How did Tom Crean & Georgia replace NINE transfers in 2021?

At Georgia, Tom Crean is scaring away players faster than he can coach them. Following a 14-12 campaign and 10th place finish in the SEC in 2020-21, NINE of his players entered the transfer portal (one of them now controlling the Kentucky offense) and migrated to other programs this past offseason.

All told, Crean lost four of his five starters and his six leading scorers to the portal. He had no choice but to hit that same portal hard this summer to reconstruct his roster. Ahead of Kentucky’s matchup with the Dawgs, let’s look at who replaced the departed nine.

Returners

Nine players left, but a few stuck around. The most prominent returner was P.J. Horne, a 6-foot-6 forward that played a lot of center at Virginia Tech for three years before transferring to Georgia last season. He started all but one game for UGA and hit the game-winning layup at the buzzer vs. Kentucky — if you can remember that. In another kick to the groin for Tom Crean, Horne tore his ACL just before the 2021-22 season.

The next leading returner is Jaxon Etter, a former walk-on and Real Estate major who definitely looks the part. According to the Georgia Athletics website, his career highlights include a run of eight charges drawn in Georgia’s final 11 games in 2021 and a plus/minus of +8 in “just” four minutes played vs. Samford.

The only other returner that’s logged consequential minutes this year is Tyron McMillan, whose one shining moment in a Georgia jersey was making two of three shots against Vandy last year.

JUCO Transfers

Tom Crean hit the Junior College waters for his second-leading scorer so far in ’21-’22. Nick Oquendo, a 6-foot-4 guard, shot 55% from the field and 40% from three in JUCO play last season. This year he averages 12.2 points a game and scored a season-high 24 in Georgia’s marquee win over Memphis.

Georgia’s other JUCO product looked like a big get. Dalen Ridgnal led the JUCO ranks in total points and rebounds last year but is averaging just north of two per game in both categories as a Bulldog.

Division I Transfers

Crean filled a large portion of his empty cupboard by pillaging mediocre players on other D-1 rosters. His leading scorer and rebounder so far, averaging 12.8 and 5.9 respectfully, is Braelen Bridges. A forward who came off the bench and was a hair short of averaging double-digits for UIC last year.

Arguably the most important player on this team, Aaron Cook is a collegiate journeyman who played four years at Southern Illinois before transferring to Gonzaga and serving as the first guard off the bench for the greatest Zags team in school history. He’s followed in Sahvir Wheeler‘s footsteps, averaging nearly seven assists as the captain of Crean’s offense.

On the wing, Georgia brought in West Coast sniper Noah Baumann, maker of 43.9% of over 300 career three-point attempts between stops at San Jose State and USC. They also nabbed Jabri Abdur-Rahim from Virginia. Yes, Shareef’s son. He was the No. 38 player overall in the 2020 recruiting class by ESPN, but made just two shots as a freshman for the Wahoos before deciding to take his talents a few states south.

Lastly, there’s Jailyn Ingram. He started in five different seasons for Florida Atlantic. Ingram scored 19 points a game in 2019 before a knee injury took him out for the season. He hasn’t put up similar numbers since but is posting 10.7 points and six rebounds a game for Georgia this season.

Freshmen

Oddly, Crean only recruited two freshmen to contribute to this year’s team, both ranked in the mid-200s out of high school. 6-3 guard Christian Wright is the productive one. He’s started a handful of games and scores just under six points a game.

6-5 guard Cam McDowell is the other. He’s only appeared in one game, though. McDowell enjoyed 14 minutes of action in a 17-point home loss to Gardner-Webb in late December but has been absent from every other game this season.

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So that is your 2021-22 Georgia Bulldogs Basketball Team. What a collection of characters. They made for amusing research, but their basketball abilities are about what you’d expect. Check out Brandon Ramsey’s scouting report post later in the day, where I guess he’ll attempt to break down whatever it is these guys do on the court. I’d assume it’s not too pretty.