Mike White praises Terry Roberts for 'confidence, poise'

Last year, Terry Roberts was a junior at Bradley fresh out of the JUCO ranks, leading the Braves with 14.5 points per game en route to Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year honors. But he entered the transfer portal after the season and ultimately landed at Georgia under first-year coach Mike White, and it’s safe to say he’s fitting in well.

Roberts leads the Bulldogs with 15 points per game and was a key part of their victory over No. 25 Auburn this week to open SEC play. It’s been quite a season for the first team All-MVC selection, who joined a number of players from the league in the portal and jumping to the SEC.

White has seen Roberts’ game change as he got acquainted with the SEC landscape. In fact, he said the Auburn game was a big turning point — one that usually doesn’t happen until a little later in conference play.

“Confidence. Poise,” White said of what stood out about Roberts’ performance against Auburn. “The game has slowed for him a little bit, as it does most point guards. Surprisingly, it happened in the first SEC game as opposed to the seventh or the third. Hopefully, again, there’s not a step backwards and two steps forwards for him.

“He played really well. That’s a high-level point guard game in this league against a high-level defense. Hopefully, he’s got a few more of those in him. [His] confidence, swagger led us. He had command, got guys in spots, he made plays in transition, made some hard ones, he got to the rim.”

Roberts has been a key part of keeping Georgia competitive in games, and White noted that, too. Still, he wants to see the Bulldogs improve there, and it starts with Roberts.

“We’ve continued to grow in that area,” White said. “Terry’s grown up a lot. Maybe we can have a potentially a very competitive bench that’s interested in making winning plays as opposed to trying to make hard shots and coach keeps [them] in the game. We’ve got to continue to work on defensive rebounding. I’ll watch the film. I’m sure there’ll be a dozen more things that we’ve got to learn from tonight.”

Georgia will have a chance to build on the victory over Auburn when it takes the court Saturday against Florida — where White spent the last seven years before replacing Tom Crean in Athens.