Mike White talks two Georgia Basketball signees in 2023

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Basketball signed a pair of players in its 2023 recruiting class on Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA’s early signing period for College Basketball. Mari Jordan and Dylan James, Georgia’s only two commits in the class, both put pen to paper on their National Letters of Intent to officially become Bulldogs.

“It’s an exciting day for us to be able to sign two players that we targeted and invested a lot of time and energy in,” Georgia head coach Mike White said in a statement. “Both of these guys are excited to be Bulldogs. Mari grew up right down the road from Athens and has always admired this university. He is a high-energy player who possesses much versatility and has a very good positional size. Dylan has tremendous length for a guy who shoots the ball the way that he does. He also has the ability to post. Like Mari, he has a chance to be a very good defender as well.”

Jordan is an On3 Consensus top-150 player in the country coming in at No. 142 overall and No. 9 among players in the state of Georgia. Out of the Atlanta area, the 6-foot-6, 185-pound small forward was chosen as a first-team All-State player in the GHSA 6A classification by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this past season as he averaged 19.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.2 steals per game for Dacula High School. Jordan transferred to Norcross High School for his senior season.

“Mari is a big wing. He could probably play 2 or 3 positions,” White said while describing Jordan on Thursday. “He plays really hard, has very good length, and he’s a guy that we somewhat inherited. We had to re-recruit of course, but he’s grown up a Georgia fan. The previous staff did a really good job of recruiting him. He was committed when we got here. When we were able to go on the road for the first time and go recruit, he was the first guy that I went to go see and really liked him. Followed him of course all summer, tried to speed up the relationship building process and he remained loyal to the red and black.”

Meanwhile, James is the higher rated of the two players according to the On3 Consensus, coming in as a four-star at No. 110 overall. The 6-foot-9, 200-pound Winter Haven, Fla. prospect helped lead is school to the Florida Class 6A state semifinals last season as was selected as the Lakeland Ledger’s Player of the Year as he averaged 15.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.4 blocks. 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game last season. Winter Haven begins the 2022-23 season ranked No. 67 nationally by MaxPreps.

“Dylan, different size, different position but again, within his position brings as much versatility,” White continued. “A guy that can play a couple different front court spots, can really shoot it. He’s got a unique combination of being able to shoot the ball and alter and block shots which is rare. He’s 6-foot-9 with very good length and shoots it as well as anyone that we’ve got in our program right now. Again, good guy, good student, great family just like Mari, and he’s a guy that we started recruiting when he was 15 years old and I was at the University of Florida. Really familiar with him and excited that he’s going to join us at Georgia.”

White said that for now the focus turns to the season and recruiting classes down the road where Georgia has had great success already, bringing in several top tier visitors in the Class of 2024 for visits including On3 five-star and No. 5 overall player Asa Newell among others. They’ll revisit the 2023 class at a later time once they have a better picture of who is going to stay, if any players are going to leave and what kind of positions are of need for the next season.

“You just don’t know who may jump in the portal, who may not. We’re one game in. Every coach in our league I’m sure is feeling the same way, really every coach at our level period,” White said. “Moving forward, what happens with the one-time transfer exception? Are we going to have waivers? Are we not going to have waivers? Are we going to have just as many jump in the portal? Are we not? Are we going to have more continuity? How does NIL affect the continuity? Who knows. We’re pressing pause for now, and we’re coaching our team hoping we have a great practice, but we’re open to all scenarios here in the spring. We’ve got a lot to sell here, but in terms of how many scholarships and what positions we may need, it’s really hard to forecast that right now.”