Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (11-6, 4-6 SEC) vs. Vanderbilt (5-8, 1-6 SEC)

Saturday, February 6, at 6:00 p.m. ET

Stegeman Coliseum (1,638) in Athens, Ga.

Series History: VU leads, 91-55

Last Meeting: UGA, 80-78, on 2/22/20

Watch: SEC Network (Dave Neal, play-by-play; Jon Sunvold, analyst)

Listen: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network: 960 the Ref-AM, Athens; 103.7 WXKT-FM, Gainesville (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)

The Starting Five

• Toumani Camara and Sahvir Wheeler one of only two sets of Division I teammates with five or more double-doubles during the 2020-21 season.

• Andrew Garcia is 39 points shy of 1,000 career points. He scored 780 points in three seasons at Stony Brook before arriving at UGA as a graduate transfer.

• Justin Kier leads the SEC and is No. 33 nationally in average steals at 2.13. That is on pace to be the fifth-best effort by any SEC player in the last decade.

• Eight different Bulldogs have scored in double figures during the 2020-21 season, combining to produce 68 double-digit performances in UGA’s 17 games.

• UGA’s roster features eight newcomers with representative in every class – two freshmen, a sophomore, two juniors and a trio of senior graduate transfers.

The Opening Tip

Georgia looks to continue an impressive recent run of success on Saturday when the Bulldogs host Vanderbilt at 6:00 p.m. The contest was originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m.; however, the tip time was moved on Thursday following the postponement of a matchup between Arkansas and Texas A&M slated for 6:00.

Georgia defeated Ole Miss last Saturday and Auburn on Tuesday in its most recent outings. The cynical among you might scoff at touting a two-game winning streak as “impressive.” A deeper dive into those contests is needed to fully assess that span.

Of the 80 combined minutes in games against the Rebels and Tigers, Georgia led for 79:38 and trailed for just 3:16 (all versus Ole Miss). In addition, the Bulldogs connected on stellar shooting percentages of 51.2 percent overall and 47.1 percent from 3-point range in those outings. By comparison, Georgia entered the Ole Miss contest with percentages of 43.8 overall and 32.0 on 3-pointers in its eight prior SEC games.

Georgia remains one of the nation’s most balanced teams, with six players reaching double figures in the scoring column at Auburn and a seventh ending his night with nine points. Five Bulldogs currently sport double-digit scoring averages and Justin Kier is literally one point shy of being a sixth (159 points in 16 games). In addition, P.J. Horne is contributing a healthy 8.9 ppg.

Keeping An Eye On . . . Entering Tonight’s Game:

Justin Kier is...

• 21 points from 1,300 for his career

Andrew Garcia is...

• 8 rebounds from 500 for his career

• 39 points from 1,000 for his career

Sahvir Wheeler is...

• 8 assists from co.- No. 16s Gerald Rob-inson (2011) and Litterial Green (1989) among UGA’s single-season leaders

• 14 assists from himself and Willie Anderson (1988) at No. 14 among UGA’s single-season leaders

• 11 assists from No. 18 Gino Gianfrancesco among UGA’s career leaders

Series History With Vandy

Vanderbilt owns a 91-55 lead in all-time meetings between the Bulldogs and the Commodores despite Georgia holding a 36-28 edge in matchups contested in Athens.

Last season on Feb. 22 in Nashville, Tyree Crump’s 35-foot bomb as time expired to gave Georgia an 80-78 win over Vanderbilt.

Georgia trailed 72-65 before Jordan Harris, who finished with a season-high 17 points, hit a 3-pointer ignite a 15-6 run over the final 3:31.

Vandy still led 78-73 with 22 seconds left, but Sahvir Wheeler connected on a jumper at the 16-second mark and made two free throws to close the gap to 78-77 with just six ticks left.

After Vanderbilt missed a pair of free throws, Crump came in from behind the 3-point line to gather the rebound tipped out by Harris, took two dribbles and then knocked down the game-winner from straight away that cleared the net after the final horn sounded.

In the most recent meeting in Athens on Jan. 19, 2019, Rayshaun Hammonds scored 19 points, all in the second half, to lead Georgia in an 82-63 victory over Vanderbilt before a crowd of 9,429.

On the first day of classes on the UGA campus, 2,720 students – 720 more than the student allotment – showed up for the game.

A back-and-forth first half featured six ties and six lead changes before the Bulldogs garnered a 34-33 edge at the break. Hammonds knocked down a 3-pointer 14 seconds into the second stanza and Georgia never trailed the rest of the evening.

Scouting The Commodores

Vanderbilt arrives in Athens with records of 5-8 overall and 1-6 in SEC play.

Most recently, the Commodores produced their most impressive performance of the season, defeating South Carolina 93-81 last Saturday in Nashville. Vanderbilt’s scheduled midweek date with Texas A&M was canceled due to a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Texas A&M program, consistent with SEC COVID-19 management requirements.

Scotty Pippen Jr. paces the Commodores and ranks second in the SEC in scoring at 21.7 ppg. He also is second in the conference in assists, with his 5.5 apg effort trailing only Sahvir Wheeler’s 7.4 apg. Dylan Disu is chipping in 14.0 ppg while also grabbing a league-best 8.3 rpg.

Last Time Out

Tye Fagan scored seven points in the first 103 seconds to stake Georgia to a 7-2 lead and the Bulldogs led the rest of the way en route to a 91-86 win over Auburn Tuesday night on The Plains.

The win avenged a Georgia setback to the Tigers just 20 days earlier in Athens.

Fagan’s first bucket came just 22 seconds after the tipoff and the Bulldogs remained on top for the remaining 39:38 of the night.

Fagan paced a half-dozen Georgia players in double figures with 16 points, followed by Toumani Camara with 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds; P.J. Horne and Sahvir Wheeler both with 13 points; K.D. Johnson with 12; and Justin Kier with 11.

Georgia led 39-30 at halftime before Auburn cut that advantage to three points twice in the first five minutes of the second period.

After the Tigers pulled within 55-52 with 15:36 remaining, the Bulldogs exploded on a 14-2 run to gain their largest lead of the night at 69-54 with 10:44 left.

The final margin of victory – five points – was as close as the Tigers got in the final 15-plus minutes of action.

New Faces In New Places

There are no less than 16 first-year players in Saturday’s game as the rosters of both Georgia and Vanderbilt include eight newcomers in their first season of action.

Georgia’s octet newcomers features a representative of every class – freshmen K.D. Johnson and Josh Taylor, sophomore Tyron McMillan, juniors Jonathan Ned and Mikal Starks; and graduate transfer seniors Andrew Garcia, P.J. Horne and Justin Kier.

The ledger of Vanderbilt’s first-year players is comprised of six freshmen, a junior transfer and a senior transfer.

This One Is Hard To Believe

While we’re talking about newcomers, let’s go to the other end of the spectrum.

Saturday will be Georgia’s 11th SEC outing of the season.

Vanderbilt’s trio of two fourth- (Maxwell Evans and Isaiah Rice) and one fifth-year (Clevon Brown) players who have spent their entire collegiate careers as Commodores is three times as many players who meet that qualification in the Bulldogs’ first 10 league contests combined.

That’s right, Devontae Shuler of Ole Miss is the only senior to play his entire career at one school in any of those 10 games.

Not only does Georgia not have such a senior, neither have any of the Bulldogs’ other league foes to date – Mississippi State, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Florida and South Carolina.

Bulldogs Who Give And Take

Georgia’s Sahvir Wheeler and Justin Kier enter this weekend leading the SEC in assists and steals, respectively.

Wheeler not only tops the league, he is ranked No. 4 nationally as outlined on below. He is averaging 7.4 apg, an eye-catching 1.9 apg more than any other player in the SEC entering this weekend.

In fact, Wheeler’s career average of 5.50 apg is slightly better than the second-best season average in the SEC for 2020-21, Scotty Pippen of Vanderbilt’s 5.46.

While Wheeler is fourth nationally in assist average, he is No. 2 in total assists at 125.

Kier’s 2.1 spg average ranked 33rd nationally as of Friday. Kier’s current pace would be one of the best by any SEC over the past decade as outlined below.

NCAA Average Assist Leaders

Rk.          Player, School                                    Asts.      Avg.

1.             Jalen Moore, Oakland                         168         8.0

2.             Kendric Davis, SMU                            106         7.6

3.             Jason Preston, Ohio                            96            7.5

4.             Sahvir Wheeler, Georgia                  125         7.4

5.             Colbey Ross, Pepperdine                   110         7.3

Best SEC Steals Averages (2011-21)

Rk.          Player, School (Season)                  Stls.        Avg.

1.             Anthony Hickey, LSU (2013)              85            2.93                 2.             Tremont Waters, LSU (2019)             96            2.91

3.             Trevor Releford, Alabama (2014)      69            2.23

4.             Sidarius Thornwell, S.C. (2017)        66            2.13

5.             Justin Kier, Georgia (2021)             34            2.13

Fagan, Garcia Get To 10+ efficiently

Tye Fagan and Andrew Garcia are Georgia’s two most efficient scorers. Fagan is connecting on a team-best 60.0 percent of his shots from the field, while Garcia is converting on 58.8 percent.

When those two Bulldogs hit double figures, those shooting percentages improve even more.

In Fagan’s eight double-figure outings he has connected on 69.2 percent (45-of-65) of his field goal attempts. That list includes a 9-of-9 effort at Ole Miss when he became the 11th player this season to have a perfect performance from the floor when attempting at least nine shots.

In Garcia’s nine double-digit games this season he has made 65.8 percent (50-of-76) of his field goals.

Camara’s Production Increases

Toumani Camara’s scoring efforts – and its consistency – have increased dramatically from last season.

The sophomore from Brussels’ improved production can be traced to last season. After scoring in double figures once in the Bulldogs’ first 16 games, he did so seven times in the final 16 outings.

With 13 more double-digit tallies this season, Camara has now scored 10 or more points in 20 of his last 32 outings at Georgia.

Thank You Sir May I Have Another

Entering the Vanderbilt game, Georgia has committed 291 turnovers this season.

UGA’s opponents also have turned the ball over 291 times.

That gives the Bulldogs a Senator John Blutarsky-esque turnover margin of...“zero–point-zero.”

Don’t Sell Him Short

Entering this weekend, 64 D-I players nationally had recorded five or more double-doubles this season. The average height of those players is 6-feet, 7.89-inches tall.

Georgia’s Sahvir Wheeler, who is 5-10, is the shortest player on that list one of just two who is not 6-0 or taller along with 5-11 Jalen Moore from Oakland.

Each Wheeler’s quintet is of the point-assist variety. Seventeen games into the campaign, Wheeler has the second-most point-assist double-doubles of any SEC player in the 2000s as outlined in the next column.

Wheeler opened the campaign with a trio of those against Florida A&M, North Georgia and Jacksonville. He is believed to be the first SEC player with three straight point-assist double-doubles Mississippi State’s Chuck Evans in 1993. Wheeler posted a fourth double-double at LSU and a fifth versus Florida.

He also flirted with a more traditional double-double at South Carolina, scoring nine points and a grabbing career-best nine boards.

SEC Pt.-Ast. Double-Doubles In 2000s

Rk.          No.          Player, School                    Season                  GP

1.             7              Tyler Ulis, Kentucky             2015-16                 35

2.             5              Sahvir Wheeler, Georgia  2020-21                 17

3.             4              Tremont Waters, LSU         2018-19                 33

4              Tremont Waters, LSU         2017-18                 33

4              Phil Pressey, Missouri         2012-13                 34

6.             3              Jabril Durham, Arkansas    2015-16                 32

3              Dee Bost, Mississippi St.    2011-12                 33

3              John Wall, Kentucky            2009-10                 37

3              Nick Calathes, Florida         2008-09                 36

3              Torris Bright, LSU                 2002-03                 32

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