Georgia Hosts Florida in Pivotal SEC Matchup

Jan. 24, 2011

#24 Florida Gators (15-4, 4-1) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (14-4, 3-2)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - Tipoff Time: 7:02 p.m. (EST)
Stegeman Coliseum - Athens, Ga.

TELEVISION
Live national cable telecast on the ESPN (Brad Nessler, Jimmy Dykes, Shannon Spake).
GEORGIA RADIO
Georgia Bulldog Radio Network presented by IMG College: Scott Howard (Play-by-Play), Mark Slonaker (Color); Local station: In Atlanta: WSRV-FM 97.1. In Athens: WRFC (960 AM). Note Atlanta station change due to WSB airing Presidental State of the Union address.
SATELLITE RADIO
The majority of Georgia basketball games in 2010-11 can be heard on SiriusXM Radio. Tonight's game will be on XM Channel 141. SEC programming info
ON THE INTERNET
Live Video: ESPN3 Live Audio: http://www.georgiadogs.com/allaccess Online radio broadcasts of Georgia games can be found on the Georgiadogs GTV web site (subscription required). GameTracker - Live stats updated throughout the game.

Gerald Robinson

Florida at Georgia

Georgia wraps up a 3-game homestand Tuesday night when it entertains Florida in the two teams' first encounter of the 2011 season. The Bulldogs enter this game with a 14-4 overall record, 3-2 in SEC play and a game behind the Gators in the early East Division standings.
Most recently, Georgia defeated Mississippi State 86-64 on Saturday in a game highlighted by dominant rebounding (48-23) and season-best 3-point shooting (57.9%) by the host Bulldogs. Indeed, it's been 21 years since Georgia amassed a +25 rebounding ledger against an SEC team, going back to a 1990 win over Kentucky (53-25 rebs.). The win was Georgia's 14th for the season, equaling the Bulldogs' victory total in all of 2010. The game also marked Georgia's third consecutive sellout for the first time since 2007.
Florida leads the overall series between these two programs 103-98, largely on the strength of its recent success. Gator teams have won 12 of the past 14 meetings. The two Georgia victories, however, came in the past two seasons, most recently a 78-76 win on Feb. 27, 2010 in Athens.
Georgia remains within the Eastern Division this Saturday when the Bulldogs complete their regular-season series with Kentucky. They opened the SEC schedule with a 77-70 victory over the Wildcats in Athens.

Probable Starters

GEORGIA BULLDOGS
No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	Hometown	PPG	RPG
F	1	Travis Leslie	6-4	205	Jr.	Decatur, Ga.	13.8	7.6
F	33	Trey Thompkins	6-10	245	Jr.	Lithonia, Ga.	17.4	7.1
F	50	Jeremy Price	6-8	270	Sr.	Decatur, Ga.	9.0	4.6
G	3	Dustin Ware	5-11	182	Jr.	Powder Springs, Ga.	7.0	3.4#
G	22	Gerald Robinson Jr.	6-1	180	Jr.	Nashville, Tenn.	12.6	4.7#

#Assists Per Game

Head Coach: Mark Fox
Record at Georgia / Years: 27-20 / 2nd season
Overall Record/Years: 150-63 / 7th season
Assistant Coaches: Kwanza Johnson, Philip Pearson, Stacey Palmore

FLORIDA GATORS
Pos.	No.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	Hometown	PPG	RPG
F	25	Chandler Parsons	6-9	218	Sr.	Casselberry, Fla.	10.0	6.9
F	23	Alex Tyus	6-8	220	Sr.	St. Louis, Mo.	9.6	5.0
C	32	Vernon Macklin	6-10	240	Sr.	Portsmouth, Va.	10.8	6.2
G	1	Kenny Boynton	6-2	183	So.	Pompano Bch, Fla.	12.8	2.7#
G	11	Erving Walker	5-8	171	Jr.	Brooklyn, N.Y.	13.7	3.2#

#Assists Per Game

Head Coach: Billy Donovan
Record at UF / Years: 346-143 / 15th season
Overall Record / Years: 381-163 / 17th season
Assistant Coaches: Larry Shyatt (Assoc. HC), Rob Lanier, Richard Pitino

Georgia vs. Florida

Tuesday's game is the 202nd 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 103-98* count.
Florida is the most frequent opponent in the history of basketball at UGA.
Florida has gained the advantage in the series by winning 12 of the past 14 meetings. Over the past 18 seasons, Georgia has only a 7-11 record against Florida at home.
Geographically speaking, the series can be broken down as such:
In Athens: UGA leads 60-35
In Gainesville: Florida leads 59-33
Neutral Court Games: Florida leads 9-4
SEC Tourney Games: Florida leads 3-1
Noteworthy...
Of RPIs and such...Georgia's own RPI rating has varied widely as the season has progressed. It began in the mid-100s and has reached as high as the 30s before the current position of 42. The Bulldogs' strength-of-schedule rating has risen dramatically now that the SEC season has begun. It had dipped to the high 100s before January.
The average RPI of the 14 teams that Georgia has beaten: 176 [high of 14 (Kentucky) and low of 307 (Manhattan)]. The average RPI of the four teams that have beaten the Bulldogs: 21 [high of 10 (Notre Dame) and low of 37 (Temple)].
This year's Bulldogs also became just the third Georgia squad in 30 years to go undefeated in the month of December. The other two? Perhaps the two best teams in UGA history: 1982-83 and 2002-03.
In a season rife with non-conference upsets among SEC teams, Georgia somehow survived the bulk of its non-league slate unscathed. Before its loss at Vandy two ago, Georgia had the league's longest running win streak at nine games. It was the longest for a UGA team in almost 30 years, reaching back to the 1982-83 season, which ended with a trip to the NCAA Final Four.
Lest we not forget, the beginning of the SEC schedule for Georgia does not mean the end of its non-conference slate. The Bulldogs, for the first time in four years, will fill the "bye" date in its league schedule by playing a non-league opponent. This year, they'll play host to A10 foe Xavier on Tuesday, Feb. 8. The Musketeers have played home-and-home series recently against Auburn, Florida, LSU, Tennessee and now Georgia.
Last season, 13 of Georgia's 31 games were considered "close" by the following definition: 2-possession game inside the final minute of play. The Bulldogs were 5-8 in those games. This season, 11 of Georgia's 18 games thus far fit that definition, including the first eight, and the Bulldogs are 8-3 in those contests. Only the Arkansas State, High Point, Charleston Southern, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Miss. State games did NOT follow that theme.
Last week's loss at home to Tennessee, such a difficult pill for Georgia to swallow, can be viewed from the following perspective. Seven of Georgia's games thus far have been decided on the final possession. The Tennessee game was the first one to NOT go Georgia's way.
One by-product of so many close games is a starting five that has been heavily taxed through the pre-conference schedule. Until recently, Georgia had been the SEC's only team that had four starters averaging over 30 minutes per game. Mississippi State has become the 2nd team with such a status.
Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie have become two of the most prolific rebounders of recent UGA vintage. Not before two weeks ago, however, had they pulled down double-figure boards in the same contest. Each had 13 rebounds against Vanderbilt. In just 2 1/2 seasons, Thompkins now ranks 16th on the school's career rebounding list with 570 boards.
Tonight's game features the two SEC teams that have enjoyed the most success on the road this season. This year's Georgia team has already won more true road games (4) than Georgia had won in the previous three seasons combined.
The 2010 Bulldogs' road struggles appear to be an anomaly among teams coached by Mark Fox. In his 6+ years as a head coach, his teams have won an impressive 60 percent of their road games (50-33), and that mark includes last year's 0-11 record.
Georgia is on track to have a positive Assist / Turnover Ratio for the first time since 2003. Leading the way is junior Dustin Ware, who ranks 2nd among all NCAA Division I players in this category in the most recent national rankings. Ware is second on the team with 70 assists and has committed just 17 turnovers this season, none in the past two weeks.
That Ware has such a positive ratio should come as no surprise. He had a positive ratio in each of his first two seasons at Georgia, both spent as the Bulldogs' primary ballhandler, sometimes as their only ballhandler. The presence of Gerald Robinson this season has no doubt aided Ware in his compiling such a gaudy +4.11/1 ratio.
The snow and ice that crippled the Southeast in mid-January also caused Georgia to improvise most of its travel during a 2-game road swing. First, the Bulldogs bused to Nashville on Jan. 11 because no plane could land in Athens. After their game at Vandy, they were stranded for two extra days because a plane still could not land in Athens. By the time they bused to Oxford on Friday, all systems were go on a return flight home. Distance traveled by bus: approx. 550 miles.
Georgia's rebounding dominance over Miss. State was virtually without precedence. One must reach back to the 1990 SEC Championship season to find the last time a Bulldog team enjoyed comparable margin on the boards. That year, the Bulldogs compiled a 53-25 margin in a home win over Kentucky.
And not since rebounding stats were broken into offensive & defensive categories (mid-1980s) has a Georgia opponent ever pulled down just two offensive rebounds, as Miss. State did on Saturday.
Gerald Robinson was a 76 percent free-throw shooter in two seasons at Tennessee State. Through 13 pre-SEC games, he was shooting a head-scratching 52 percent. He seems to have righted his own ship, having confidently stroked 23 of 24 foul shots in five league contests.

Thompkins Reaches 1,000
Late in the Arkansas State game on Dec. 18, junior Trey Thompkins became the 40th player in UGA history to reach 1,000 for his career. The most recent Bulldog to reach that milestone was Terrance Woodbury in 2009. Already, Thompkins has climbed over 14 people on Georgia's career scoring chart with 1,164 points. Most recently, he passed G.G. Smith (1996-99) nine days ago in the Ole Miss game.
Robinson a Difference Maker
Last season head coach Mark Fox noted that Gerald Robinson, who sat out the 2010 year after transferring from Tennessee State, would have tilted the balance in Georgia's favor in several of its close games. Through December this season, Robinson has delivered clutch plays that directly resulted in three Bulldog victories:

11/20 at St. Louis: Robinson drove the lane, drew three defenders and, in heavy traffic, fed Jeremy Price for a game-winning layup with :01 left.

12/2 vs. UAB: Robinson scored four points and had a key rebound in the final 14 seconds of perhaps the Bulldogs' best win of the season thus far.

12/7 at Georgia Tech: Robinson scored a key basket and assisted Dustin Ware on the biggest bucket of the game, a 3-pointer that broke a 70-all tie with 18 seconds left.

University of Georgia Athletics

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