Georgia (1-1) vs. Miami (Ohio) (1-1)

Monday, November 18 at 7:00 p.m.

Stegeman Coliseum (10,523) in Athens, Ga.

Series History: UGA leads, 1-0

Last meeting: UGA, 64-59, on 12/21/01

Streaming: SEC Network+ (Jeff Dantzler, pbp; Marcus Thornton, analyst)

Radio: Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network (WSB AM 750; SiriusXM: 192; SXM App: 963) (Scott Howard, pbp; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)

The Starting Five

• UGA won its only prior game vs. Miami in the semifinals of the 2001 Rainbow Classic in Honolulu.

• UGA is 5-0 all-time vs. teams currently in the MAC: 2-0 vs. Buffalo & 1-0 vs. Bowling Green, E. Michigan & Miami.

• UGA’s 5 returning letterwinners accounted for 60.9 percent of the Bulldogs’ points last season.

• 5 of UGA’s 6 new transfers – Anselem, Hill, Holt, Moncrieffe & McBride – have played on NCAA Tourney teams.

• UGA has signed a top-25 recruiting class comprised of 2 top-100 prospects according to ESPN.com.

The Opening Tip

Georgia returns to action on Monday against Miami (Ohio) looking to rebound from its first loss of the season. The Bulldogs dropped an 81-71 decision at Wake Forest last Friday.

After trailing by 19 points at halftime and by 22 with 6:35 left, Georgia rallied to trim that margin to single digits four times but could not complete the comeback.

The Bulldogs played without starter Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe due to an ankle injury. Freshman KyeRon Lindsay got the nod in his place and responded with the first double-digit scoring output of his career.

Georgia produced a balanced scoring attack, with Madrez McBride and Terry Roberts putting up 13 points apiece, Kario Oquendo adding 12 and Lindsay chipping in 10.

Keepin An Eye On: Entering Today’s Game . . .

Mike White is...

• 6 wins from 250 for his career

Braelen Bridges is...

• 114 points from 1,000 for his career

• 63 rebounds from 500 for his career

Jailyn Ingram is...

• 70 points from 1,500 for his career

• 16 rebounds from 700 for his career

Series History With Miami

Georgia won its only previous matchup with Miami, a 64-59 victory over the RedHawks in the semifinals of the 38th Annual Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic in Honolulu on Dec. 21, 2001.

The Bulldogs bested Miami a day after its upset of No. 10 Boston College in the opening round.

Georgia built a 21-point lead in the second half before holding off the hard-charging RedHawks in the final minutes.

Ezra Williams led the Bulldogs with 17 points, while Jarvis Hayes added 14.

After trailing 17-14, Georgia went off on a 13-5 run, with Williams knocking down a pair of 3-pointers, to give the Bulldogs a 30-19 lead at the half.

Georgia used a 17-6 surge to open the second stanza to bulge the Bulldogs’ lead to 47-26. However, Miami countered with a 19-9 spurt to get back into the contest.

It took six consecutive free throws from Rashad Wright to secure the victory. He made his first pair with 2:55 left, after Miami sliced the lead down to 58-52.

The RedHawks countered with a rebound and putback with 2:24 left. Wright connected on four straight trips to the line to push the Bulldogs’ edge back to 62-54.

Georgia went on to drop a 54-44 decision to host Hawaii in the tournament’s championship game.

Scouting The RedHawks

Miami arrives in Athens with a 1-1 record under first-year head coach Travis Steele, who shifted offices less than an hour from Xavier’s campus in Cincinnati to Miami during the offseason.

The RedHawks dropped a 78-74 decision to Evansville in their opener last Monday before topping NAIA foe Goshen, 87-44, on Saturday afternoon.

Miami’s roster features seven returnees, led by starter Mekhi Lairy and his 13.6 ppg scoring average, three transfers and five freshmen.

Anderson Mirambeaux made quite the debut for Miami. After averaging 1.5 points and 1.7 rebounds at Cleveland State last season, Mirambeaux exploded for 27 points and eight boards against Evansville.

Last Time Out

Wake Forest withstood a furious late-game rally by Georgia to secure an 81-71 victory over the Bulldogs last Friday night.

Mardrez McBride and Terry Roberts led a quartet of Bulldogs in double figures in the contest with 13 points apiece.

The Demon Deacons outscored Georgia 22-8 over the final 8:57 of the first half to build a 41-22 advantage at the intermission.

After several attempts to chip away at that margin during the second stanza, Georgia finally made some headway. The Bulldogs trailed 69-47 at the 6:35 mark before making things interesting.

Kario Oquendo scored the first five points in an 18-4 run that cut the margin to eight points with 1:21 left. The Demon Deacons were clutch at the line, thwarting Georgia’s comeback by connecting on 8-of-9 trips to the charity stripe thereafter.

Not Much “Maction” For Dogs

Monday’s game will be just Georgia’s sixth against teams that currently comprise the Mid-American Conference.

In addition to the win over Miami in 2001, the Bulldogs are 2-0 vs. Buffalo and 1-0 vs. both Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan.

It has been more than a decade since Georgia faced a MAC foe. In the most recent contest, the Bulldogs topped BGSU, 63-54, on Nov. 13, 2011 in a preliminary round game of the Progressive CBE Classic in Athens. Gerald Robinson scored a game-high 15 points to lead Georgia, which also received 11 points from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in just the second outing of his collegiate career.

Lindsay Off To Solid Start

KyeRon Lindsay, who was rated as the nation’s No. 87 prospect in the Class of 2022 by 247Sports.com, has made a significant in each of his first three outings in a Georgia uniform.

In the Bulldogs’ exhibition against Georgia college, the freshman from Denton, Texas, scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field. He tied for the team-high rebounding count with six boards in the season opener versus Western Carolina. With Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe out of action due to an ankle injury at Wake Forest, Lindsay made his first start in Winston-Salem and scored 10 points.

In those three outings, Lindsay has averaged 6.7 points while shooting a stellar 69.2 percent from the floor.

Miami AD Has ties To Georgia

David Sayler, Director of Athletics for Miami, spent two years early in his career as assistant director of marketing and promotions for UGA Athletics.

Sayler’s primary responsibilities surrounded Lady Bulldog Basketball, coming to Athens after spending the previous two seasons in a similar role while in graduate school at Connecticut.

After working with the Lady Bulldogs from 1996-98, Sayler’s career progressed in administrative roles at Hartford, Houston, Bowling Green, Oregon State and Rice before he was named AD at South Dakota in 2010. He assumed his current position at Miami in 2013.

RedHawk Athletics has enjoyed great success under Sayler’s guidance. Miami won the MAC’s Cartwright Award and unprecedented three-straight times in 2017-2018, 2018-19 and 2020-21 (it was not awarded in 2019-20). The award is voted on by all league institutions and recognizes the best Athletic Department in the conference in the areas of academics, community service and competitive results.

Bulldogs Ink Top-25 Class

Georgia opened the NCAA’s early signing period with a bang, signing two players ranked among the nation’s top-100 prospects in the Class of 2023 to give the Bulldogs a recruiting class ranked No. 25 nationally by ESPN.com.

Forwards Lamariyon “Mari” Jordan and Dylan James are currently ranked No. 72 and No. 94 nationally by ESPN.com, respectively.

“It’s an exciting day for us to be able to sign two players that we targeted and invested a lot of time and energy in,” head coach Mike White said. “Both of these guys are excited to be Bulldogs.”

James, a 6-9, 190-pound power forward helped lead Winter Haven High School to the semifinals of the 2022 Florida Class 6A state tournament. He was selected as the Lakeland Ledger’s Player of the Year after averaging 15.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.4 blocks, 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game last season for the Blue Devils, who finished 23-8 overall. James helped Winter Haven compile a 23-9 record as a freshman before playing at The Rock School during his sophomore year.

“Dylan has tremendous length for a guy who shoots the ball the way that he does. He also has the ability to post,” White said. “Like Mari, he has a chance to be a very good defender as well.”

James’ and his Winter Haven teammates began the 2022-23 season ranked No. 67 nationally by MaxPreps.

James also was ranked as the nation’s No. 94 prospect by 247Sports.com, as well as No. 115 by On3.com and No. 133 by Rivals.com.

Jordan, a 6-6, 185-pound small forward was tabbed first-team All-State for Class 6A by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a junior after averaging 19.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.2 steals per game for Dacula High School. Over three seasons, Jordan has compiled 1,257 points, 434 rebounds, 128 blocks, 109 assists and 104 steals for the Falcons. He was voted the Region 8-6A Player of the Year and named second-team All-Gwinnett County by the Gwinnett Daily Post as a junior.

“Mari grew up right down the road from Athens and has always admired this university,” White said. “He is a high-energy player who possesses much versatility and has a very good positional size.”

Jordan will spend his senior season playing at Norcross High School, where he has already been tabbed second-team preseason All-State by the Georgia High School Coaches Association (GHSA).

Nationally, Jordan is ranked No. 101 by 247Sports.com and No. 137 by Rivals.com.

Dogs, White In Season Openers

Georgia opened its 118th season of intercollegiate basketball on Nov. 7 with a 68-55 victory over Western Carolina. The Bulldogs improved to 85-33 in the initial contests of those campaigns, including an even more impressive 39-6 mark in openers at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia’s most significant win in an opener at the Coliseum also was its first. In the Bulldogs’ initial opener on Dec. 3 1964, UGA bested No. 13 North Carolina, 64-61.

Mike White is now 9-3 in season openers – 2-2 at Louisiana Tech, 6-1 at Florida and 1-0 at Georgia.

Oquendo Named All-SEC

Kario Oquendo was tabbed second-team preseason All-SEC in balloting of the league’s 14 head coaches announced on Nov. 2.

Oquendo was the Bulldogs’ scoring leader, both overall and in SEC play, last season. He averaged 15.2 points overall and upped his contributions to 18.3 points per game in league play. Oquendo is the SEC’s leading returning scorer from conference action last season.

Oquendo notched 10 20-point performances, with eight of those versus league competition. He poured in a season-high 33 points at Texas A&M, equaling the highest single-game output in league play during the 2021-22 season.

The junior from Titusville, Fla. also built a reputation as one the nation’s top in-game dunkers, appearing on ESPN’s Top-10 plays three times last season – No. 3 on Nov. 16 against S.C. State, No. 6 on No. 23 versus Northwestern and No. 3 on March 1 against Tennessee.

Bridges Finds Bottom Of Net

Braelen Bridges converted on 63.4 percent of his shots from the floor for Georgia last season. That not only led the SEC and ranked No. 7 nationally, it was one of the most efficient campaigns ever for UGA and in league history.

The Union Grove High School product knocked down 161 of his 264 field goals in his first year as a Bulldog in 2021-22.

Among the best single-season field goal percentages for the Bulldogs and within the SEC, Bridges’ effort ranks No. 2 and No. 17 all-time, respectively.

Bridges became the first Bulldog to pace the SEC in shooting efficiency since Lavon Mercer did so in 1980 at 61.1 percent. Interestingly, Mercer set the UGA record (64.3 percent) in 1979 but did not lead the SEC that season.

A “March Madness” Pedigree

Five of Georgia’s six first-year transfers played for teams that reached the 2021 or 2022 NCAA Tournaments at their previous school.

Justin Hill (Longwood) and Jusaun Holt (Alabama) both took part in the “Big Dance” last spring.

Frank Anselem (Syracuse), Madrez McBride (North Texas) and Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe (Oklahoma State) all had tickets punched to the 2021 edition of “March Madness.”

Ingram Offers Experience

According to research by Middle Tennessee’s SID staff, Jailyn Ingram is one of five seventh-year men’s players in Division-I basketball this season.

The Madison, Ga., native spent five seasons at Florida Atlantic before returning to his home state. Ingram played in 122 games for the Owls from 2016-21, including a redshirt campaign in 2018-19. All told, he recorded 1,334 points and 630 rebounds while at FAU, the No. 6 and No. 3 totals in program history.

Ingram played in nine games last season for Georgia before suffering a season-ending injury on Dec. 7 against Jacksonville. He received an additional red-shirt from the NCAA to return to the Bulldogs this season.

That makes Ingram among of quintet of players – including a well-traveled Nittany Lion – competing for a seventh college basketball season this winter as outlined below.

7th-Year Super Duper Seniors

Name Schools

Jailyn Ingram FAU, Georgia

DeAndre Dishman EKU, MTSU

Juan Munoz Longwood, Hawaii

DeJuan Clayton Coppin State, Cal

Michael Henn UC-Davis, Cal Baptist, Portland, Denver, Penn State

A Doubleheader Opener

Both Georgia’s men’s and women’s basketball program began their seasons with a double dip at Stegeman Coliseum on Monday, Nov. 11.

The Lady Bulldogs, who are also under a first-year head coach, defeated Coastal Carolina, 78-61, in the first outing.

Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, more commonly known as “Coach Abe,” was on the sidelines for the first time in Stegeman Coliseum. She also for the Lady Bulldogs from 1985-87. Prior to returning to Athens, “Coach Abe” compiled a 370-156 (.703) record over 17 seasons as a head coach and led teams to postseason bids in 14 of 16 possible seasons, including 11 NCAA Tournament appearances.

The last time the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs hosted a season-opening twin bill was 19 years ago on Nov. 21, 2003.

That evening Lady Bulldogs opened what culminated as an “Elite Eight” campaign by besting Georgia State, 87-48.

The Bulldogs then topped Western Carolina, 78-67, in Dennis Felton’s first outing as Georgia’s head coach. Damien Wilkins led a trio of Bulldogs in double figures with 16 points to counter a 44-point explosion from WCU’s Kevin Martin. Martin went on to score more than 12,000 points during a 12-season NBA career with Sacramento, Houston, Oklahoma City, Minnesota and San Antonio.

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