Georgia looking to continue winning ways against talented Arkansas team

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Basketball has a big one Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum as the Bulldogs welcome in to town the Arkansas Razorbacks. Eric Musselman’s team was picked to finish near the top of the league – third place in the preseason – after he’s advanced Arkansas to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in each of its last three appearances including twice (2021, 2022) to the Elite Eight.

“I’m sure Coach has got their attention,” Georgia head coach Mike White said of the Razorbacks coming off of a 32-point loss at home against Auburn over the weekend. “Definitely an outlier I would assume moving forward as you evaluate their results the rest of the season. They’re a good team, a good program that’s had a lot of success in recent years of course. They’ll be ready. They’re really capable, really talented, sit down and guard you, have a bunch of weapons. They’re good.”

In order to walk away from Wednesday’s game with a win and start 2-0 in SEC play, Georgia will need continued contributions from its stars. Jabri Abdur-Rahim (12.9 points per game) and Noah Thomasson (12.5) are each averaging in double figures. Their presence on the wing helped give the Bulldogs a shooting boost on Saturday in the road win at Missouri as UGA made a season-high 12 3-pointers. Georgia has hit at least 10 shots from deep in each of its last three outings. Meanwhile, big man Russel Tchewa had his first double-double since transferring from South Florida with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Going up against an Arkansas roster that features the likes of Tramon Mark, Trevon Brazile and others, those Georgia stars will need to be on their A-game.

Good news for Georgia in need of an outing of that caliber, the Bulldogs are gaining confidence. With each win comes a little bit more belief that they should be winning. It’s no longer a surprise – as has been the case many times over the last few years.

“It just felt like a normal win,” Thomasson said of Saturday’s victory over Missouri. “Obviously it was good to get one on the road. We celebrated it quick, got on the bus and headed to the plane to come back to Athens. That’s what conference play is, you win one and then you’ve got to move on to the next one. We can be happy about it, but if we go into the game still thinking about the Missouri game, the outcome might not be what we want it to be against Arkansas.”

On to the next one. That’s what winning teams do, and it’s what Georgia is trying to do: make wins like Saturday’s more normal to the point where they don’t become as much of a talking point as they are now. That takes time, and it takes learning how to handle different situations.

“I think it happens over time, you gain some confidence,” White said. “The other day and in Tallahassee as we talked about postgame, you gain confidence in our ability to have success on the road. We’ve got to protect home court, but I think it starts in practice. Overcoming adversity in practice, getting comfortable getting uncomfortable. We put our guys in compromising situations as much as possible in practice, and this group has gotten better at some of the stuff we work on. Therefore, we’ve gotten better. That game the other day could’ve gone either way of course, and there will be a bunch more of these 17 like that. Hopefully we can find a way to win a few.”

“It’s exciting, it’s what we’ve all worked for, it’s why these guys came here,” he added about welcoming in a team like Arkansas to Stegeman Coliseum with a chance to win. “We’re all here to compete in the SEC which is now the best league in the country. Missouri’s really good, Arkansas’s really good, the next one will be really good whoever it is. It’s exciting, and it should be exciting for our fans. We’re ready to see what Wednesday night brings.”

Tip time for tonight’s game between the Bulldogs and Razorbacks is set for 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Georgia enters as a slight favorite, 1.5-points at time of publication, according to ESPN BET with a 69.2% chance of victory according to the ESPN Analytics matchup predictor.

NOTES

*** Georgia is riding a nine-game winning streak overall, equaling the program’s fifth-longest winning streak and the fifth longest active streak in the nation entering this week. The Bulldogs are also 9-0 at Stegeman Coliseum this season, UGA’s seventh-longest home win streak overall and sixth-longest in a single season.

*** Four of Arkansas’ five losses come against teams in the AP top 20 this week: No. 7 North Carolina, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 13 Memphis and No. 16 Auburn. The Razorbacks also have a win over No. 11 Duke on their resume

*** Georgia holds a 10-7 lead in meetings between the Bulldogs and Razorbacks in Athens, but the overall series advantage belongs to Arkansas (26-16). Last year saw Arkansas win 97-65 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. This will be the first of two meetings between the teams this season, the next coming on the road for Georgia exactly a month later on February 10th.

*** Georgia’s win at Missouri is the second straight SEC-opening win for the Bulldogs. It’s the first time that’s been done in Athens since 2001-02/2002-03. Furthermore, Mike White is the first UGA coach to win the opener of SEC play in each of his first two seasons since 1946-47/1947-48 when Ralph “Shug” Jordan did so. Jordan of course is better known for his time as the Auburn football coach, becoming the namesake of Jordan-Hare Stadium.

*** Georgia won 10 games in November and December for just the fifth time in program history. Of the previous four teams that did so, three went on to earn NCAA Tournament bids. The one that did not was last season when the Bulldogs finished 16-16, an improvement of 10 wins – one of the largest in the entire NCAA. As for UGA’s NCAA Tournament hopes for this season, Andy Katz of NCAA.com included Georgia in the “First Four Out” of his most recent projection for the field of 68.