Georgia Basketball gets opportunity to go abroad, bond this summer
Georgia Basketball is headed abroad this summer. Details have yet to be officially announced, however, athletics director Josh Brooks made mention of a trip to Italy in July where the Bulldogs will have an opportunity to bond both on and off the court during his time at the UGA Athletics Association Board of Directors meeting.
According to Brooks, the trip has been planned for quite some time as a part of an effort to give all Georgia student-athletes various experiences. Women’s basketball was the last team to have the opportunity, and it just so happened that the chance for the men’s basketball team came at a time when the Bulldogs are reloading with new faces all around.
Georgia signed nine new players for 2023-24 including seven that decided to come aboard this offseason.
The Bulldogs picked up RJ Melendez (Illinois), Jalen DeLoach (VCU), Russel Tchewa (South Florida), Noah Thomasson (Niagara) and RJ Sunahara (Nova Southeastern) out of the transfer portal. Sunahara seems to be the biggest addition from the portal as the reigning Division II Player of the Year, but don’t count out possible contributions from Melendez as a shooter, DeLoach and Tchewa as big men and Thomasson as a scorer.
Meanwhile, Mari Jordan and Dylan James signed last November from the high school ranks before Blue Cain and Silas Demary joined Georgia’s Class of 2023 this spring. Three of the four rank in the top 100 according to the On3 Industry Ranking with all four having at least one of the major recruiting services ranking them within the top 100 including Cain, a consensus top-100 player.
That type of recruiting earned praise from Brooks during his presentation to the board. In pointing out the success sports had been having as of late, the top-10 transfer portal class and top-20 Class of 2023 were brought up as a sign of men’s basketball headed in the right direction.
“What impressed me most about Mike is his attitude and when the season ended, we spoke immediately and he was ready to get after it,” Brooks said. “He said ‘We’re going to get this thing fixed. We’re going to get it right.’ It was never a moment of negativity, it was all positivity, how it was going to move forward.
“I think that translated into an active recruiting approach for both high school and transfers and I think that positive energy he displayed and the can-do-itness, it paid off,” Brooks continued. “I think he revamped the roster and I’m excited to see where it’s going to go and so excited, they’re going to get that opportunity to go to Italy, not just from competing but what a great experience for young men to be able to go to Italy and experience an opportunity that they may never have.”
In year one under White, Georgia improved from 6-26 in 2021-22 to 16-16 in 2022-23. The 10-win improvement represented the second biggest regular season improvement by a Power Five program last season.
The Bulldogs bring back a couple of pieces from that team. Jabri Abdur-Rahim had the team’s highest 3-point percentage at 38.7%. He’ll serve as a leader having been in the program for three seasons and seen the improvement that is possible. Then there’s Frank Anselem-Ibe, Justin Hill and Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe who all transferred in this time last year and should seem more settled their second go-around at Georgia.
