Photo by: Conor Dillon/UGAAA
Bulldogs Focused On Next Challenge, Not Rankings
January 12, 2025 | Men's Basketball
By Kyle Tatelbaum
Georgia Sports Communications
The Georgia men's basketball team has had its best week in years. The Bulldogs decisively took down No. 6 Kentucky, 82-69, inside a packed Stegeman Coliseum on Tuesday night, and followed that up Saturday with a 72-62 win over No. 17 Oklahoma. Georgia, now 11-0 at home this season, hadn't won back-to-back games over ranked opponents since 2007.
Georgia won both games with strong defense, aggressive offense that led to a lot of points at the free-throw line — a combined 56 over the two games — and with the support of a great home crowd.
"Our detail was good. Our mental toughness was very good," Georgia coach Mike White said.
The Bulldogs (14-2, 2-1 SEC) have received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for weeks, but haven't yet been ranked this season. They seem likely to be among the top 25 when the new rankings are released this week, but White isn't worried about that.
"If that were to happen, I'd be happy for our fans," he said. "I don't really care. I want to reach our potential and reach our ceiling and continue to get better and prepare well for this next one. If it happens or it doesn't happen, we're still going to talk about how we handle today's success."
Freshman center Somto Cyril, who had four points, five rebounds and four blocks against the Sooners, echoed his coach's thoughts.
"We don't care about rankings. Rankings, I think that's someone's opinion. We don't really care about it," Cyril said. "I know these guys, since we've been here in Georgia, we have outside noises like, why are you in Georgia? Georgia is not good at basketball, whatever. We've been working for success since June. We've been together since June. I know these guys like my brothers, like my family. So rankings, we being ranked right now, we don't really care about that."
The Bulldogs have bigger things to concern themselves with, like Wednesday's game at No. 1 Tennessee and a matchup at the Steg next Saturday against No. 2 Auburn. A win over the Volunteers would give Georgia three straight wins over ranked teams for the first time in program history. The SEC currently has nine teams in the AP Top 25 and Georgia is playing five of them in a row to open its conference schedule.
While Georgia can't take the 10,000-plus fans that had the Steg roaring the past two games with it to Knoxville, it can bring the stout defense it played against the Wildcats and Sooners. The Bulldogs held Kentucky under 70 points for only the third time this season and held Sooners to their lowest point total, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage of the season.
Georgia did so by recording its third-highest block total (eight) of the season, with four coming from Cyril, two from freshman forward Asa Newell, and one each from redshirt sophomore forward Justin Abson and junior forward RJ Godfrey. Georgia's defense also produced seven steals and held Oklahoma's freshman star and second-leading scorer, Jeremiah Fears, to just two points on 1 of 11 shooting.
Fears, a projected lottery pick in this year's NBA Draft, entered the game averaging 17.6 points. The Bulldogs also held Brycen Goodine, who had a 34-point performance Wednesday in Oklahoma's 80-78 loss to No. 10 Texas A&M, to just three points on 1 of 7 shooting.
When asked if the team's identity was its defense, Newell, who had 15 points and five rebounds Saturday, responded: "A hundred percent, Coach tells us we're always trying to be a top defensive team in the nation and just having that identity of a defensive team that plays super strong and physical is something that we always want to send a message to our opponents."
Cyril said being a strong defensive team is "just who we are," and that he believes "every single person that is on this team" came to Georgia "because of our defensive model" and "how we play. We take pride in defense."
The Bulldogs have done a lot to be proud of this season, but they're not patting themselves on the back for a couple of big wins. There is still too much work to do and too many formidable opponents ahead to get distracted by rankings or what happened the last time they took the floor.
Georgia Sports Communications
The Georgia men's basketball team has had its best week in years. The Bulldogs decisively took down No. 6 Kentucky, 82-69, inside a packed Stegeman Coliseum on Tuesday night, and followed that up Saturday with a 72-62 win over No. 17 Oklahoma. Georgia, now 11-0 at home this season, hadn't won back-to-back games over ranked opponents since 2007.
Georgia won both games with strong defense, aggressive offense that led to a lot of points at the free-throw line — a combined 56 over the two games — and with the support of a great home crowd.
"Our detail was good. Our mental toughness was very good," Georgia coach Mike White said.
The Bulldogs (14-2, 2-1 SEC) have received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for weeks, but haven't yet been ranked this season. They seem likely to be among the top 25 when the new rankings are released this week, but White isn't worried about that.
"If that were to happen, I'd be happy for our fans," he said. "I don't really care. I want to reach our potential and reach our ceiling and continue to get better and prepare well for this next one. If it happens or it doesn't happen, we're still going to talk about how we handle today's success."
Freshman center Somto Cyril, who had four points, five rebounds and four blocks against the Sooners, echoed his coach's thoughts.
"We don't care about rankings. Rankings, I think that's someone's opinion. We don't really care about it," Cyril said. "I know these guys, since we've been here in Georgia, we have outside noises like, why are you in Georgia? Georgia is not good at basketball, whatever. We've been working for success since June. We've been together since June. I know these guys like my brothers, like my family. So rankings, we being ranked right now, we don't really care about that."
The Bulldogs have bigger things to concern themselves with, like Wednesday's game at No. 1 Tennessee and a matchup at the Steg next Saturday against No. 2 Auburn. A win over the Volunteers would give Georgia three straight wins over ranked teams for the first time in program history. The SEC currently has nine teams in the AP Top 25 and Georgia is playing five of them in a row to open its conference schedule.
While Georgia can't take the 10,000-plus fans that had the Steg roaring the past two games with it to Knoxville, it can bring the stout defense it played against the Wildcats and Sooners. The Bulldogs held Kentucky under 70 points for only the third time this season and held Sooners to their lowest point total, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage of the season.
Georgia did so by recording its third-highest block total (eight) of the season, with four coming from Cyril, two from freshman forward Asa Newell, and one each from redshirt sophomore forward Justin Abson and junior forward RJ Godfrey. Georgia's defense also produced seven steals and held Oklahoma's freshman star and second-leading scorer, Jeremiah Fears, to just two points on 1 of 11 shooting.
Fears, a projected lottery pick in this year's NBA Draft, entered the game averaging 17.6 points. The Bulldogs also held Brycen Goodine, who had a 34-point performance Wednesday in Oklahoma's 80-78 loss to No. 10 Texas A&M, to just three points on 1 of 7 shooting.
When asked if the team's identity was its defense, Newell, who had 15 points and five rebounds Saturday, responded: "A hundred percent, Coach tells us we're always trying to be a top defensive team in the nation and just having that identity of a defensive team that plays super strong and physical is something that we always want to send a message to our opponents."
Cyril said being a strong defensive team is "just who we are," and that he believes "every single person that is on this team" came to Georgia "because of our defensive model" and "how we play. We take pride in defense."
The Bulldogs have done a lot to be proud of this season, but they're not patting themselves on the back for a couple of big wins. There is still too much work to do and too many formidable opponents ahead to get distracted by rankings or what happened the last time they took the floor.
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