University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Opens SEC Slate Against Arkansas
January 05, 2015 | Men's Basketball
| A preview of the men's basketball game against Arkansas as the Bulldogs get set to start SEC play. | |||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||
|
|
|  |
About the Game
- Georgia tips off its 2015 Southeastern Conference schedule with a Tuesday night contest at home against Arkansas. It will be the only regular-season meeting between these two programs.
- Most recently, the Bulldogs wrapped up their pre-conference slate with a 63-50 win at home over Norfolk State three days ago. J.J. Frazier come off the bench to spark Georgia's offensive effort with a career-high 20 points, thanks mostly to 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. Charles Mann added the second double-double of his career (10 pts./10 rebs.).
- The Norfolk State victory was Georgia's sixth in a row, a string that includes a pair of true road wins. The six consecutive wins marks the program's longest since a 9-game streak in the 2011 season that also spanned two road contests, as well as the SEC opener. Georgia current 9-3 pre-conference record is also the program's best since the 2011 season (11-2 in pre-SEC games). That squad finished with a 21-12 overall record and earned a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
- Today's game is the 33rd all-time meeting between Georgia and Arkansas, which leads the series by an 18-14 ledger. These two programs split a pair of regular-season games last season, with the home team winning both times: 66-61 by UGA in overtime on 1/18/14 and 87-75 by Arkansas on 3/1/14 in Fayetteville. Both teams eventually reached the post-season NIT second round.
- The Bulldogs' first week of the SEC schedule should give them an accurate indication of their own standing. Both Arkansas and LSU occupy the highest RPI numbers, among league members, outside of No. 1 Kentucky and Georgia itself.
Probable Starters
| GEORGIA BULLDOGS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Cl. | Hometown | PPG | RPG |
| F | 42 | Nemanja Djurisic*** | 6-8 | 230 | Sr. | Podgorica, Montenegro | 10.9 | 5.4 |
| F | 2 | Marcus Thornton*** | 6-8 | 235 | Sr. | Atlanta, Ga. | 13.7 | 7.2 |
| G | 4 | Charles Mann** | 6-5 | 210 | Jr. | Alpharetta, Ga. | 12.7 | 3.8a |
| G | 3 | Juwan Parker* | 6-4 | 200 | So. | Tulsa, Okla. | 5.8 | 4.3 |
| G | 12 | Kenny Gaines | 6-3 | 195 | Jr. | Atlanta, Ga. | 11.3 | 3.2 |
#Assists Per Game
Head Coach: Mark Fox
Record at Georgia / Years: 94-80 / 6th season
Overall Record/Years: 217-123 / 11th season
Assistant Coaches: Philip Pearson, Jonas Hayes, Yasir Rosemond
| ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Cl. | Hometown | PPG | RPG | |
| F | 22 | Jacorey Williams | 6-8 | 215 | Jr. | Birmingham, Ala. | 7.0 | 3.5 | 1.8 |
| F | 10 | Bobby Portis | 6-11 | 242 | So. | Little Rock, Ark. | 16.8 | 7.8 | 0.8 |
| G | 24 | Michael Qualls | 6-6 | 205 | Jr. | Shreveport, La. | 15.4 | 5.2 | 1.8 |
| G | 5 | Anthlon Bell | 6-3 | 185 | Jr. | Memphis, Tenn. | 9.7 | 1.8 | 1.6 |
| G | 4 | Jabril Durham | 6-1 | 185 | Jr. | DeSoto, Texas | 2.8 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
Head Coach: Mike Anderson
Record at Arkansas / Years: 69-41 / 4th season
Overall Record / Years: 269-139 / 13th season
Assistant Coaches: Melvin Watkins (Assoc. HC), TJ Cleveland, Matt Zimmerman
Georgia vs. Arkansas
Tuesday's game is the 33rd all-time meeting between Georgia and Arkansas in basketball. Arkansas holds an 18-14 lead in the series. These two schools had never met before 1992, when the SEC expanded and was pared into Eastern and Western Divisions.
Eight of Georgia's wins in this series have come in Athens (1992-96-98-02-04-08-12-14). Three have come in Fayetteville (2003-07-11). The other three took place during SEC Tournament play on neutral courts: 1997 in Memphis, 2008 in the SEC Tournament Championship game in Atlanta, and 2010 in Nashville, Tenn.
A geographical breakdown of the series follows:
Games in Athens: UGA leads 8-4
Games in Fayetteville: Arkansas leads 8-3
SEC Tournament Games: Arkansas leads 6-3
Fox, Bulldog Hotline Live at Gridhouse Monday Night
Let Coach Mark Fox buy your burger Monday night! "Bulldog Hotline" is live and on-location tonight from 8:00-9:00 p.m. at Grindhouse here in Athens, and Coach Fox will be buying!
Be one of the first 100 fans to show up between 7:30-9:00 p.m. and your burger is on the house. Great basketball talk, great burgers, and Georgia Athletics picks up part of your check!
Plus, 500 Commit to the G Student Rewards points for students that attend!
Noteworthy Thus Far
Sophomore guard J.J. Frazier has emerged this season as one of the Bulldogs' most indispensible players. This, after a fairly inconspicuous freshman year in 2014. His 17 minutes-per-game jump from last season is the largest among returnees on the current squad. Frazier has established career highs in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and minutes in Georgia's five most recent games, highlighted by a 20-point effort last Saturday vs. Norfolk State.
It was in the 1st game vs. Arkansas last season that Frazier first made a name for himself. After scarcely playing in the Bulldogs' first two SEC games, he logged 17 minutes against the Razorbacks and ignited a second-half rally in relief of a foul-saddled Charles Mann.
Four-fifths of Georgia's starting unit comprise one of the most experienced groups in the SEC. The seniors (Thornton & Djurisic) and juniors (Mann & Gaines) enter Tuesday's game with a combined 485 career games played, 201 starts and nearly 8500 minutes played.
Kenny Gaines was perhaps Georgia's best player during the SEC schedule in 2014. He led the Bulldogs in scoring in those 18 games (14.8 ppg) and was the league's top 3-point shooter (45.1%). The 2015 season thus far, however, has been an upstream swim for the junior from Atlanta. He missed all but four days of the pre-season period because of illness. He then sprained his right shoulder while diving for a loose ball Dec. 7 against Colorado and was inactive for another 10 days. Despite his health issues, Gaines has managed to be Georgia's third-leading scorer.
Fifth-year senior Marcus Thornton is currently playing career-best basketball. Three times already this season -- most recently Dec. 2 at Chattanooga -- he's established a new career scoring high. His 24 points against the Mocs marked his first collegiate game over the 20-point threshold. This season,Thornton has now scored 27 percent of his career total points in just 12 games. Additionally, he's also picked up three of his six career double-doubles this season. Thornton received a medical redshirt year in 2012-13 after a knee injury in the season's ninth game sidelined him.
Georgia's current official RPI of 20 represents rarified air for a Bulldog squad. Not only is it helped by a pair of road wins, but it's also gotten recent boosts from teams that the Bulldogs have beaten, namely Stony Brook, which won at Washington in December, and Seton Hall, which opened Big East play with wins over St. John's and Villanova.
Among the highlights of Georgia's current 6-game winning streak are the following numbers: scoring margin of 13.7 points (69 to 55.3); own FG percentage of 45.6%; opponents' FG percentage of 32.9%; opponents' 3-point FG pct. of 22.9% and a +4.5 rebounding margin...Thus far, Georgia has continued one of its trademarks from last season: getting to the FT line. The Bulldogs have attempted more free throws (324) than any other SEC team, despite 10 of the league's 14 teams having played one more game than Georgia...The win at Kansas State last week showed Georgia's rotation coming into sharper focus. Against K-State, just eight Bulldogs saw the court, the smallest number to date this season...The 12 points scored by K-State in the first half (UGA led 20-12 at halftime) were the second fewest in a half in its history. K-State had four more turnovers than points by halftime...Georgia's 3OT win over Mercer on Dec. 27 was the longest game in Stegeman Coliseum history (building opened in 1964) and the program's first 3OT game since December of 1990...Georgia's season-high 63.3 percent shooting in its win at Chattanooga was the second-highest percentage by a UGA team in the Mark Fox era, and the fourth time a Fox-coached Bulldog squad has reached the 60 percent mark... Georgia's win at Chattanooga on Dec. 2 represented the program's largest victory margin in a road game since Hugh Durham's final UGA squad won at Central Florida 83-52 on Dec. 8, 1994.
About the Schedule...
Highlights of Georgia's 2014-15 schedule include:
- A season-opening renewal of the Bulldogs' annual rivalry with Georgia Tech. Their Nov. 14 date in Atlanta, in fact, is the earliest meeting ever the two schools, who have played each other a total of 189 times.
- Participation in the NIT Season Tip-Off, which guarantees that the Bulldogs will face perennial power Gonzaga and another top-flight opponent in New York in late November.
- The return to Athens of traditional SEC foes Kentucky, Florida and Tennessee. In a rare quirk of scheduling, none of these three visited Athens last season, the first time it had happened since 1944.
- Regular-season series against SEC opponents Auburn, Kentucky, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
- Four non-conference games against teams which played in the NCAA Tournament last season.
- Additional opponents that played post-season games last season include Kentucky (NCAA), Florida (NCAA), Tennessee (NCAA), LSU (NIT), Arkansas (NIT), Missouri (NIT), St. John's (NIT), Minnesota (NIT Champion), Stony Brook (CBI), Texas A&M (CBI), UTC (CollegeInsider) and Norfolk State (CollegeInsider).
- Among the conferences represented in Georgia's non-conference schedule include:
> ACC (Ga. Tech)
> Big Ten (Minnesota)
> Pac-12 (Colorado)
> Big 12 (Kansas State)
> Big East (St. John's, Seton Hall)
> America East (Stony Brook)
> West Coast (Gonzaga)
- When Georgia played at Kansas State on New Year's Eve afternoon, it was a red-letter date for head coach Mark Fox. The Garden City, Kan., native returned to home territory, back to a school where he worked as a young assistant 20 years ago. Fox served seven seasons (1994-2000) under Tom Asbury on the Wildcats coaching staff.
The Dec. 31 game was also Georgia's first-ever trip to Manhattan. The two teams will return the game in Athens next season at a date to be determined.
The NIT Season Tipoff -- created in 1985 as the Big Apple Pre-Season NIT -- will get underway with on-campus games in mid-November. Georgia will play host to Stony Brook on Nov. 18 in its only campus game before heading to New York for games on Nov. 26-28.
This will be the Bulldogs' fourth all-time appearance in the early-season tournament. Their previous three times came in 10-year increments: 1988, 1998 and 2008. Georgia never advanced to New York among the final four teams, when teams reached NYC by winning preliminary rounds.
When Georgia plays Gonzaga on Nov. 26 in New York, it will mark the program's eighth trip to the metro area for competition. Bulldog teams have played six previous games in Madison Square Garden:
vs. NYU on Dec. 20, 1948
vs. Purdue on Mar. 22, 1982
vs. Penn State on Mar. 24, 1998
vs. Fresno State on Mar. 26, 1998
vs. Texas on Nov. 15, 2002
vs. St. John's on Dec. 9, 2009
Georgia has made the post-season NIT Final Four twice: in 1982 (lost to Purdue) and again in 1998 (lost to Penn State before defeating Fresno State in the long since defunct consolation game).
Georgia has also played games in 1997 at the Izod Center (known then as Continental Airlines arena) in East Rutherford, N.J., and also at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.
Mann Named Coaches' All-SEC
No question that junior guard Charles Mann has earned the favor of all 14 SEC head basketball coaches. For the third straight year, he has received some kind of all-star recognition from this group.
As the season commences, Mann was named to the 9-man Coaches' Pre-Season All-SEC First Team. This group also named him in 2013 to its SEC All-Freshman team, and last year the coaches annointed him to their post-season All-SEC second team.
Mann led Georgia in scoring, assists, steals and minutes played last season. He also ranked among the top 20 nationally in free throws made and attempted.
The 9-man Coaches All-SEC team follows:
> Mann
> Dorian Finney-Smith, Florida
> Michael Frazier II, Florida
> Aaron Harrison, Kentucky
> Andrew Harrison, Kentucky
> Damian Jones, Vanderbilt
> Jordan Mickey, LSU
> Bobby Portis, Arkansas
> Jarvis Summers, Ole Miss
Landmarks to Look for in 2015
With veterans playing key roles for the Bulldogs in 2015, it's nearing time for several to approach individual landmarks in their respective careers.
Leading active career scorers:
Nemi Djurisic: 891 points (110 games)
Charles Mann: 825 points (77 games)
Kenny Gaines: 663 points (74 games)
Leading active career rebounders:
Marcus Thornton: 524 rebs. (114 games)
Nemi Djurisic: 473 rebs. (110 games)
*Note: UGA's No. 10 career rebounder, Trey Thompkins, has 693 rebounds.
Leading active career assists:
Charles Mann: 234 assists (77 games)
*Note: UGA's No. 10 career assist leader, Donald Hartry, has 355 assists.
*One additional note: if he completes the season in sound health, Marcus Thornton will likely set the UGA career record for most games played. The current mark, owned by G.G. Smith and Michael Chadwick (1995-99) is 129. Thorton began this season having played in 102 games.
Free Throws a Key in 2014
A vital element in Georgia's ability to win 20 games last season was its advantage at the free-throw line. The Bulldogs ranked 17th nationally in FT attempts (941 or 27.7/game) and 30th in FTs made (642 or 18.9/game). Each figure was signficantly better than their opponents' average. They also shattered single-season school records in the respective categories and tied the school single-game record for attempts (50 vs. South Carolina).
Leading the way was point guard Charles Mann, who attempted nearly 30 percent of the team's foul shots, was second in the SEC and 10th nationally in that category.
Big Opportunity for Thornton
Marcus Thornton returns for his senior season, capping a career the started back in the summer of 2010. The Atlanta native was awarded an extra year of eligibility through a medical redshirt after he played in nine games of the 2013 season.
The fifth year has given Thornton an opportunity to join a very short list of UGA basketball alumni: those who have played on at least three Bulldog teams to win 20 games.
Of the hundreds of UGA hoops alums that span the past 110 years, only five can say that they played on three 20-game-winning squads: those that were underclassmen on the 1996 Georgia team. Larry Brown, Michael Chadwick, Ray Harrison, Jon Nordin and G.G. Smith played on three consecutive teams that won at least 20 games. If Georgia is fortunate enough to reach that landmark this season, Thornton would join that list.
Dogs Projected 5th in SEC
by blue ribbon
Georgia which tied for second in the SEC race a season ago, has been projected to finish fifth in 2015, according to Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook, which enjoys a biblical reputation among the world of college hoops. Chattanooga-based writer Chris Dortch edits the Blue Ribbon book each year and covers the SEC material himself.
Here's how the SEC will shake down in 2015, according to Blue Ribbon:
1. Kentucky
2. Florida
3. LSU
4. Arkansas
5. Georgia
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Vanderbilt
9. Missouri
10. Tennessee
11. Auburn
12. Alabama
13. South Carolina
14. Mississippi State
Staff Changes for 2015
For the second consecutive year, head coach Mark Fox has introduced a new member of his full-time assistant coaching staff. This year, Atlanta native Yasir Rosemond joined the staff in May of 2014. He came to Athens after two seasons at Samford in Birmingham, Ala. Rosemond is a 2003 graduate of Oregon and spent five seasons on the Ducks' staff under former head coach Ernie Kent.
Rosemond, like fellow UGA assistant coach Jonas Hayes, is also an alumnus of Douglass High School in Atlanta. He was four years ahead of Hayes and his twin brother Jarvis at the home of the Astros.
Additionally, Matt Bucklin was promoted to Operations Coordinator, after two years as a graduate assistant on the staff. Bucklin, a 2012 UGA graduate and a 4-year letterman, is also the nephew of longtime Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. To replace Bucklin in the graduate assistant's position, Fox promoted 2014 graduate Lainn Wilson, who served as a student manager in the program the previous four years.
Trio of Prospects Sign Early
Georgia signed three high school seniors during the week-long early national signing period, which ended on Wednesday of last week: forward E'Torrion Wilridge of Beaumont, Texas; guard Will "Turtle" Jackson of Athens; and forward Derek Ogbeide of Mableton, Ga.
Wilridge is currently a senior at Central High School in Beaumont. As a junior last year, he led the Jaguars to a 31-5 record and a berth in the semifinal round of the Texas Class 4A state tournament. He averaged 22.3 points, 12.1 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game in 2014.
Jackson, meanwhile, is in his senior year at Athens Christian School, which has played for the Class A Private school state semifinals each of the past three years. In his junior season, he averaged 23.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.7 assists for the Eagles.
Jackson becomes the first UGA signee from Athens since Carlos Strong and Terrell Bell, a pair of Cedar Shoals High School teammates, signed with the Bulldogs as part of the Class of 1992.
Ogbeide, a native Nigerian who is from Toronto, Ont., is a senior this season at Pebblebrook, which went 24-6 in 2014 and reached the Georgia 6A state semifinals. He averaged 8.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.9 blocks as a junior for the Falcons.
