Georgia Basketball begins new era under Mike White

ATHENS, Ga. — A new era of Georgia Basketball officially begins on Monday with Mike White coaching his first game in red and black. That probably should have an asterisk next to that since the Bulldogs did host an exhibition last week, one where White said he both saw areas of improvement and others in need of it.

“We defended the three pretty well. A few too many attempts, but some heavy contests, and for the most part, attention to detail was pretty good,” White said. “Our valuing of the basketball, our assist-to-turnover ratio was on point, especially for this early. I thought we just did a pretty good job of mixing in some transition, some pitch aheads, yet some poise as to, ‘We don’t have numbers. Let’s kick it back out and let’s execute something.’ I thought we had a pretty good feel there.”

“It’s really early, so we hope we don’t really have one or two steps backwards and then a couple forward. Hopefully we can maintain that momentum there,” he continued. “Defensive rebounding was a concern. Then, when you watch it on film, that remain a concern. We’ve got to get better, they’re more physical. Our guards got to help our bigs. We got to do a better job collectively. Then, we’ve got to be better on the offensive glass. We’re just we’re a more talented rebounding team than we displayed. We can do that, and we’ll drill it. A lot of what you do this time of year, as we talked about, is trial and error. What is the glaring weakness this week? Let’s try to plug that hole. At the same time, make sure we don’t leave alone some of the things that we’ve gotten better at in the meantime.”

The Bulldogs beat Georgia College 66-52 in the exhibition, being led in scoring by Oklahoma State transfer Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe. With 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 from the free throw line, Moncrieffe was tied atop the box score with Georgia’s leading scorer from last season Kario Oquendo. Moncrieffe also flirted with a double-double as he brought down nine rebounds including six on the offensive end.

“He’s that guy every day, maybe not so much in terms of numbers, those things play out like that often, sometimes they don’t. But in terms of the intensity level, looks exhausted between whistles, he’s that type of guy. He just plays really, really hard, and he’s the guy that’s going to have to ask for a break every once in a while, which we like to see. He just leaves it out there,” White said on Moncrieffe, one of nine newcomers on this Georgia roster including six out of the transfer portal. “The biggest possession of the game, for us, was an extra possession, which I believe led to an open three, where he he dove on the floor, got a huge loose ball and then pursued another [offensive rebound]. He’s just a multiple effort guy who’s still got development offensively and defensively, and he’s expanding expand his game offensively. His ability at 6-foot-7, 6-foot-7 and a half with good length to drive it and pass it, to post, he’s versatile. In time as he becomes a better outside shooter and just polishes his game with finishing overall. He’s going to be a good player.”

Georgia hosts Western Carolina at Stegeman Coliseum for the season-opener of the 2022-23 campaign, its first with White as the head coach. He previously led rival Florida to four straight NCAA Tournament bids and six straight postseason appearances. Dating back to his days at Louisiana Tech and excluding the COVID-cancelled 2020 postseason, White’s teams have made nine straight trips to the postseason.

“I’m fired up. I felt it the other day in the exhibition just wearing different colors, sitting in a different place and coaching new guys, all new guys, not [just] a few,” White said. “I’m sure for all of us, a little bit emotional, a little different, a little bit more exciting. Probably more distraction than we’ll have moving forward. Hopefully at least, especially in game one. You hope that we’ve got a lot of that behind us. I’m sure there will still be some more, but we’ll see.”

Tipoff time for tonight’s game against the Catamounts is tentatively set for 8:00 p.m. ET, streaming on SEC Network+. Georgia’s women’s basketball team plays host to East Carolina starting at 6:00 p.m. ET as part of an opening night doubleheader. The men will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the women’s game.