Mike White talks Georgia Basketball balance of newcomers and returnees
Georgia Basketball rounded out its roster for the 2024-25 season late last week as the Bulldogs added Serbian point guard Savo Drezgic. The move, which brings Georgia to the full 13 scholarship allotment, puts UGA up to No. 12 in the nation for the Class of 2024. Georgia also signed a top-10 class in the country out of the transfer portal – one of three schools alongside Kansas and LSU to rank top-15 in both categories.
What does all of it mean? Georgia should have a much more competitive team. That starts however with one player who’s not new: sophomore point guard Silas Demary.
Named to the Freshman All-SEC team this past season, Demary started all but one game for Georgia in 2023-24. He finished third on the team in scoring (9.7 points per game), third on the team in rebounding (3.8 rebounds per game) and second on the team in assists (2.5 assists per game) while leading the Bulldogs in steals (1.4 steals per game). In his first season at the collegiate level, much was put on Demary’s plate – as demonstrated by him playing the second most minutes (27.8 minutes per game) – and even more will be on it this season as a leader. His decision to return was the first step in being that guy for Mike White and company.
“I think he’s got to answer questions and I’ve got to answer questions, and going back to it, he answered correctly. He could’ve made it a little bit easier and maybe I could’ve made it a little bit easier, but we’re all learning in these new times. Adapting to the fact everyone in college basketball has options every spring,” White said when asked if he was at all nervous Demary might decide to enter the transfer portal instead of returning for a second season in Athens. “If the portal word would’ve never popped up around him, nobody ever would’ve talked about or written it. That said, I anticipated he would come back and would want to come back. He had a really good experience, a great freshman year and I’m excited about coaching him moving forward.”
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Demary being one of just three returnees from last year’s team alongside Blue Cain and Dylan James is a sign of the times according to White. Georgia had seven players transfer out of the program including second-leading scorer Jabri Abdur-Rahim, second-leading rebounder RJ Melendez and assist leader Justin Hill. The Bulldogs went and replaced them with the incoming talent of 2024 recruits and transfers like Tyrin Lawrence (Vanderbilt), Justin Abson (Appalachian State) and De’Shayne Montgomery (Mount St. Mary’s). They’ll be joined by RJ Godfrey (Clemson) and Dakota Leffew (Mount St. Mary’s) too in what White believes is a new-norm in College Basketball.
“I do think we’ll go back 20% or 30% less in the portal next year. I believe that with the COVID year having played out. That said though, I do believe it’s the new norm,” White said about the transfer portal. “I think some of the outliers are the programs that are established at the point that they want to be. Until we get Georgia consistently going to an NCAA Tournament, we’ll probably have more movement than we’d like to have. That said though, across the board the days of not losing guys in the spring is over.”
White and Georgia will look to build on the Bulldogs’ strong finish to last season, one in which UGA won 20 games for the first time in eight years. Georgia made the postseason for the first time since 2017 and advanced to the NIT semifinals with wins over Xavier (Big East), Wake Forest (ACC) and Ohio State (Big Ten), the latter two of which came on the road.
