Bulldogs Travel to Florida

Georgia (9-8, 1-3) vs. Florida (14-5, 3-2)
Date / Time	Wednesday, January 27 at 7:00 p.m. EST
Location	O'Connell Center \| Gainesville, Fla.
Television	Comcast Sports Southeast (Dave Baker and Bill Koss)
Radio	Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network (Atlanta: 750AM, Athens: 100.1 FM & 960 AM) NOTE: Atlanta radio change due to Presidential State of the Union Address
Internet	Live audio on GXtra (subscription required)

Click here to download the complete game notes (.pdf)

Georgia vs. Florida

Wednesday’s game is the 200th all-time meeting between Georgia and Florida in basketball. Florida leads the series -- which began in 1924 and has been renewed annually since 1945 -- by a 102-97 count.

Florida is the most frequent opponent in the history of basketball at UGA.

Florida has gained the advantage in the series by winning 11 of the past 12 meetings.

Over the past 17 seasons, Georgia has only a 6-11 record against Florida at home. Oddly, it has won just one fewer game in Gainesville (5) as in Athens during that time frame. A geographical breakdown of the series follows:

Games in Athens: UGA leads 60-35
Games in Gainesville: UF leads 58-33
Neutral-Court Games: UF leads 9-4
SEC Tournament Games: UF leads 3-1

Series totals do not reflect two UGA wins from 2002-03, vacated because of NCAA sanctions.

About The Game...

Georgia hits the road for a pair of contests against SEC East opponents Florida and South Carolina this week. The Bulldogs arrive at the Florida game with a 9-8 overall record, 1-3 in SEC play, after picking up their first league victory last Saturday, a 78-63 decision over #8 Tennessee in Athens. It marked Georgia’s first win over a Top 10 team in nearly six years, going back to a Feb. 14, 2004 win over then-No. 8 Kentucky.

The spoils of that win over Tennessee include the naming of sophomore Travis Leslie as the SEC’s current Player of the Week. Leslie scored 19 points and, just as important, added nine rebounds, seven assists and four crowd-stirring slam dunks.

Though the Bulldogs are just 1-3 in SEC play, they have led all four contests into the final five minutes of play. Also in those four games, Georgia has averaged 5.5 more points (72.8) than its overall scoring average (67.3). The 2001 UGA team were the last Bulldogs to actually improve their scoring average during SEC play.

The Bulldogs are in the midst of the most difficult portion of their entire 2010 schedule. Since the calendar turned to January, they’ve begun a month-long stretch of eight games whose opponents have a combined W/L record of 118-34 (.776) and an average RPI of 41.

Noteworthy...

There are currently 11 sophomores among the SEC’s top 30 scorers. Of those 11, only Storm Warren of LSU has upped his freshman-year scoring average greater than Travis Leslie. The top five sophs in this regard include:

	2010	2009	Incr.
Storm Warren, LSU	13.5	2.0	+11.5
Travis Leslie, UGA	13.9	6.3	+7.6
Frankie Sullivan, AU	13.8	7.6	+6.2
Rotnei Clarke, Ark.	18.0	12.2	+5.8
JaMychal Green, Ala.	15.2	10.3	+4.9

...A couple of trends perhaps through the Bulldogs’ first four SEC games: 1) Georgia has outrebounded all four opponents, so much that the Bulldogs lead the league in rebounding margin in those games. 2) Despite league-high turnovers, Georgia is improving its offensive performance as the season progresses. The Dogs’ per-game scoring average through four SEC games (72.8 ppg) is actually 5.5 points higher than their overall average. That’s a rarity indeed; not since 2001 has a Georgia team’s final SEC-games average been higher than its final overall scoring average.

The Tennessee game marked the first time in four SEC games that a Georgia sub logged at least 20 minutes. Previously, the first unit had logged almost 80 percent of the Bulldogs’ minutes and scored 180 of their 213 points. Four of those five starters (Thompkins, Leslie, Ware and McPhee) established career highs in minutes during the preceding four games, including the Georgia Tech contest.

A couple of other stats that merit a mention: this year’s Georgia team averages nearly eight fewer 3-point attempts than in 2009. The 2010 Georgia team, however, averages 22 foul shots per contest, compared to just over 17 per game last season. Not only are these Bulldogs more frequent foul shooters, but they’re also more accurate: 72 percent compared to 64 percent a year ago.

It was a big December for Trey Thompkins, who was named the SEC Player of the Week on Dec. 21, thanks to his outstanding play in the Bulldogs’ win over Illinois. He became the first Bulldog since Sundiata Gaines, who did it in February of 2008, to win the P-O-W award.

Earlier in the month, the USA Men’s U19 Team, in recognition of its gold-medal performance at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship, was named as the 2009 USA Basketball Team of the Year. Led by Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon, the American squad compiled a perfect 9-0 record July 2-12 in Auckland, New Zealand, ending an 18-year gold-medal drought for USA Basketball in the U19 Worlds.

Thompkins ranked second on the U.S. team in scoring at 10.6 points per game and third among all Americans in rebounding at 5.0 per game. He had the Yanks’ highest single-game scoring output with 22 points in a fourth-round win over Greece.

Thompkins has also become Georgia’s top career scorer among all current Bulldogs. He enters the Miss. State game with 603 points. This, of course, excludes the impressive numbers compiled at Tennessee State by junior transfer Gerald Robinson, Jr., who scored 1,021 points in the past two seasons for the Tigers. Robinson is sitting out the 2010 season in compliance with NCAA rules regarding transfers.

Georgia Probable Starters
No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	PPG	RPG
1	Travis Leslie	F	6-4	202	So.	13.9	6.5
33	Trey Thompkins	F	6-10	247	So.	16.9	8.1
34	Albert Jackson	C	6-11	265	Sr.	3.8	4.1
10	Ricky McPhee	G	6-1	184	Sr.	9.8	2.2
3	Dustin Ware	G	5-11	182	So.	8.1	2.9#
Head Coach: Mark Fox Record at Georgia / Years: 9-8 / 1st season Overall Record/Years: 132-51 / 6th season Assistant Coaches: Kwanza Johnson (Tulsa '95), Philip Pearson (Alabama '93), Stacey Palmore (Livingstone '93)

Florida's Probable Starters
No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	PPG	RPG
25	Chandler Parsons	F	6-9	218	Jr.	10.7	6.6
23	Alex Tyus	F	6-8	220	Jr.	11.9	7.1
32	Vernon Macklin	C	6-10	240	Jr.	9.8	5.2
1	Kenny Boynton	G	6-2	183	Fr.	14.6	3.2#
11	Erving Walker	G	5-8	171	So.	12.8	5.1#
Head Coach: Billy Donovan Record at Florida / Years: 324-131 / 14th season Overall Record/Years: 359-151 / 16th season Assistant Coaches: Larry Shyatt (Assoc. Head Coach), Rob Lanier, Richard Pitino

#Assists per game

University of Georgia Athletics

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