Bulldogs Trek To Auburn For Seventh Outing Against A Top-10 Team

Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (16-10, 4-9 SEC) vs. No. 1/1 Auburn (24-2, 12-1 SEC)
Date: Saturday, February 22, 2025
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET
Venue: Neville Arena (9,121)
Location: Auburn, Ala.
TV: ESPN (Tom Hart, play-by-play; Dane Bradshaw, analyst)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 280 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix

The Starting 5...

The Georgia Bulldogs will make the roughly 175-mile trek down I-85 to face No. 1/1 Auburn at Neville Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers represent Georgia's 13th ranked opponent, sixth top-10 foe and fifth road game versus top-10 competition this season. All of the those nubmers represent the most of any team in the nation.
With Saturday's date against No. 1/1 Auburn, the Bulldogs will have played exactly half of their games during the 2025 calendar – seven of 14 – versus top-10 teams . . . with a date next Tuesday versus No. 2/2 Florida that will tip the scales to the top-10's favor.
Asa Newell has been named SEC Freshman of the Week four times this season – on Nov. 18, Dec. 9, Jan. 13 and Feb. 10. That matches Anthony Edwards for the most SEC FOTW recognitions for a Georgia Bulldog.
Over the Bulldogs' last three games, Silas Demary Jr. has averaged 19.3 ppg and 5.0 apg. He has played all but 18 seconds UGA's last two games against No. 8/9 Texas A&M and No. 21/22 Missouri.

The Opening Tip

The Georgia Bulldogs continue their almost unfathomable schedule during the 2025 calendar on Saturday when they venture to The Plains to face No. 1/1 Auburn.

The outing against the Tigers will be Georgia's 14th since the New Year began. It will be the Bulldogs' seventh contest versus top-10 competition, with five of those dates being on the road.

All told, Auburn will represent Georgia's 13th top-25 opponent during the 2024-25 campaign.

All of the aforementioned numbers – 13 games against ranked competition, seven versus top-10 teams and five road trips to top-10 foes – are the most of any team in the nation to date.

With a date against No. 2/2 Florida looming next Tuesday, at the end of February Georgia will have played more than half – eight out of 15 – of its 2025 games against top-10 teams.

The Bulldogs are 16-10 overall and 4-9 in SEC play. Georgia is squarely among NCAA bubble teams looking to make a late push into "March Madness."

The Bulldogs' balanced offense features seven players who have led Georgia in scoring in one or more games.

Asa Newell, who has tied Anthony Edwards' UGA record by being named SEC Freshman of the Week for the four times this season, tops a trio of Bulldogs averaging double figures at 15.3 ppg and also paces UGA on the boards at 6.8 rpg. Among SEC leaders, Newell is No. 14 in scoring, No. 11 rebounding, No. 2 in offensive rebounds (3.3 orpg) and No. 5 in double-doubles (six). He also entered the weekend at No. 2 in the league and No. 43 nationally in field goal percentage (.555).

Silas Demary Jr. and Dakota Leffew are scoring at double-digit paces of 11.9 ppg and 10.3 ppg, respectively, for the Bulldogs. Demary Jr. also sports team-high averages of 3.2 apg and 1.6 spg and is shooting a team-best 36.2 percent from 3-point range.

Scouting The Tigers

Auburn moved to 24-2 overall and 12-1 in the SEC with a 67-60 victory over Arkansas on Wednesday night. The Tigers are the No. 1-ranked team in the nation for the sixth consecutive week.

Johni Broome, a leading candidate for National Player of the Year accolades, leads Auburn in scoring (18.0 ppg), rebounding (11.0 rpg), assists (3.4 apg), blocks (2.6 bpg) and playing time (28.7 mpg).

All told, six Tigers are scoring at a double digit clip. Trailing Broome are Chad Baker-Mazara at 12.4 ppg, Tahaad Pettiford at 11.3 ppg, Miles Kelly at 10.8 ppg, Denver Jones at 10.7 ppg and Chaney Johnson at 10.5 ppg.

Series History With Auburn

Georgia and Auburn will face off for the 201st time on Saturday, with the Tigers owning a 103-97 edge in previous meetings.

The Bulldogs and Tigers met five weeks ago in Athens, with No. 1/1 Auburn holding off No. 23/23 Georgia to secure at 70-68 victory before a sellout crowd of 10,523 at Stegeman Coliseum.

The Tigers built a 27-9 early lead and then withstood several valiant comeback attempts by the Bulldogs.

Georgia made it a one-possession game four times before Auburn pushed its advantage to 69-60 with 41 seconds remaining. A finally furious rally cut the margin to 70-67 before the Bulldogs failed to tie the game twice in the final 10 seconds, with a Dakota Leffew 3-pointer rimming out and an Asa Newell jumper at the buzzer drawing front iron.

The loss snapped the Bulldogs' 13-game winning streak at Stegeman, which equaled the fourth-longest stretch of home success in program history.

Georgia's most recent trip to The Plains was for last season's regular-season finale on March 9, with Auburn securing an 82-78 victory.

Last Time Out

No. 21/22 Missouri rallied from a halftime deficit to defeat Georgia, 87-74, last Saturday.

The Bulldogs built a 41-38 halftime lead behind 11 and 10 first-half points from Asa Newell and Silas Demary Jr., respectively.

The Tigers used a 9-0 run early in the second stanza to go up for good.

After going 11-0 when leading at halftime during non-conference play, Georgia fell to 3-5 in SEC games when up at intermission.

"I haven't coached a team that struggled this much early second half," head coach Mike White said. "I can't put my finger on it. I'm going to get more feedback from our guys. That'll be the next trial and error process. Our young guys in the locker room, we want them to talk about it, but at halftime, trust me, we aren't celebrating winning at half. We go in there and watch defensively the mistakes that we made. And the message is clear: we've got to get better in the second half defensively to be a good SEC team, and early second half, and we weren't very good defensively."

Tigers Pass Tech At Georgia's Second Most Frequent Foes

On Saturday, Auburn will inch past Georgia Tech into the second spot on the Bulldogs' ledger of most games against an opponent. The Bulldogs and Tigers are facing off for the 201st time, one more than the number of contests for Georgia against the Yellow Jackets.

Georgia has played Florida more than any other foe, with 231 times contests between the Bulldogs and Gators. Rounding out the top-5 in games played against Georgia are Tennessee and Kentucky, both with 161 matchups.

UGA Leads The Nation In Ranked Opponents

Saturday's outing at No. 1/1 Auburn represents Georgia's 13th game against an Associated Press ranked team and the Bulldogs' sixth contest versus an AP top-10 foe this season.

Both of those tallies lead the nation as outlined below.

Prior to this season, Georgia had never played four ranked opponents in a row. The Bulldogs will play five straight top-25 foes this season twice during SEC play.

Top-25 AP Opponents
Rk.	Team	Games
1.	Georgia	13
2.	Alabama	12
3.	Auburn	11
	Ohio State	11
	S. Carolina	11
6.	Baylor	10
	Oklahoma	10
	Purdue	10
	Tennessee	10
	Texas	10

Top-10 AP Opponents
Rk.	Team	Games
1.	Georgia	7
	Kentucky	7
3.	Arkansas	6
	Auburn	6
	Miss. St.	6
	Missouri	6
	Vanderbilt	6
8.	N. Carolina	5
	West Virginia	5

Bulldogs Face Most Ranked Foes Ever

Georgia's number of games against AP ranked competition not only leads all Division I teams this season, its the most ever for UGA.

The Bulldogs' 13 outings versus top-25 opponents is the most in program history. Georgia's previous high for ranked foes was 10 during the 1981-82, 1997-98, 1999-2000, 2002-03 and 2006-07 seasons.

Saturday's game will be the Bulldogs' seventh against an AP top-10 team, inching past UGA's previous high of six such outings during the 1980-81 and 1993-94 campaigns.

Georgia Looks For Elusive Win Over No. 1

Georgia enters Saturday's game against Auburn with an 0-20 record versus teams ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. More than half of those setbacks – 11 to be exact – were delivered by Kentucky.

The Bulldogs have a trio of two-point losses within that ledger – 82-80 in overtime to North Carolina on Dec. 27, 1997; 74-72 to Auburn on Deb. 5, 2022; and 70-68 to Auburn five weeks ago on Jan. 18, 2025. All three of those contests were at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia's closest road game at a No. 1-ranked team was an 11-point, 69-58 decision at Rupp Arena on Feb. 3, 2015.

Asa Equals Ant For UGA's Most SEC FOTW Honors

Asa Newell was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season on Feb. 10, tying Anthony Edwards (2019-20) for the most SEC FOTW certificates by a Georgia Bulldog.

Newell also was honored on Nov. 18 (after he averaged 13.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 assists in a pair of wins over Georgia Tech and North Florida) Dec. 9 (after posting game-high tallies of 20 points and 11 rebounds in Georgia's 69-48 victory over Notre Dame in the SEC/ACC Challenge) and Jan. 13 (after he averaged 16.0 ppg and was Georgia's leading scorer in wins over No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 17/16 Oklahoma).

That's just a portion of the accolades Newell has received.

On Feb. 7, Newell was named a top-10 candidate for the 2025 Kareem Abdul-Jabar Award by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The award annually honors the nation's top center.

Newell is one of three non-seniors on the list. He is the third Georgia player in the past nine years to be a top-10 candidate for one of the position player of the year awards, following Anthony Edwards (Jerry West Award in 2020) and Yante Maten (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award in 2017).

On Jan. 29, Newell was featured on The Athletic's Freshman All-America squad along with Cooper Flagg from Duke, Dylan Harper from Rutgers, Kasparas Jakucionis from Illinois and Tahaad Pettiford from Auburn.

Silas Increases PT & Production

Sophomore Silas Demary Jr. has produced a trio of career-high tallies in UGA's last three games.

The Raleigh, N.C., native scored 23 points and dished out seven assists against No. 22 Mississippi State. Demary Jr. logged "40-" minutes at No. 8/9 Texas A&M, playing all but 18 seconds of the first half. He then played all 40 minutes versus No. 2/11 Missouri.

The career highs highlight what has been a productive stretch by Demary Jr. Over the last three games, he is averaging 19.3 points and 5.0 assists (with a 2.50 assist-to-TO ratio) in 38.0 minutes of action per game.

Newell Leads The "Dunkyard Dawgs"

With a nod to the awesome website barttorvik.com, we know that Georgia entered this weekend scoring the nation's seventh-highest percentage of its made FGs on dunks – 14.4 percent.

Freshman Asa Newell's 51 slams represent the 10th most among all Division I players as outlined below.

Top Dunkers Team Leaders
Rk.	Team	Pct. of FGs
1.	Creighton	18.0
2.	Utah	16.5
3.	Duke	15.9
4.	Cincinnati	15.8
5.	Tennessee	15.7
6.	Missouri	14.5
7.	Georgia	14.4

Individual Leaders
Rk.	Player, School	No.
1.	R. Kalkbrenner, CU	72
2.	R. Castro, GWU	58
3.	M. Rubin, Loy-Chi.	57
4.	B. Coulibaly, Pepp.	56
	J. Scott, UofL	56
6.	A. Bandaogo, UC	55
	D. Mitchell, UC	55
7.	K. Laluach, Duke	52
	F. Okpara, UT	52
10.	A. Newell, UGA	51

Georgia Elite At Protecting The Rim

Georgia enters this weekend ranked No. 10 nationally in blocks per game, swatting an average of 5.5 opponent attempts every outing.

Freshman Somto Cyril ranks No. 4 in the SEC and No. 43 nationally at 1.7 bpg. Cyril has blocked four or more shots in four games, including five in back-to-back outings against Notre Dame and Buffalo. He is one of three Bulldogs with five swats in a game this season. Dylan James had five rejections in Georgia's upset of then-No. 22/20 St. Johns and Asa Newell did so at No. 4/4 Alabama.

Cyril and Newell both had four blocks when Georgia had 12 swats against Texas Southern on Nov. 10, the Bulldogs' most in a single game since also blocking a dozen attempts by Vanderbilt on Jan. 9, 2019.

Georgia's Declaration of SEC Schedule Difficulty

We know that a computer spit out the Southeastern Conference men's basketball schedule using an almost unfathomable lengthy list of data qualifiers attempting to create an equal and equitable ledger for all 16 schools.

However, it seems prudent to make the following declaration.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all schedules are not created equal, that they are endowed by the league office with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (as in an NCAA Tournament bid)."

• Georgia is the only league team that has road trips to each of the four SEC teams ranked in the top-10 throughout conference play – Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee. A trip to No. 8/9 Texas A&M was added for good measure.

• Georgia is one of two teams that will play two of those top-10 programs twice – Auburn and Florida. Kentucky is the other – Alabama and Tennessee.

• Of Georgia's 18 SEC games, 15 are against featured in the latest published edition of ESPN.com's Bracketology, including seven outings top-2 seeds – No. 1 Alabama, No. 1 Auburn (twice), No. 1 Florida (twice), No. 2 Tennessee and No. 2 Texas A&M.

• From the NCAA's original reveal of the projected top 16 seeds for the NCAA Tournament, Georgia will play a total of nine games against seven of those teams – No. 1 Auburn (twice), No. 2 Alabama, No. 4 Florida (twice), No. 5 Tennessee, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 10 Kentucky and No. 16 St. John's.

• At the end of February, Georgia will have played more games during 2025 against top-10 teams – eight – than non top-10 teams – seven.

#CommitToTheGrades

The basketball Bulldogs enjoyed their strongest academic semester ever during the fall of 2024, producing a team grade point average of 3.28. That was not only the program's highest mark ever, but also the second-highest GPA among UGA's nine men's athletic programs last fall.

All told, 12 Georgia players posted a 3.0 or higher in the fall. Tyrin Lawrence led the way with a 4.0, followed by four players between a 3.50-3.99 and seven between a 3.0-3.49.

White Quickly Takes Programs With Losing Records To The AP Top 25

When Georgia appeared at No. 23 in the Jan. 13 AP poll, it represented the third program Mike White has taken a program from a losing record the season before his arrival to a top-25 ranking in less than three years.

The Bulldogs, who were 6-26 in 2021-22, joined the AP poll after improving to 14-4 with back-to-back wins over No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 17/16 Oklahoma the previous week.

White took less than two seasons to earn a top-25 ranking at his previous two head coaching stops. Louisiana Tech was in 12-20 in 2010-11 before White had those Bulldogs ranked No. 25 during the 2012-13 campaign. White inherited a 16-17 team from 2014-15 at Florida. Two seasons later, the Gators topped out at No. 12 in the AP poll during their 2017 "Elite Eight" campaign.

Some More Stuff On The Polls

The Bulldogs were ranked No. 23 in both the AP and coaches polls released on Monday, Jan. 13.

That was Georgia's first appearance in the AP poll in just over 14 years....since Jan. 10, 2011, when the Bulldogs were No. 24. The last time prior to that when Georgia was featured in both polls was nearly 22 years ago...on March 10, 2003, when the Bulldogs were listed at No. 21 and No. 22 in the AP and coaches polls, respectively.

A pair of wins over ranked foes pushed the Bulldogs into the week's polls.

Georgia's 82-69 win over No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 7 and 72-62 decision over No. 17 Oklahoma on Jan. 11 represented the Bulldogs' first back-to-back victories over ranked opponents since beating No. 25 Kentucky and No. 21 LSU in January 2007.

Bulldogs' Beginning Among Their Best Ever

Georgia's 12-1 start to the 2024-25 campaign was the Bulldogs' third-best ever and their best in 94 seasons as outlined below.

Georgia also opened 1930-31 at 12-1 and eventually extended that to a 23-1 record before losing to Maryland in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament and finishing 23-2. That campaign was the last of Coliseum namesake Herman Stegeman's 12 seasons as the Bulldogs' head coach.

Bulldogs' Best Beginnings
Rk.	Season	Rec.
1.	1930-31	23-1
2.	1923-24	13-1
3.	2024-25	12-1
4.	2001-02	11-1
	1996-97	11-1
	1929-30	11-1
	1947-48	11-1
	1920-21	11-1
9.	1995-96	10-1
	1994-95	10-1

Georgia Inks Another Top-15 Recruiting Class

Mike White announced on Friday, Nov. 15 that high school standouts Jackson McVey, Kareem Stagg and Jacob Wilkins inked papers to join the Bulldogs next season.

The trio was ranked No. 11 nationally by Rivals.com, as well as No. 12 by 247Sports.com, giving Georgia its third straight top-15 recruiting class of prep prospects. The Bulldog signees in the Classes of 2024 and 2023 were ranked No. 10 and No. 15, respectively, by both outlets.

McVey, is a 7-1, center from Ellijay, Ga., who is playing at Overtime Elite this season.

Stagg, is a 6-8, forward from Chesapeake, Va., who is in his second season at the IMG Academy.

Wilkins, a 6-9, forward from Loganville, Ga., and Grayson High School is the son of former Bulldog and hall-of-famer Dominique Wilkins.

Asa Equals Nique's Scoring Mark For Debuting Dogs

Asa Newell's 26-point outburst against Tennessee Tech in the season opener tied Dominique Wilkins for the highest offensive output ever by a Bulldog freshman in their collegiate debut.

When asked by media postgame if he knew of Wilkins' legacy, Newell quickly replied: "Yes, for sure. The human highlight reel. I've got a jersey of Dominique back at the crib."

Wilkins wasn't the only elite company Newell joined among the best Bulldog initial outings. Georgia's top-10 list of freshman debuts also includes current NBA stars Anthony Edwards and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as outlined below.

Top Debuts By Bulldog Freshmen
Pts.	Player	Opponent	Date
26	Asa Newell	Tennessee Tech	11/4/24
26	Dominique Wilkins	Troy State	11/30/79
24	Anthony Edwards	W. Carolina	11/5/19
19	Sahvir Wheeler	W. Carolina	11/5/19
19	Terry Fair	Troy State	11/30/79
18	Jeremy Price	Jacksonville St.	11/9/07
18	D.A. Layne	Mercer	11/13/98
17	Rayshaun Hammonds	Bryant	11/10/17
17	Sundiata Gaines	W. Kentucky	11/23/04
15	Kentavious Caldwell-Pope	Wofford	11/11/11

COMPLETE GAME NOTES PDF

View the full game notes PDF.

Bulldogs Trek To Auburn For Seventh Outing Against A Top-10 Team

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Silas Demary Jr.

Dylan James

Tyrin Lawrence

Dakota Leffew

Asa Newell

University of Georgia Athletics

Bulldogs Trek To Auburn For Seventh Outing Against A Top-10 Team

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Silas Demary Jr.

Dylan James

Tyrin Lawrence

Dakota Leffew

Asa Newell

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