The Starting 5

• Georgia hosts Florida A&M on Monday evening looking to extend the Bulldogs’ 31-game winning streak against non-conference opponents at Stegeman Coliseum. Mike White is undefeated (31-0) against non-conference foes at Stegeman and 45-13 (.776) overall at home in four seasons at UGA.
• As of Sunday, the Bulldogs ranked among the nation’s top-5 teams in nine statistics, most notably No. 1 in fastbreak points and No. 5 in both scoring offense and scoring margin.
• Georgia has topped the 90-point plateau in each of its first four games…after scoring 90 or more points in 102 games during Mike White‘s first three seasons at Georgia.
• Georgia has scored 25.5 percent of its field goals this season via dunks…the highest percentage of any team in the nation as of Sunday.
• Seven Bulldogs scored in double figures in a 120-81 win over Morehead State last Sunday, a first for Georgia since a 99-72 victory over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 29, 1994 . . . a span of 979 games.

The Opening Tip

Georgia entertains Florida A&M on Monday looking to continue a red-hot start to the 2025-26 season. Following Friday’s victory over archrival Georgia Tech before a decibel-pushing sellout crowd at Stegeman Coliseum, the Bulldogs were ranked among the nation’s top-5 teams statistically in nine of 28 categories tracked by the NCAA.

Georgia has been lighting up the scoreboard with some historic numbers.

The Bulldogs bested Bellarmine 104-59 in the season opener – UGA’s biggest margin of victory to start a campaign since defeating Seattle, 103-48, on Nov. 9, 1986.

Georgia followed that with a 65-point, 94-29 thumping of Maryland Eastern Shore – the largest margin of victory ever in 63 seasons of play at Stegeman Coliseum and the ninth-largest win gap in program history.

The Bulldogs then topped Morehead State, 120-81, scoring the fourth-most points in program history and the most since defeating Western Kentucky on Nov. 28, 1990.

Georgia has displayed considerable depth, with 11 Bulldogs logging double-digit minutes in every game and seven Bulldogs already recording double-figure scoring outputs this season. Jeremiah Wilkinson paces a quartet of scorers contributing 10-plus points per game at 16.8 ppg, followed by Blue Cain at 15.8, Jake Wilkins at 12.3 ppg and Kanon Catchings at 10.8 ppg.

Series History vs. FAMU

Georgia has won all five of the Bulldogs’ previous meetings with Florida A&M, with all contested in Athens.

Most recently on Dec. 2, 2022, Mardrez McBride’s 15-point, nine-rebound effort led Georgia in a 68-46 victory over the Rattlers.

The Bulldogs improved to 7-2, topping their win total for the entire 2021-22 season.

After trailing 12-10, Georgia used a 16-2 surge to gain a double-digit, 24-12 lead with 6:05 remaining in the first half. The Rattlers trimmed an 11-point halftime deficit to 34-27 over the first 71 seconds of the second stanza before the Bulldogs replied with a 9-0 run to seize control.

Scouting The Rattlers

Florida A&M is off to an 0-3 start in head coach Charlie Ward’s first season.

Devere Palmer and Tyler Shirley are scoring at a double-figure pace for the Rattlers, averaging 12.5 ppg and 10.3 ppg, respectively. Micah Octave is FAMU’s top rebounding at 8.5 boards per outing.

Last Time Out

Blue Cain and Jeremiah Wilkinson led Georgia with 18 points apiece, helping the Bulldogs earn a 92-87 win over rival Georgia Tech before a raucous sellout crowd at Stegeman Coliseum last Friday.

Georgia led by a point at the break, before the Yellow Jackets began the second on a 15-6 run to pull ahead by eight with 14 minutes remaining. The Bulldogs answered with a 10-0 spurt, punctuated with Jake Wilkins’ three-point play at the 11:15 mark. After Georgia Tech’s Kam Craft knotted the score at 66, an extended Bulldogs’ run of 20-8 helped seal Georgia’s third-straight win over Tech and its eighth in the last 10 meetings.

“Great win,” head coach Mike White said. “Of course, Georgia Tech’s a big rivalry game. Our fans came out and supported us and created a great atmosphere. (We’re) really fortunate to get a win and protect our home court. I thought we showed a lot of resilience in the second half.”

The Dunkyard Dogs! America’s Top Slammers

According to BartTorvik.com, Georgia has scored 25.5 percent of its field goals on dunks – roughly 35 of 138 FGs. As of Sunday, that was highest percentage in the nation as outlined below.

The Bulldogs also are among the best teams in college basketball at protecting the rim on dunks. Opponents are converting only 45.5 percent of the attempts to slam the basketball, which is No. 4 nationally according to the website.

Dunking FGs
Rank	Team	Pct.
1.	Georgia	25.5
2.	N. Carolina	24.3
3.	Southern Cal	23.5
4.	Duke	22.7
5.	Florida	22.4
6.	Kentucky	22.3
7.	San Diego St.	21.7
8.	Louisville	23.7
9.	Cincinnati	20.5
10.	Indiana	20.2

Preseason Analytics Like UGA

Coming off its best season in a decade, Georgia began 2025-26 with its highest projections ever by two of the most utilized college basketball metrics.

The Bulldogs were listed at No. 32 according to BartTorvik.com and No. 44 by KenPom.com in preseason ledgers and have maintained or better those tallies to date.

In Torvik projections dating back to 2008, Georgia’s previous preseason high was No. 38 prior to last season.

In KenPom’s, which began in 2002, UGA’s best preseason listing was No. 27 in 2014-15.

Dogs Sport SEC’s Deepest, Highest Quality Rotation

Mike White has been asked the question in many forms, but the gist is always essentially the same. “Even with amazing ingenuity, can you keep playing an 11-player rotation?”

“I like these guys,” White said after beating Georgia Tech. “Assuming all 11 continue to grow and connect and get better, we’d like to play 11. If we have nine that ascend then so be it. I hope that we can be this deep here in January and February. We’ve got talented freshmen. We’ve got a couple older guys coming off the bench. We’ve got depth in our backcourt. I think with these 11, if we can get eight or nine to play really well, we can probably beat some pretty good teams like tonight.”

The Bulldogs, Kentucky and Tennessee are the only league teams entering this week with 11 players logging double-figure minutes per outing.

According to the popular analytics service EvanMiya.com, Georgia has the deepest roster with the most quality in the SEC. That website rates not only teams but players. As of Sunday, 10 Bulldogs were ranked among the top-400 players in the nation. Among league foes, Kentucky was second with eight followed by Arkansas with seven.

Dogs Among Nation’s Top-9 In Nine Stats

Peruse the early-season NCAA basketball statistical leaders and you’ll find plenty of ledgers featuring the Georgia Bulldogs.

As of Sunday, Georgia was ranked in the nation’s top-10 team in nine of the 28 stats the NCAA measures as outlined below.

Top-10 Stats
Statistic	Rk.	No.
Fastbreak Points	1	34.5
Winning Pct.	1	100.0
Turnover Margin	2	+11.2
Bench Points	3	50.5
Steals Per Game	4	13.8
TOs forced Per Game	4	21.0
Scoring Offense	5	102.5
Scoring Margin	5	+38.5
Blocks Per Game	5	8.0

Cain, Wilkerson Pace Dogs’ Double-Digiters

Eight different Georgia Bulldogs recorded double-figure scoring outputs in the first three games of the season.

Through four games, those Dogs have combined to produce 17 performances. Blue Cain and Jeremiah Wilkinson lead that pack by scoring 10+ in each game, followed by Jake Wilkins with three, Kanon Catchings with two and Justin Bailey, Smurf Millender, Jordan Ross and Kareem Stagg with one each.

Wilkins Windmill Dunks Are #SCTop10s

Mark down November 5, 2025 as the day Jake Wilkins made his first appearance in SportsCenter’s top-10 plays as a Bulldog.

Mark down November 9, 2020 as the day Wilkins returned to #SCTop10 with an early candidate for college basketball’s “dunk of the year.”

On Nov. 5, Wilkins’ breakaway, windmill dunk capped off the scoring in Georgia’s 94-29 win over Maryland Eastern Shore and was tabbed as the No. 7 effort of the day. The highlight was matched up on the highlights with a similar effort by Dominique Wilkins from an NBA Slam Dunk contest.

Four days later, Wilkins accepted a lob from Jeremiah Wilkinson and instead of simply slamming it home added a windmill to the action for quality points. That ended up at No. 2 on SportsCenter, only topped by a bicycle kick goal scored in a snowstorm.

Transfer Guards Dishing, Protecting the Ball

Smurf Millender, Jordan Ross and Justin Bailey have combined to distribute 35 assists over the Bulldogs’ first four games while committing only 10 turnovers – a relatively simple to compute 3.50 assist-to-turnover ratio.

That’s a large part of the reason why Georgia – after ranking last in the SEC and No. 298 nationally in assist-to-turnovers at 0.96 last season – was No. 4 in the league and No. 33 nationally as of Sunday at 1.85.

Seven Dogs Hit Double Figures For First Time Since 1994

Seven Georgia players scored in double digits in the Bulldogs’ 120-81 victory over Morehead State on Nov. 9.

That marked the first time seven Bulldogs hit the 10-point plateau in a single game since a 99-72 decision over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 29, 1994 – a span of 979 games – when Shandon Anderson, Charles Claxton (aka Nic’s dad) and Carlos Strong all scored 13 points, Curtis Carrington and Katu Davis added 12 each; and Pertha Robinson and Ty Wilson chipped in 11 apiece.

Georgia Puts Up Historical Numbers In First Three Outings

Each of the Bulldogs’ first three games caused some early editing to the 2026-26 edition of Georgia’s media guide.

Georgia’s 45-point, 104-59 thumping of Bellarmine on Nov. 3 represented UGA’s biggest margin of victory in a season person since defeating Seattle, 103-48, on Nov. 9, 1986.

The 104 points were the most by the Bulldogs since defeating Savannah State, 110-78, in the 2018-29 season opener on Nov. 9, 2018.

The Bulldogs’ 65-point, 94-29 win over Maryland Eastern Shore in their next contest two days later represented the Bulldogs’ largest margin of victory ever in 63 seasons of play at Stegeman Coliseum and also equaled the ninth-biggest mark in 121 seasons of competition.

The previous record for biggest win gap in the arena was a trio of 60-point decisions. Georgia defeated Southern, 97-37, on Nov. 10, 2006; topped Whittier, 122-62, on Dec. 3, 1979; and beat Baptist College (now Charleston Southern), 122-62, on Dec. 30, 1978.

Overall, the Bulldogs tied the No. 9 effort for margin of victory, matching wins over Fort McPherson (80-15 on Dec. 18, 1926) and Mercer (74-9, on Feb. 9, 1918).

Georgia then put up 120 points versus Morehead State on Nov. 9, a tally that represents the fourth-most ever by the Bulldogs and their highest offensive output since a 124-65 blitzing of Western Kentucky on Nov. 28, 1990…when Bateman was a senior.

BK Has It His Way Against Bellarmine

Redshirt junior Brandon Klatsky stole the show at the end of Georgia’s 104-59 decision over Bellarmine in the season opener.

Klatsky checked in with 1:08 left in the contest and before the final buzzer scored five points, recorded two steals and dribbled out the clock to wave off a potential third bucket on the night.

Klatsky’s first make – a 3-pointer from the left corner – provided both his first bucket as a Bulldog and pushed Georgia to the 100-point mark on the scoreboard.

After scoring five points in 68 seconds, Klatsky undoubtedly led the nation in scoring…per 40 minutes. The Colts Neck, N.J. native sported a gaudy mark of 176.5 points per 40.

After going scoreless in 1:48 against Maryland Eastern Shore and putting up three points in 2:04 versus Morehead State, Klatsky’s per 40 performance has dipped to a paltry 64.0 ppg, which would include making 16 3-pointers per 40.

A “Stegtacular” Home Court Advantage

Georgia’s home court advantage? It’s real and it’s Stegtacular.

The Bulldogs have compiled a 45-13 home mark under Mike White and are a perfect 31-0 versus non-conference competition in Stegeman over his three-plus seasons at UGA.

White’s success at Stegeman is not confined to his UGA tenure. He was 7-1 in Athens as a visiting head coach, leading Louisiana Tech to a 2014 NIT victory at Stegeman and compiling a 6-1 mark at Florida from 2015-22. That makes White is a combined 52-14 (.788) in Stegeman.

The Bulldogs were 15-3 in Athens last season, matching the program record for home wins in a single season. Georgia also won 15 home games during the 2013-14 and 2015-16 campaigns; however, those tallies include an NIT victory.

The Bulldogs won their first 11 home contests, building a 13-game home winning streak dating back to the 2023-24 seasons. After producing just eight double-digit home winning streaks in Georgia’s first 116 seasons of basketball, the Bulldogs have produced three double-digit winning streaks at Stegeman during Mike White‘s three seasons alone.

Georgia currently owns a modest six-game winning streak at Stegeman that began with two impressive victories to cap last season – an 88-83 upset of No. 3 Florida on Feb. 25 and a 79-68 decision over Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale.  

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