- Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
- Venue: Bud Walton Arena (19,200)
- Location: Fayetteville, Ark.
- TV: SEC Network (Roy Philpott, play-by-play; Jimmy Dykes, analyst)
- Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 380 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
- Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix
The Starting 5…
- Georgia opens a two-game road trip by trekking to Fayetteville to face Arkansas on Wednesday evening at Bud Walton Arena. The Bulldogs will take on No. 5/6 Florida on Saturday in Gainesville.
- Georgia, which played five straight ranked opponents to begin the SEC campaign, is in the midst of a six-game span featuring four top-10 opponents – No. 6/6 Tennessee, No. 1/1 Auburn, No. 5/6 Florida and No. 4/3 Alabama – with three of those matchups being on the road.
- Mike White has now led three programs with losing records the season before he arrived to top-25 AP rankings in less than three years. He also did so at Louisiana Tech (12-20 in 2010-11 to No. 25 in 2013) and Florida (16-17 in 2014-15 to No. 12 during 2017 “Elite Eight” campaign).
- The Bulldogs entered the week ranked 31.8 in an average of six popular metrics (NET, KenPom, Torvik, KPI, BPI and SOR) – an increase of 187.2 spots since Mike White became UGA’s head coach.
- Asa Newell has been named SEC Freshman of the Week three times, the second most ever by a Bulldog behind only Anthony Edwards’ four certificates during the 2019-20 season.
The Opening Tip
The Georgia Bulldogs open a two-game road swing this week by traveling to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas on Wednesday evening at Bud Walton Arena. Georgia will then venture to Gainesville to face the No. 5/6 Florida Gators on Saturday.
Georgia is 14-4 overall and 2-3 to open league play, with all five league foes to date being ranked – No. 24/23 Ole Miss, No. 6/7 Kentucky, No. 17/16 Oklahoma, No. 6/6 Tennessee and No. 1/1 Auburn.
Such is life in the SEC in 2025.
The Arkansas matchup is the third in a six-game span when the Bulldogs will play four top-10 teams. Georgia dropped decisions to No. 6/6 Tennessee and No. 1/1 Auburn last week and after playing No. 5/6 Florida on Saturday, will take on No. 4/3 Alabama the following Saturday.
Georgia’s balanced offense features seven players who have led the Bulldogs in one or more games. Two more players have posted double-figure scoring outputs. All told, those nine Bulldogs have produced 70 double-digit performances.
Asa Newell, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the third time this season last Monday, leads a trio of Bulldogs averaging double figures at 15.3 ppg. He also paces UGA on the boards at 6.8 rpg. Among league leaders, Newell is ranked No. 17 in scoring and No. 13 rebounding – including an SEC-best 3.4 offensive boards per game. He also is No. 3 the SEC and No. 37 nationally in field goal percentage (.570).
A single point separates the production of Georgia’s other double-digit scorers, with Dakota Leffew at 11.8 ppg and Silas Demary Jr. at 11.7 ppg.
Scouting The Razorbacks
Arkansas is 11-7 overall and 0-5 in the SEC to date. The Razorbacks spent six of the first eight weeks of the season ranked in the nation’s top 25 before league play began.
Adou Theiro, who transferred from Kentucky to remain with head coach John Calipari, leads Arkansas in both scoring (16.4 ppg) and rebounds (6.0 rpg).
Freshman Boogie Fland, who is contributing 15.1 ppg, paces the Razorbacks at 5.7 apg and sports an even more stellar assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.68. D.J. Wagner, another Kentucky transfer, is also scoring at a double-figure clip for Arkansas at 10.1 ppg.
Series History With Arkansas
Arkansas enters Wednesday’s matchup with Georgia sporting a 27-17 advantage in the all-time series.
The Bulldogs and Razorbacks split a home-and-home series last season, with each team winning on its home floor.
In the most recent meeting last Feb. 10 in Fayetteville, Georgia fought back from a 12-point, second-half deficit to grab a 66-65 lead with just under four minutes remaining but could not complete the comeback and fell 78-75 at Arkansas.
The Dogs and Hogs traded the lead five times over during the final 3:57 of the contest. The Razorbacks went on top for good with 54 seconds remaining.
A month earlier to the day, Georgia never trailed en route to a 76-66 win over Arkansas at Stegeman Coliseum on Jan. 19.
The Bulldogs scored the game’s first six points and never looked back. The lead bulged to 13 before Georgia settled on a 34-24 halftime lead. Arkansas inched back into the game and pulled with three on three occasions; however, the Bulldogs answered each time.
Last Time Out
No. 1/1 Auburn built a 27-9 early lead and then withstood several valiant comeback attempts by No. 23/23 Georgia to secure a 70-68 win over the Bulldogs before a sell-out crowd at Stegeman Coliseum last Saturday.
Georgia made it a one-possession game four times before the Tigers pushed their 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.
“(We) better rest tomorrow and get better on Monday,” head coach Mike White said. “Our guys understand that there are some areas that we can improve. Auburn has got a bunch of winning experience. We hope to be a team that’s the same over time. Who knows when that is, but that’s the hope. (I) hope this team can reach their ceiling. There are a few things that we could have done better, of course, but when you’re playing some of the best teams in the country, your warts are exposed a little bit. It’s a little bit easier for learning situations to resonate with our guys. So, we’ll look forward to trying to consolidate as quickly as we can to watch on Monday and discuss it.”
GYM: Georgia Adds Clemson Quad Meet to Schedule
The 13th-ranked University of Georgia GymDogs have added a road meet at No. 24 Clemson on Friday, Feb. 28. The meet will now be a quad meet featuring the Bulldogs and Tigers along with New Hampshire and Texas Woman’s University.
Tickets for the event, announced as the annual Military Appreciation Day and will begin at 5 p.m. at Little John Coliseum, are available at ClemsonTigers.com. A minimal amount of tickets will be available day-of as walk-ups on a first come, first serve basis.
Georgia will host No. 6 Kentucky at Stegeman Coliseum two days later on Sunday, March 2 at 6 p.m. set to air on SEC Network.
