University of Georgia Athletics
Men's Basketball Welcomes Auburn to Stegeman on Saturday
February 13, 2015 | Men's Basketball
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About the Game
- Georgia returns home to play its next two games of the SEC schedule. First of those two is a Saturday afternoon contest against Auburn. These two teams will complete a home-and-home series on the final day of the regular season, March 7, at Auburn.
- The Bulldogs arrive at this game with a 16-7 overall record, 7-4 in SEC games. Most recently, Georgia defeated Texas A&M 62-53 in College Station on Wednesday night. It was Georgia's fifth true road victory of the season, third of the SEC schedule and 21st of the Mark Fox era. The win also improved Georgia's perfect series record against A&M to 4-0.
- Georgia defeated the Aggies -- who had won seven of their previous eight SEC games -- with ball control (season-low seven turnovers), second-half defense (A&M shot 34 percent and committed seven TO in final period) and key contributions from the bench. Indeed, subs Taylor Echols, Cameron Forte and Yante Maten combined for 10 of the Bulldogs' 28 second-half points.
- Georgia's win Wednesday night -- on the road over a Top 50 opponent -- boosted its current RPI to 22 in the NCAA-recognized ratings, the highest of the season and second-best among all SEC teams.
- Saturday's game is the 180th meeting between these two schools. The series began in 1908 and has been renewed annually since 1945. Georgia leads the series by the slimmest of margins: 90-89. The two programs met just once last year, Feb. 1 at Auburn, with the Tigers claiming a 74-67 win.
- The Bulldogs return to Stegeman Coliseum next week for a Tuesday contest against South Carolina. It will complete the series against USC, which defeated UGA 67-50 in Columbia.
Probable Starters
| GEORGIA BULLDOGS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Cl. | Hometown | PPG | RPG |
| F | 24 | Marcus Thornton | 6-8 | 235 | Sr. | Atlanta, Ga. | 12.8 | 7.1 |
| F | 42 | Nemanja Djurisic *** | 6-8 | 230 | Sr. | Podgorica, Montenegro | 11.0 | 5.0 |
| G | 4 | Charles Mann ** | 6-5 | 210 | Jr. | Alpharetta, Ga. | 11.2 | 3.7# |
| G | 12 | Kenny Gaines ** | 6-3 | 195 | Jr. | Atlanta, Ga. | 11.3 | 3.5 |
| G | 30 | J.J. Frazier * | 5-10 | 150 | So. | Glennville, Ga. | 10.6 | 3.3# |
#Assists Per Game
Head Coach: Mark Fox
Record at Georgia / Years: 101-84 / 6th season
Overall Record/Years: 224-127 / 11th season
Assistant Coaches: Philip Pearson, Jonas Hayes, Yasir Rosemond
| AUBURN TIGERS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Cl. | Hometown | PPG | RPG |
| F | 5 | Cinmeon Bowers | 6-7 | 278 | Jr. | Racine, Wis. | 13.3 | 11.0 |
| F | 25 | Jordon Granger | 6-8 | 210 | Jr. | St. Louis, Mo. | 4.6 | 3.3 |
| G | 1 | KT Harrell | 6-4 | 212 | Sr. | Montgomery, Ala. | 17.6 | 2.9 |
| G | 13 | Tahj Shamsid-Deen | 5-9 | 170 | So. | Decatur, Ga. | 6.1 | 1.1 |
| G | 14 | Antoine Mason | 6-1 | 216 | Gr. | Queens, N.Y. | 14.7 | 2.5 |
Head Coach: Bruce Pearl
Record at Auburn / Years: 11-13 / 1st season
Overall Record / Years: 473-158 / 20th season
Assistant Coaches: Harris Adler, Tony Jones, Chuck Person
Georgia vs. Auburn
- Saturday's game is the 180th meeting between these two schools. The series began in 1908 and has been renewed annually since 1945. Georgia leads the series by the slimmest of margins: 90-89.
- Auburn is the third most frequent opponent in UGA hoops history. Florida ranks first (199 meetings) and Georgia Tech is second (187).
- In the 21 years of divisional play (1992-2011), the home team won the annual meeting 17 times. The exceptions: Georgia won twice at Auburn (1994, 2008) and vice versa in 1999 and 2009. Georgia is 3-3 against Auburn in the Mark Fox era, including an SEC Tourney win in 2011.
- A geographical breakdown of the series follows:
Games in Athens: UGA leads 60-22
Games in Auburn: AU leads 58-22
Neutral-Court Games: AU leads 9-8
SEC Tournament Games: UGA leads 5-3
Noteworthy...
Some leftovers from the Texas A&M game: 1) Georgia coach Mark Fox, already fighting a head cold, gradually lost his voice during the game, so completely that assistant Philip Pearson finished the contest giving instructions from the bench. Pearson also fulfilled Fox's post-game obligations to the attending media. 2) The significance of Georgia's seven turnovers (a season low) is that this game occurred on the heels of a season-high 20 miscues.
If these teams play just an "average" game, Saturday could last quite a while. Auburn and Georgia rank 1-2 in the SEC (7th and 13th nationally) in total free throws attempted. The Bulldogs had previously led all of NCAA Division I in average FT attempts per game but were surpassed this week by West Virginia after two below-average games in that regard.
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 Saturday's game with a combined 419 career games played, 243 starts and over 9600 minutes played.
J.J. Frazier earned SEC Player-of-the-Week honors in mid-January, largely on the strength of his 37-point day Jan. 24 at Miss. State. The 5-10 (standing on his tiptoes) sophomore claims never to have been perfect from the 3-point stripe -- at any level -- until then (7x7). His scoring outburst was the 7th-highest in UGA history and the most by a Georgia player since UGA career scoring leader Litterial Green poured in 38 points in a loss at UCLA on Jan. 4, 1992.
Thanks to Frazier's recent scoring, all five Georgia starters are now averaging in double figures for the first time this season. No Bulldog starting unit since 1979-80 -- Dominique Wilkins' freshman year -- finished the season with every member scoring in double digits...
When Georgia defeated Tennessee last Saturday, head coach Mark Fox joined a short list of coaches that have won 100 games at UGA. The first to do it was Herman J. Stegeman, namesake of the Bulldogs' home court, who went 170-78 over 12 seasons (1920-31). Next was Harbin "Red" Lawson -- who split his time teaching PhysEd and coaching the Bulldogs -- needing 12 of his 14 seasons (1952-65) to reach 100 wins. Lastly, Hugh Durham -- considered the father of modern-era basketball at UGA, went 298-216 in 17 seasons (1979-95).
If Georgia prevails on Saturday, Fox will reach another important marker. It would even his SEC record over 5+ seasons at UGA to 48-48. The significance of this ledger comes with the fact that no Georgia basketball coach with at least five seasons of tenure has ever finished with an SEC record over .500.
In the Tennessee game last week, Nemi Djurisic became the 44th player in UGA basketball history to reach that milestone and the first since Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2013. Additionally, and perhaps more signifancant, Djurisic became just the 19th player in the program's history to amass 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career.
Also within striking distance of the 1,000-point mark is Charles Mann, who enters the weekend needing 70 points to reach the milestone.
Georgia's current official RPI of 22 represents rarified air for a Bulldog squad. It's the highest for a UGA squad since 2003, when that team had a final RPI of 8. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, following are UGA's last five NCAA at-large teams, their tournament seed, final RPI and strength-of-schedule rating: 2011 (#10 seed), RPI 52 (SOS of 49); 2002 (#3 seed), RPI 18 (SOS of 17); 2001 (#8 seed), RPI 27 (SOS 1); 1997 (#3 seed), RPI 20 (SOS 67); 1996 (#8 seed), RPI 33 (SOS 23).
About the Schedule...
• According to the official NCAA-recognized RPI formula, Georgia's schedule is currently the 17th most difficult in the country, third best among SEC teams. ESPN.com's Basketball Power Index (BPI) -- which takes many more factors into consideration -- rates Georgia's schedule 2nd toughest in the country, 1st among SEC teams.
• Georgia's season-opening game at rival Georgia Tech was the earliest meeting ever between the two schools, who have played each other a total of 191 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.
• Long a staple of the SEC schedule, the Wednesday night game has nearly vanished from the Bulldogs' 2015 slate. Of their nine mid-week contests, just three will be played on Wednesday, all on the road: 1/14 at Vandy; 2/11 at Texas A&M; and 2/25 at Ole Miss.
• 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), 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.
About the NIT Season Tipoff...
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: 1013 points (121 games)
Charles Mann: 930 points (88 games)
Kenny Gaines: 787 points (85 games)
Leading active career rebounders:
Marcus Thornton: 588 rebs. (123 games)
Nemi Djurisic: 522 rebs. (121 games)
*Note: UGA's No. 10 career rebounder, Trey Thompkins, has 693 rebounds.
Leading active career assists:
Charles Mann: 275 assists (88 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. Thornton 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 significantly 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.
