Georgia basketball rounding into form as opener approaches

They will count for Georgia basketball moving forward. The Bulldogs will hit the court for their first regular-season game on tonight against Bellarmine at 7:30 p.m. at Stegman Coliseum.

The Bulldogs have already earned two exhibition game wins. Georgia beat Georgia State 65-61 on Oct. 15. Stegman Coliseum’s opener for 2025-2026 came as the Bulldogs rolled 81-65 over Troy on Oct. 26.

Mike White and his staff are still tweaking and learning the roster. There will be eight new faces in Georgia’s rotation this season after transfers out of and into the program.

Georgia will also look very different from its playing style. White has implemented a more up-tempo style of play for this upcoming season.

There is still room to grow following the two exhibition games.

“I think we’re prepared in some areas, and I’m excited to start the next chapter of the journey with this team,” White told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve got a great group of guys. We’ve also got some stuff we’ve got to get better at. But we’ll continue to focus on growing throughout the season. Obviously, you want to win as many as you can, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to continue to get better, too, throughout this season, game to game, practice to practice.”

Georgia is showing off its new conditioning level to play in a new style

With the new style comes a new level of conditioning. Georgia’s big men were challenged this offseason to improve their fitness level.

Players like Somto Cyril and Justin Abson are lighter and leaner than they were last season. Overall, White has been impressed by the team’s conditioning through the first two outings of pre-season.

“I think that’s one of our positives right now,” White said. “I like the condition that our guys are in. We’ve worked really hard. Collin Crane, our strength and conditioning coach, does a terrific job. I don’t know that there’s one guy on the team that I think is far away from game shape. Justin Abson at Somto Cyril, starting with our bigs, probably, have done a good job getting in the best shape of their lives. Our guards, just pressing and running against each other every day, have gotten in really good shape.”

Early areas of concern?

Rebounding is something White was candid about. The Bulldogs will be a much smaller team this season. Troy snagged 14 offensive rebounds in the exhibition game last weekend.

“On the defensive glass, we’ve just got to get better,” White said. “We’ve got to get more physical. We’ve got to find some guys who can raise their level of accountability and block out more consistently. We have got to embrace the fact that we’ve got to do a better job there, or those 14 or 15 that we gave up against Troy will be 23 in an SEC game.”

The opponent

Bellarmine hails from the Atlantic Sun Conference. They will have a first-year head coach in Doug Davenport. He is the son of the coach he will be replacing, Scott Davenport.

Georgia’s staff admittedly hadn’t seen a tone on the Knights yet, but they are digging into what they can find. Monday’s game is one of three next for Georgia. The Bulldogs face Maryland-Eastern Shore on Wednesday and Morehead State on Sunday.

“I know they have a new coach,” White said. “I know they’ve got a proud program. From everything I’ve heard in the past, they’re very difficult to play against. I’ve seen a couple of past teams on TV play against teams in our league. We’ve got Coach (Patrick) Blake, and our staff was in that league, got a lot of respect for their program. By the end of this week, we’ll dive into as much film as we can get our hands on. They’re a new team, we’re a new team… Hopefully, we can play well on Monday.”