Bulldogs Face SMU For First Time

Georgia Basketball Game Notes
Georgia (6-3) vs. SMU (8-1)
Friday, December 20 at 7:00 p.m. ET
Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga. (10,523)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network Flagship: WSB AM 750 Atlanta. (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Tony Schiavone, producer) | Affiliates
TV: SEC Network (Richard Cross, play-by-play; Pat Bradley, analyst)
Video: SECN+
Satellite: XM & Internet: 374
Series Record: 0-0
Last Meeting: First Meeting

No.	Name	PPG	RPG

Georgia Bulldogs
Coach: Tom Crean
17-24 in 2nd season at UGA
373-255 in 20th season overall
0	Donnell Gresham Jr.	6-9	5.7
6-3; 195; R-Sr.-Grad.; St. Paul, Minn.
4	Tyree Crump	9.7	2.8
6-1; 185; Sr.; Bainbridge, Ga.
5	Anthony Edwards	19.8	8.8
6-5; 225; Fr.; Atlanta, Ga.
20	Rayshaun Hammonds	13.6	8.8
6-9; 235; Jr.; Norcross, Ga.
24	Rodney Howard	1.7	1.6
6-11; 245; Fr.; Ypsilanti, Mich.

No.	Name	PPG	RPG

SMU Mustangs
Coach: Tim Jankovich
79-39 in 4th season at SMU
236-159 in 13th season overall
0	Tyson Jolly	14.6	6.6
6-5; 190; Jr.; Muskogee, Okla.
1	Feron Hunt	13.7	7.9
6-8; 195; Soph.; DeSoto, Texas
3	Kendric Davis	16.0	4.2
5-11; 180; Soph.; Houston, Texas
15	Isiaha Mike	15.3	7.0
6-8; 215; Jr.; Scarborough, Ontario
25	Ethan Chargois	7.7	4.7
6-9; 235; Jr.; Tulsa, Okla.

TEAM COMPARISON

2019-20 STATISTICS	GEORGIA	SMU
Points Per Game	83.1	74.8
Opp. Point Per Game	76.7	63.1
Scoring Margin	+6.4	+11.7
Field Goal Pct.	.465	.460
Opp. Field Goal Pct.	.453	.386
3-Point Pct.	.293	.335
3-Pointers Per Game	6.7	7.2
Opp. 3-Point Pct.	.357	.313
Free Throw Pct.	.670	.791
Free Throws Per Game	15.8	16.0
Rebounds Per Game	41.8	39.2
Opp. Rebound Per Game	34.9	31.2
Rebound Margin	+6.9	+8.0
Assists Per Game	15.1	15.3
Turnovers Per Game	15.3	12.8
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio	0.99	1.20
Turnover Margin	+0.7	-0.6
Steals Per Game	9.4	6.1
Blocks Per Game	3.6	2.8

The Starting 5...

Anthony Edwards leads all freshmen in Division-I to date this season in both scoring (19.8 ppg is No. 41 nationally) and steals (2.2 spg is No. 40 nationally).
UGA had eight 90-point outputs in Tom Crean's first 40 games in Georgia. The Bulldogs had eight 90-point outings in the 249 games prior to Crean's arrival.
Six of nine SEC games at Stegeman Coliseum – Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama, Arkansas and Florida – are now sellouts.
The point tallies of Anthony Edwards (24) and Sahvir Wheeler (19) in the season opener were the second- and third-best ever by a freshman in their UGA debut.
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.

The Opening Tip

The Georgia Bulldogs and the SMU Mustangs will meet on the hardwood for the first time ever on Friday night at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia is 6-3 on the season, including a 5-0 mark at Stegeman. The Bulldogs are averaging 83.1 points per game, which led the SEC (along with LSU) ranked No. 12 nationally on Thursday.

Anthony Edwards, a preseason All-American and leading candidate for National Freshman of the Year accolades, is scoring at a 19.8 ppg clip. Edwards' average ranked second in the SEC overall and No. 37 nationally on Thursday, making him highest-scoring freshman in all of Division-I basketball this season.

Promotions

The first 1,000 fans at Friday's game will receive a free Georgia "tacky Christmas sweater" t-shirt. At halftime, a "tacky Christmas sweater" contest will be held among fans in attendance, with the top-3 "winners" receiving prizes.

Entering Tonight's Game . . . Among UGA's career Leaders

Tyree Crump is...
2 3FGs from No. 11 K. Caldwell-Pope
• 25 3FGs from No. 10 Jody Patton
• 13 3FGAs from No. 9 Bernard Davis
• 60 3FGAs from No. 9 G.G. Smith

Series History

Friday's game will be the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and the Mustangs.

While UGA has never faced SMU, the Bulldogs are 30-19 all-time against teams currently competing with the Mustangs in the American Athletic Conference. Georgia will face Memphis, another AAC member, on Jan. 4 in a CBS nationally televised contest.

Scouting The Mustangs

SMU sports an 8-1 record but hasn't played since the Mustangs suffered their initial defeat of the season to Georgetown back on Dec. 7.

As of Thursday, SMU ranked among the nation's top-50 teams in three different statistical categories – No. 11 in free throw percentage (.791), No. 28 in rebound margin (+8.0) and No. 41 in field goal percentage defense (.386).

Kendric Davis paces a quartet of SMU starters who are averaging double digits in the scoring column at 16.0 ppg. Isiaha Mike is adding 15.3 ppg and team-high 7.0 rpg, while Tyson Jolly and Ethan Chargois chip in 14.6 ppg and 13.7 rpg, respectively.

Facing Some Unfamiliar Faces

SMU is one of four first-time opponents Georgia will play during the 2019-20 season, joining Chaminade, N.C. Central and Austin Peay.

In fact, the Bulldogs will play against quite a few non-traditional non-league opponents during the current campaign.

Georgia has played 10 of 13 pre-SEC foes four times or less prior to this season.

In addition to the quartet of first-time dates, the Bulldogs had taken on The Citadel four times; Delaware State, Arizona State and Memphis twice; and Dayton and Michigan State once.

ast Time Out...

L Tye Fagan scored a career-high 15 points; however, Georgia dropped a 79-59 decision at Arizona State last Saturday in the Bulldogs' first true road game of the season.

A back-and-forth first half featured three ties and six lead changes before the Sun Devils used a buzzer-beating put-back to gain a 39-31 lead at halftime.

Georgia trimmed the gap to five points twice early in the second stanza before a 14-2 surge put Arizona State up 54-38.

Anthony Edwards scored 13 points for the Bulldogs, his team-leading seventh double-digit output this season.

Bulldogs Scoring at Torrid Pace

Georgia is averaging 83.1 points per game, which ranked No. 12 nationally as of Thursday (through games of Dec. 18). Some additional nuggets contained within the Bulldogs' offensive production over the first nine outings of the season include:

UGA had eight 90-point performances in Tom Crean's first 40 games in Athens (four in 2018-19 and four in 2019-20). The Bulldogs reached the 90-point plateau just eight times in 249 games prior to Crean's arrival.

UGA has three of the top-10 scoring outputs in the SEC this season – No. 4 (100 points vs. Delaware St.) and co-No. 7 (95 points vs. The Citadel and N.C. Central).

UGA has four 90-point outputs in nine games to date, 44.4 percent of the Bulldogs' games. The rest of the SEC had 14 90-point performances in 129 games (10.9 percent).

Georgia already has four 90-point games...as many as the Bulldogs had in 32 games last season. FYI, the last time UGA had five 90-point outputs was the aforementioned 2005-06 campaign (when the Bulldogs had six), and the school record for 90-plus outings is eight during Georgia's run to the 1990 SEC Championship.

UGA scored 91, 95 and 100 points in the first three games this season – the first time the Bulldogs scored 90 or more points in three consecutive games since December 2006. That season, the Bulldogs defeated Gardner-Webb, 96-67, on Dec. 2; No. 16 Gonzaga, 96-83, on Dec. 16; and Jacksonville, 93-77, on Dec. 19.

Some Individual Scoring Info

In addition to Georgia's point production as a team, Bulldogs have posted some significant individual scoring efforts to date.

Anthony Edwards' 37 points against No. 3 Michigan State – the most by a UGA freshman in 45 seasons – included a 33-point second-half explosion against the Spartans.

Six UGA players posted double-figure scoring outputs against The Citadel on Nov. 12 – the first time a half-dozen Bulldogs scored 10 or more points since a Dec. 22, 2002, matchup against Appalachian State. Anthony Edwards had 29 points; Tyree Crump and Donnell Gresham Jr. added 13 apiece; and Rayshaun Hammonds, Amanze Ngumezi and Sahvir Wheeler each chipped in 10.

Edwards' 24 points and Wheeler's 19 points in the season opener against Western Carolina represented the second- and third-best tallies ever by a UGA freshman in their collegiate debut and most by a Bulldog freshman since 1979.

Crump Joins, Approaches UGA Top 10s For 3-Point Takes, Makes

Tyree Crump ascended into Georgia's top-10 career leaders in 3-point field goal attempts during the Arizona State game. Crump inched past Kentavious Caldwell-Pope into the No. 10 slot.

The senior from Bainbridge is closing on the Bulldogs' top 10 for successful shots behind the arc as well. Crump enters the SMU game with 147 3-pointers, two shy of No. 11 KCP and 25 away from No. 10 Jody Patton as outlined below.

UGA Career 3FGA Leaders
Rk.	No.	Player	Seasons	3FGAs
1.	683	Levi Stukes	2004-07	261
5.	569	Kenny Gaines	2013-16	213
6.	544	Litterial Green	1989-92	215
7.	536	Dustin Ware	2009-12	194
8.	500	G.G. Smith	1996-99	193
9.	453	Bernard Davis	1991-94	184
10.	440	Tyree Crump	2016-19	147
UGA Career 3FG Leaders
Rk.	No.	Player	Seasons	3FGs
1.	261	Levi Stukes	2003-07	683
4.	213	Ezra Williams	2000-03	582
	213	Kenny Gaines	2012-16	569
6.	204	J.J. Frazier	2013-17	576
7.	194	Dustin Ware	2008-12	536
8.	193	G.G. Smith	1995-99	500
9.	184	Bernard Davis	1990-94	453
10.	172	Jody Patton	1987-91	387
11.	149	K. Caldwell-Pope	2011-13	439
12.	147	Tyree Crump	2016-19	440

Edwards, Wheeler Included Among NCAA's Freshman Leaders Through games of Dec. 18, Georgia's Anthony Edwards was one of two freshmen ranked among the nation's top-50 scoring leaders and one of just seven featured in the top 100 as outlined below.

Top Freshman Scoring Averages
Rk.	Player, school	GP	Avg.
26.	Anthony Edwards, Georgia	8	20.6
51.	Cole Anthony, N. Carolina	9	19.1
60.	Landers Nolley, Va. Tech	10	18.6
63.	Vernon Carey, Duke	10	18.5
96.	Onyeka Okongwu, USC	10	17.4
97.	Jordan Dingle, Penn	8	17.4

Edwards also paces all D-I freshmen in steals per game. His 2.22 average is No. 36 nationally, the same average as Charlotte freshman Jahmir Young.

Sahvir Wheeler's average of 4.6 assists per game is eighth-best among the nation's freshmen...and No. 91 overall. His assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.86 is the 15th-best effort by a freshman.

Edwards Earns Honors

Anthony Edwards was tabbed National Freshman of the Week by CBSSports.com and SEC's Freshman of the Week on Dec. 1 following the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

Most notably, Edwards poured in 37 points against No. 3 Michigan State on Nov. 26, including a 33-point explosion in the second half. Edwards' effort equaled the No. 11 single-game scoring tally in Georgia's history and represented the most points by a Bulldog freshman since Jacky Dorsey scored 41 versus LSU on Jan. 20, 1975.

Wheeler Logging PT Off Bench

Freshman Sahvir Wheeler is averaging 25.1 minutes per game, the third-highest average of any Bulldog despite coming off the bench in every game to date.

Wheeler has logged 20-plus minutes in every game but a blowout win over Delaware State, when he played 18 minutes. His season high is 30 MP against Chaminade.

Bulldogs Up to Six SEC Sellouts

Six of Georgia's nine SEC home dates at Stegeman Coliseum are now sold out.

Outings against Texas A&M and Alabama officially became sellouts on Oct. 24, the first day single-game tickets went on sale.

Since then, the Kentucky, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Florida games also have sold out.

Now, the only matchups on the 2020 calendar with tickets remaining are mid-week contests against Tennessee, South Carolina and Auburn.

The Collegiate Canine Strikes

All of graduate transfer Donnell Gresham Jr.'s career-high statistical performances came from his 90 games played during four seasons at Northeastern...until the Georgia Tech game on Nov. 20.

Gresham connected on 11-of-13 trips to the free throw line against the Jackets, topping his previous marks.

Gresham scored 13 points versus Tech, his second double-digit output as a Bulldog and his 31st as a collegiate canine.

The Saint Paul, Minn., native notched 29 double-digit scoring performances in his four seasons as a different breed of dog – a Northeastern Husky.

Feel Free To Call Him "Ty-3"

Tyree Crump continued a familiar theme to his scoring this season, with 20 of his 30 made field goals coming from behind the 3-point arc.

More than two-thirds of Crump's made shots from the floor at UGA have come on shots from 3-point range.

Crump has knocked down 147 3-pointers in his three-plus seasons in Athens. That accounts for 68.4 percent of his 215 made field goals at Georgia.

Among Georgia's career leaders, Crump currently ranks No. 12 in 3-point makes (two shy of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at No. 11)and No. 10 in 3-point takes (13 away from No. 9 Bernard Davis.)

Fagan Posts Career Highs

Tye Fagan has notched career-high scoring outputs twice this season.

The sophomore from Logtown paced Georgia with a career-most 15 minutes at Arizona State. Fagan did most of his damage in the second half. After posting four points in nine first-half minutes, he put up 11 points in 10 minutes of action following the intermission.

Fagan recorded his first double-digit scoring output as a Bulldog with 11 points against Dayton in the opening round of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. He did so in an extremely efficient fashion, connecting on 5-of-5 shots from the field against the Flyers, including his only 3-point attempt on the day.

Before that, Fagan's top offensive performances as a Bulldog were early last season. He notched eight points in three of the first four games of his freshman year – against Temple, Sam Houston State and Illinois State.

Fans Flocking To Stegeman

A combined 42,890 members of the Bulldog Nation have attended Georgia's first five home dates of the 2019-20 campaign.

That is the third-largest tally for the initial quintet of outings at Stegeman Coliseum during the program history.

The Bulldogs' best first five-game home attendance mark to begin a season was 49,941 in 1981-82, Dominique Wilkins' third and final season at UGA. At that point, the Coliseum's seating capacity was 11,200 (it's 10,523 today) and – no disrespect to this year's foes but – that quintet of outings included matchups against the likes of Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and LSU.

In 2002-03, Georgia welcomed a total of 43,962 spectators for the first five home dates that season.

The Stegeman Coliseum turnstiles have been quite busy since Tom Crean's arrival. Last season, the Bulldogs broke their total attendance record by more than 9,000 fans and Georgia notched its fourth-best average attendance mark ever (8,747).

Hammonds Hot Early, Often Against Hornets & Jackets

Junior Rayshaun Hammonds poured in 26 points in back-to-back outings against Delaware State on Nov. 15 and Georgia Tech on Nov. 20.

Hammonds was hot from the get-go in both outings. He scored 17 first-half points versus the Hornets and followed that with 19 before intermission against the Jackets. Hammonds was a combined 15-of-20 (75.0 percent) from the field on those first halves.

Dogs' Freshmen Among UGA's Best

Georgia's recruiting class was consistently 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 class is Anthony Edwards. The Atlanta native, who tabbed the nation's best prospect by some, announced his commitment on national television on Feb. 11. He is the Bulldogs' highest rated recruit ever.

Dominique Wilkins was the most hyped recruit in Georgia history in 1979. Individual rankings for that class are believed to be unavailable. It also featured future stars such as 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 signing period.

Additional top classes at Georgia 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.

UGA's Freshman Class Also Among the nation's Largest

The Bulldogs' class of nine freshmen ranks as the third-largest in Division-I hoops for the 2019-20 season.

Navy, TCU and Utah sport a nation-leading 11 freshmen on their rosters. Air Force has 10 freshmen. In addition to Georgia, Louisville and Memphis also have nine freshmen.

On this list, "freshman" is defined as a player who is a freshman eligibility wise who is competing at that school for the first time this season...so there are some redshirts.

Earliest. Opener. Ever.

The Bulldogs' Nov. 5 contest against Western Carolina was the earliest opening contest in Georgia's 115 seasons of basketball. The previous mark for an initial outing was against Wofford on Nov. 8, 2013.

Edwards, Wheeler Star In Debut

Anthony Edwards and Sahvir Wheeler poured in 24 and 19 points, respectively, in the season opener against Western Carolina on Nov. 5. Those tallies represent the second- and third-most points ever by a freshman in their first game in a Bulldog uniform as outlined below.

Edwards came within a bucket of Dominique Wilkins' school record against Troy on Nov. 30, 1979. Since NCAA rules change to allow freshmen to compete in basketball beginning with the 1972-73 season, 23 Bulldogs have scored in double figures during their first collegiate contest at UGA.

Top Tally Debuts By UGA Freshmen
Year	Player	Points
1979	Dominique Wilkins	26
2019	Anthony Edwards	24
1979	Terry Fair	19
2019	Sahvir Wheeler	19
1998	D.A. Layne	18
2007	Jeremy Price	18
2004	Sundiata Gaines	17
2017	Rayshaun Hammonds	17
2011	Kentavious Caldwell-Pope	15

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tyree Crump

Anthony Edwards

Tye Fagan

Donnell Gresham Jr.

Rayshaun Hammonds

Rodney Howard

Amanze Ngumezi

Sahvir Wheeler

University of Georgia Athletics