged 24.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game last year for Franklin County. Rated the No. 17 point-guard prospect in the nation by espn.com’s recruiting service.
Daniel Miller, Center, 6-11, 240, Loganville, Ga. (Loganville Christian Academy)...Rated the ninth-best prospect at center in the country, according to Rivals.com...Averaged 28.8 points, 12.3 rebounds and 7.0 blocks per game in leading LCA to the 2008 championship of the Independent Christian Schools of Georgia-Alabama (LCSGA). It was LCA’s second straight title.
