Men's Basketball Hosts Catamounts in Season Opener

Georgia Basketball Game Notes
Georgia (0-0, 0-0 SEC) vs. Western Carolina (0-0, 0-0 in SoCon)
Tuesday, November 5, at 7:00 p.m. ET
Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga. (10,523)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network Flagship: WSB AM 750 Atlanta | Affiliates | Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Tony Schiavone, producer
TV: None
Video: SEC Network+ (Jeff Dantzler, play-by-play; Dean Keener, analyst)
Series Record: UGA leads, 6-0
Last Meeting: UGA, 65-63, on 12/21/13

No.	Name	PPG	RPG

Georgia Bulldogs
Coach: Tom Crean
11-21 in 2nd season at UGA
367-252 in 20th season overall
4	Tyree Crump	17.5	4.5
6-1; 185; Sr.; Bainbridge, Ga.
5	Anthony Edwards	16.5	6.0
6-5; 225; Fr.; Atlanta, Ga.
10	Toumani Camara	3.0	2.5
6-8; 220; Fr.; Brussels, Belgium
20	Rayshaun Hammonds	13.5	5.5
6-9; 235; Jr.; Norcross, Ga.
25	Amanze Ngumezi	5.5	2.0
6-9; 235; Soph.; Savannah, Ga.

No.	Name	PPG	RPG

Western Carolina Carolina Catamounts
Coach: Mark Prosser
7-25 in 2nd season at WCU
12-48 in 3rd season overall
0	Carlos Dotson	13.9	9.5
6-7; 270; Sr.; Riverdale, Md.
2	Matt Halvorson	11.6	3.3
6-1; 174; Jr.; Kingsport, Tenn.
14	Kamerson Gibson	13.6	2.1
6-3; 186; Soph.; Cincinnati, Ohio
21	Marus Thomas	8.8	3.2
6-3; 180; Jr.; Mint Hill, N.C.
33	Onno Steger	11.3	4.8
6-5; 206; Sr.; Upper Arlington, Va.

TEAM COMPARISON

2018 STATISTIC	GEORGIA	WESTERN CAROLINA
Points Per Game	71.1	72.0
Opp. Point Per Game	73.9	80.1
Scoring Margin	-2.8	-8.1
Field Goal Pct.	.441	.454
Opp. Field Goal Pct.	.426	.480
3-Point Pct.	.322	.370
3-Pointers Per Game	6.6	9.3
Opp. 3-Point Pct.	.332	.335
Free Throw Pct.	.705	.675
Free Throws Per Game	16.0	13.3
Rebounds Per Game	37.9	35.5
Opp. Rebound Per Game	35.0	32.3
Rebound Margin	+2.9	+3.2
Assists Per Game	13.2	12.2
Turnovers Per Game	15.8	18.0
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio	0.84	0.68
Turnover Margin	-4.9	-7.5
Steals Per Game	5.8	4.2
Blocks Per Game	5.1	1.7

The Starting 5...

Georgia begins the 2019-20 campaign with its earliest season opener ever. The Bulldogs' previous record for their initial outing was in 2013 on Nov. 8.
The Bulldogs have com-piled an 81-33 all-time record in season openers, including a 35-6 mark when starting the season at Stegeman Coliseum.
Georgia's celebrated freshman class – ranked among the top-10 groups nationally by every recruiting service – features five of the nation's top-100 prospects.
Anthony Edwards is the highest rated recruiting in UGA history. He was tabbed No. 1 by 247Sports.com, No. 3 by rivals.com and No. 4 by ESPN.
For the first time ever, Georgia sold out its Stegeman Coliseum season ticket allotment. The Texas A&M and Alabama games are already total sellouts.

The Opening Tip

Georgia will christen their 2019-20 season on Tuesday evening when the Bulldogs host Western Carolina at Stegeman Coliseum at 7:00 p.m.

Earliest. Opener. Ever.

The Bulldogs will begin this season with their earliest opening contest in Georgia's 115 seasons of basketball. The previous date for an initial outing was when UGA began the 2013-14 campaign on Nov. 8 with a 72-52 win over Wofford.

Keeping An Eye On...

Entering the 2019-20 season, among UGA's career Leaders

Tyree Crump is...

5 3FGs from No. 14 Terrance Woodbury
15 3FGs from co-No. 12s Ty Wilson and Ray Harrison
8 3FGAs from No. 16 Ty Wilson
11 3FGAs from No. 15 Terrance Woodbury
12 3FGAs from No. 14 Jody Patton
18 3FGAs from No. 13 Turtle Jackson

Series History

Georgia is 6-0 all-time against Western Carolina, with all half-dozen matchups taking place here in Athens.

The Bulldogs won the initial meeting between the schools 100-64 on Dec. 4, 1993.

The most recent contest was also the closest in the series, a 65-63 decision on Dec. 21, 2013.

The Catamounts led by double digits twice in the second half and by a 58-50 count with just 5:44 remaining. An 11-0 run put Georgia on top but, the Bulldogs didn't seal the win until a pair of Charles Mann free throws with 2.5 seconds left. Kenny Gaines and Mann, then freshmen, led Georgia with 17 and 13 points, respectively.

Scouting The Catamounts

Western Carolina returns four starters who averaged double digits in the scoring column last season – Carlos Dotson (13.9 ppg), Kameron Gibson (13.6 ppg), Matt Halvorsen (11.6 ppg) and Onno Steger (11.2).

The Catamounts' roster features eight returning letterwinners and seven newcomers – five freshmen and a pair of transfers.

WCU's Ahmir Langlais was a classmate and teammate of UGA's Anthony Edwards at Holy Spirit Prep School in Atlanta. Last season, both Edwards and Langlais were named first-team All-State by the Georgia Independent Association (GISA) after leading the Cougars to a runner-up finish in the state tournament.

Western Carolina finished 7-25 overall and 4-14 in the Southern Conference in 2018-19, Mark Prosser's first season as head coach in Cullowhee. Prosser arrived after spending the previous six seasons at Winthrop.

Up Next: The Citadel In A Week

Georgia's next game will be exactly a week from the opener. The Bulldogs will entertain The Citadel on Nov. 12.

It's Games Time!

The Bulldogs will play seven games before Thanksgiving Day.

Georgia begins the season with a four-game home stand with outings against Western Carolina, The Citadel, Delaware State and Georgia Tech.

The Bulldogs will then trek to the Maui Jim Maui Invitational for the first time ever. Georgia will face Dayton in the opening round on Nov. 25, the first of three games in as many days in Maui. The field for the Invitational also features Michigan State and Virginia Tech in UGA's half of the bracket. The other four teams in the MJMI field are Brigham Young, tournament host Chaminade, Kansas and UCLA.

Dogs Already Off To Record Start

For the first time in program history, Georgia sold out the season ticket allotment for Stegeman Coliseum.

Tom Crean announced the accomplishment during Stegmania II, the Bulldogs' preseason hype event on Oct. 11.

"I think it's great,' Crean said following Stegmania. "We're going to need them to be here and help us because we have a lot of growth to make with this team. You can't win without them in the sense of having a great home-court atmosphere, and there's no question that's something we're going to need. Having sold out of our season ticket allotment is a very good start to having just that this season and beyond.'

The ticket-selling records continued when Georgia put single-game tickets on sale on Oct. 24. That day, the Texas A&M (Feb. 1) and Alabama (Feb. 8) officially outings became sellout contests.

That matched the mark for earliest sellouts in Georgia's history, established last year when the Florida and Kentucky games quickly became ticketless events.

Prior to this year, Georgia had never sold out more than one game prior to beginning the regular season.

Bulldogs in Openers

Georgia has compiled an 81-33 record in season-opening contests during the Bulldogs' first 114 campaigns of basketball. That includes a 35-6 mark in openers here at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia's most significant victory in an opener at the Coliseum also was its first. In the Bulldogs' first-ever season opener in the Coliseum on Dec. 3 1964, UGA bested No. 13 North Carolina, 64-61. In the first game of the Tom Crean era, Georgia raced to a 110-76 victory over Savannah State, the Bulldogs' most points in the 2000s. The last time Georgia put up more was in a 113-74 win over Grambling on Nov. 27, 1999, at the Great Alaska Shootout.

Crean's Opening Outings

Tom Crean is 18-1 in season openers as a head coach.

Crean was 8-1 to begin his nine seasons at Marquette from 1999-2008. He was a perfect 9-0 at Indiana from 2008-17 won his initial outing at Georgia last season.

The biggest season-opening victory for a Crean-coached team was three years ago when the No. 11-ranked Hoosiers defeated No. 3 Kansas, 103-99, in overtime at the Armed Forces Challenge in Honolulu.

The Hoosiers raced to an 8-1 start that season – including a second signature victory in November over eventual 2017 NCAA Champion North Carolina – before injuries decimated Indiana's roster.

Dogs' Freshmen Among UGA's Best

Georgia's recruiting class has consistently been ranked among the nation's top-10 groups – No. 5 by ESPN.com, No. 6 by rivals.com and No. 10 by 247Sports.com.

Headlining the freshmen is Anthony Edwards. The Atlanta native announced his commitment in a nationally televised ceremony on Feb. 11 and is the Bulldogs' highest rated recruit ever.

Dominique Wilkins was the most hyped recruit in Georgia history in 1979. Individual recruiting rankings for the class are believed to be unavailable but that year featured Wilkins along with Ralph Sampson, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Clark Kellogg and Sam Bowie.

In the internet age, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is the highest ranked player in the 247Sports.com composite to enroll at UGA at No. 12 in 2011. Louis Williams signed with the Bulldogs as the No. 6 prospect in the 2005 composite but opted to enter the NBA Draft.

The Bulldogs' highest recruiting class ever was a quintet listed at No. 2 in 1992 when UGA inked four of the nation's top-100 prospects – Shandon Anderson, Terrell Bell, Pertha Robinson and McDonald's All-American Carlos Strong – in the fall. Georgia then added Cleveland Jackson, the national Junior College Player of the Year, in the spring.

Additional top classes in Georgia history include those in 1979 and 1980 which featured four McDonald's All-Americans between them. The Bulldogs signed Wilkins and Terry Fair in 1979 and followed that with Vern Fleming and James Banks a year later.

Bulldogs Who Are Back Scored 1K

Georgia's five returning letterwinners scored exactly 1,000 points during the 2018-19 season.

Rayshaun Hammonds led the way with 339 (12.1 ppg), while Tyree Crump added 292 (9.1 ppg), Jordan Harris chipped in 226 (7.8 ppg), Tye Fagan contributed 78 (2.5 ppg) and Amanze Ngumezi put up 65 (2.1 ppg).

Bulldogs Win Exhibitions

Georgia won both of its preseason exhibition outings. The Bulldogs beat Valdosta State, 93-81, on Oct. 18 and then defeated Charlotte, 77-69, in a road game on Oct. 25.

Versus Valdosta, Anthony Edwards led Georgia in scoring, posting 18 points and finishing 7-of-11 from the field. Three other Bulldogs contributed double-digit points including senior Tyree Crump (15), junior Rayshaun Hammonds (16) and freshman Sahvir Wheeler (10).

At Charlotte, Crump paced a quintet of Bulldogs in double digits with 19 points. Edwards added 15, freshman Christian Brown chipped in 14 and Hammonds notched 11.

Georgia's SoCon History

Georgia is 132-37 all-time against teams currently competing in the Southern Conference with WCU.

Georgia was a charter member of the "SoCon' when it was founded in 1921. The Bulldogs competed in the league – along with a large number of current Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference schools – until departing for the SEC in 1932.

A pair of Georgia Basketball's greatest teams were from the Bulldogs' days in the SoCon. Under Coliseum namesake Herman J. Stegeman, Georgia was 23-2 during the 1930-31 season. The following year under Rex Enright the Bulldogs won 1932 Southern Conference Tournament by knocking off Mississippi State, Virginia, Duke and North Carolina.

Last Time Out...

Tyree Crump scored 19 points – including a pair of key second-half 3-pointers – to lead Georgia to a 77-69 victory over Charlotte in an exhibition outing at Halton Arena on Oct. 25.

Anthony Edwards added 15 points, Christian Brown chipped in 14 and Rayshaun Hammonds notched 11.

"It's absolutely invaluable to play on the road,' Tom Crean said. "To get a road win…I know it doesn't count in the standings, but it does count for us learning what we're capable of. I'm excited about that.'

Crump knotted the score at 44-44, the first of four second-half ties. On the Bulldogs' next possession, Tye Fagan dunked home an rebound to put Georgia up, the first of eight lead changes over the next several minutes.

Charlotte eventually regained a four-point edge following back-to-back 3s before another Crump 3-pointer closed the gap to one.

Georgia took the lead for good with an Edwards layup that made it 69-68 at the 4:09 mark. The Bulldogs closed out the game on a 12-1 run.

Bulldogs' Schedule Is Maddening

Georgia's 31-game regular-season slate includes a minimum of 13 teams featured in the Nov. 4 edition of ESPN's Bracketology for the 2020 NCAA Tournament.

The Bulldogs will host games against seven teams in the predicted field and take on six more away from Stegeman Coliseum.

In Athens, Georgia will entertain Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia Southern, Kentucky, N.C. Central and Tennessee.

The Bulldogs will meet Dayton in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational and will play road games at Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU and Memphis.

Georgia could two more teams tabbed to play in "March Madness' in Maui if the Bulldogs meet Michigan State or Kansas.

And, two more Bulldog foes – Ole Miss and Mississippi State – are featured in the "next four out' of the bracket.

Preseason Honors For Edwards

Anthony Edwards has garnered an impressive list of accolades before playing his first official game for the Bulldogs.

Edwards was tabbed preseason All-America by at least four news entities – Sporting News (second team), CBS Sports (third team), Jon Rothstein (third team) and The Athletic (honorable mention).

The Atlanta native also was included on Watch Lists for Naismith National Player of the Year and Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Awards.

Edwards also was tabbed first-team preseason All-SEC in balloting of both conference head coaches and selected league and nation media.

Feel Free To Call Him "Ty-3'

More than two-thirds of Tyree Crump's made shots from the floor as a Bulldog have come on shots behind the 3-point arc.

Crump has knocked down 127 3-pointers in his first three seasons in Athens. That accounts for 68.6 percent of his 185 made field goals at Georgia.

Crump already ranks among Georgia's top-20 career leaders in both 3-point makes (No. 15) and takes (No. 17). With similar numbers to last season, Crump would move into the Bulldogs' all-time top 10 in both stats.

"B' Is For Basketball Player

You may notice on Georgia's roster that the Bulldogs have gone away from listing traditional positions – guard, forward and center.

All 15 players are now simply listed as "B' for "Basketball Player.' Tom Crean is a proponent for "position-less basketball.'

"That's what they are,' Crean said. "It's not valid to call them centers and power forwards and things like that as much with the way that we're trying to play. They're being trained as basketball players, every day. I mean if you came out there to practice (6-11) Rodney Howard, a lot of times is doing the same things that (5-10) Sahvir Wheeler's doing. And in the sense of how we train with the ball handling, the driving, the shooting – all those type of things – that's big to me. That's what we're recruiting. We're recruiting basketball players.'

Crump, Harris and Hammonds Blossom In Crean's First Season

Georgia's three returning letterwinners who are upperclassmen all enjoyed increased production and efficiency last season.

Most notably, junior Rayshaun Hammonds played almost the exact same average of minutes as his freshman year – 24.2 in 2017-18 and 24.3 in 2018-29 – but upped his scoring average by a whopping 80.6 percent – from 6.7 ppg to 12.1 ppg.

Seniors Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris also upped their point productions. Crump went from 6.5 ppg to 9.1 ppg, an increase of exactly 40.0 percent. Harris scored 3.5 ppg as a sophomore and 7.8 ppg as a junior, a 122.9 percent adjustment.

The improvements didn't stop in the scoring column.

The combined shooting percentages of those three Bulldogs also made considerable jumps in efficiency: +5.7 percent on field goals (from .389 to .446), +5.1 percent on 3-pointers (from .313 to .364) and +10.1 percent of free throws (from .709 to .810).

In other statistics, the trio provided significant increases of +40.3 percent on rebounds (from 236 to 331), +69.7 percent on 3-pointers made (from 66 to 112), +.36.4 percent on assists (from 99 to 135), +97.1 percent on steals (from 35 to 69) and +145.4 percent on blocked shots (from 11 to 27).

Bulldogs To Celebrate 30th Anniversary of SEC Championship

The 2019-20 season marks the 30th anniversary of one of Georgia's greatest teams – the 1990 SEC Champions. Hugh Durham led the Bulldogs to a 20-9 finish and a 13-5 mark in league play to deliver an outright SEC title.

A net-cutting ceremony did not appear in the cards at the beginning of the 1990 conference campaign. After starting SEC play 3-3, the Bulldogs caught fire and won eight of their next nine games to surge to the top of the league standings. That put Georgia tied atop the SEC with LSU and set up a monumental showdown with No. 12 Tigers in Athens on Senior Day.

After trailing by 19 points early in the second half, Georgia rallied to win 86-85 behind All-American Alec Kessler, who scored 30 points and grabbed 16 rebounds while matched up against the Tigers' massive front line of Shaquille O'Neal and Stanley Roberts.

Georgia clinched a share of the league title when the Tigers lost at Florida three days later, and the Bulldogs secured the outright SEC crown with a decisive 94-79 victory at Auburn in the regular-season finale the next Saturday, where Litterial Green poured in a season-high 30 points.

Jarvis To Join Circle Of Honor

Jarvis Hayes, a two-time All-American for the Bulldogs in the early-200s, is among four former UGA student-athletes who will be inducted into the UGA Athletics Circle of Honor in February 2020. The recognition is the highest all-sport honor possible for a Georgia student-athlete or coach.

In just two seasons, Hayes left quite a legacy at UGA. Hayes and his twin brother, Jonas, transferred to Georgia in 1999, having played at Western Carolina as freshmen. After sitting out the 2001 season, Jarvis averaged an SEC-best 18.6 points per game in 2002. He again led the Bulldogs offensively in 2002-03 while averaging 18.3 points per game.

Hayes helped Georgia to a combined 41-18 record in his two seasons, with an NCAA Tournament berth in 2002. He joined Dominique Wilkins to become just the second Bulldog to earn consensus first-team All-SEC honors two times.

Hayes was selected by the Washington Wizards with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. He played seven seasons with Washington, Detroit and New Jersey, as well as two seasons internationally in Italy and Romania. Hayes returned to UGA and completed his degree in Housing in 2014.

How Did They Get to Cullowhee

Wondering how Jarvis and Jonas ended up in Cullowhee at WCU? The answer can be found on Georgia's bench tonight.

Assistant coach Chad Dollar was on the staff at Western Carolina from 1998-2000, where he recruited and signed the Hayes twins to become Catamounts.

There was a relatively strong bond between Dollar and the Hayes family. Dollar also is an native of Atlanta and played for his father, Don, at Frederick C. Douglass High School. That's the same alma mater of...the Hayes twins.

University of Georgia Athletics

Players Mentioned

Christian Brown

Toumani Camara

Tyree Crump

Anthony Edwards

Tye Fagan

Rayshaun Hammonds

Jordan Harris

Rodney Howard

Amanze Ngumezi

Sahvir Wheeler

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