The Starting 5

• Georgia travels to Mississippi State on Saturday looking to break the Bulldogs’ record for regular-season victories. At 21-9, Georgia has tied the 1930-31 and 1996-97 teams for UGA’s most regular-season wins. FYI, 24 is the Bulldogs’ most-ever wins during a single season set in both 1982-83 and 1996-97.
• Blue Cain and Jeremiah Wilkinson enter Saturday’s game with 999 and 971 career points, respectively. Marcus “Smurf” Millender topped the 1,000-point mark earlier this season on Jan. 24 at Texas.
• The Bulldogs have posted three straight 20-win seasons for the third time in 121 seasons (also from 1996-98 and 2014-16). UGA now has 16 20-win campaigns; seven times during the regular season.
• The “Dunkyard Dawgs” lead the nation in percentage of field goals that are dunks at 18.8 percent (186 of 933 FGs). Individually, Somto Cyril leads in D-I players in dunks with 78 rim rattlers.
• Georgia entered the weekend ranked No. 5 nationally in scoring offense at 90.0 ppg. That’s 7.3 ppg better than the Bulldogs’ season scoring mark of 82.7 ppg by the 1990 SEC Championship squad.

Keeping An Eye On…

Entering Today’s Game – Among UGA’s Career Leaders

Blue Cain is…

• 1 point from becoming UGA’s 49th 1,000-point scorer and the first since Yante Maten in 2017

• 3 3-point FGs from No. 15 Jabri Abdur-Rahim

• 6 3-point FGs from co-No. 13s Ty Wilson and Ray Harrison

• 13 3-point FGAs from No. 12 Ray Harrison

Somto Cyril is…

• 13 blocks from No. 6 Donte Williams

Entering Today’s Game – Among UGA’s Season Leaders

Somto Cyril is…

• 4 blocks from No. 6 Lavon Mercer (’80)

• 9 blocks from No. 5 Nicolas Claxton (’19)

Justin Abson is…

• 1 block from No. 18 Charles Claxton (’92)

• 2 blocks from co-No. 15s Yante Maten (’18) & Willie Anderson (in both ’87 & ’88)

• 3 blocks from No. 14 Trey Thompkins (’11)

• 4 blocks from co-No. 12s Somto Cyril (’25) & Donte’ Williams (12)

Jeremiah Wilkinson is…

• 29 points from 1,000 career points

• 1 3-point FG from No. 14 Jody Patton (’91)

• 4 3-point FGs from co-No. 12s Anthony Edwards (’20) & Levin Stukes (’06)

• 5 3-point FGAs from No. 10 J.J. Frazier (16)

The Opening Tip

The Georgia Bulldogs will look to make a little history on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Starkville to face Mississippi State.

With Tuesday’s 98-88 win over No. 16 Alabama, Georgia notched its 21st win of the season. That tally matches the 1930-31 and 1996-97 Bulldogs for the most regular-season wins ever for UGA. A victory on Saturday would give these Bulldogs solo possession of that qualifier, and also inch them closer to the program record of 24 victories in a single season set in 1982-83 and 1996-97.

The win over the Tide was equally important for Georgia’s postseason resume. The Bulldogs now own seven Quad 1 wins, three more than last year’s NCAA Tournament squad for Georgia possessed.

According to bracketmatrix.com, Georgia is a unanimous pick to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, with the Bulldogs appearing in all 117 projections for “March Madness” by various bracketologists as of Thursday.

Georgia’s statistical resume for the 2025-26 campaign is quite impressive.

As of Friday, the Bulldogs led all 365 Division I programs in both fastbreak points (20.1 ppg) and blocks (6.3 bpg) and also were ranked among the top-10 nationally in scoring (No. 5 at 90.0 ppg) and bench points (No. 7 at 34.2 ppg).

Georgia has a deep rotation playing at a pace among the country’s quickest.

Eleven Bulldogs are averaging double-figure minutes, and they have combined to record 123 double-figure scoring outputs this season.

Jeremiah Wilkinson is averaging a team-high 17.4 ppg, while Blue Cain is contributing 13.6 ppg, Marcus “Smurf” Millender is chipping in 11.8 ppg and Kanon Catchings is adding 11.3 ppg.

Somto Cyril is just shy of a double-figure scoring average at 9.7 ppg and leads the Bulldogs in rebounding (5.6 rpg), blocks (2.4 bpg) and field goal percentage (.755).

Scouting The Bulldogs

Mississippi State slipped to 13-17 overall and 5-12 in the SEC with Tuesday’s loss at No. 5 Florida. State’s Bulldogs have now suffered four consecutive setbacks.

Josh Hubbard leads State offensively with a scoring average of 21.4 points per game, which ranks second in the SEC. Hubbard exploded for a season-high 46 points in a 91-85 win over Auburn on Feb. 18 in the Bulldogs’ most recent victory. Jayden Epps is contributed 13.7 ppg.

Series History With State

Mississippi State owns a 60-59 advantage in all-time meetings between the SEC’s Bulldogs on the hardwood.

On Feb. 8 last season in Athens, Georgia dropped a 76-75 decision to No. 22 Mississippi State at Stegeman Coliseum.

Though State led for 32:19 of the contest, the score was separated by one or two possessions for much of the evening. Georgia tied the game five times in the second half, lastly when Asa Newell scored five points in a span of nine seconds to make it 71-71 with 4:04 remaining.

The Bulldogs gained possession down one with just under eight seconds on the clock but failed to score.

State won the most recent meeting in Starkville, a 75-62 decision on Feb. 7, 2024.

MSU built a 10-point lead with just over eight minutes remaining in the first half and expanded that margin to 56-43 with 9:29 left in the contest. Georgia used a 10-0 surge to pull within 56-53 at the 6:21 mark before State answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to regain a nine-point advantage just 54 seconds later.

Last Time Out

Kanon Catchings exploded for a career-high 32 points to lead Georgia in a 98-88 victory over No. 16 Alabama at a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum on Tuesday night.

Catchings scored 20 first-half points, including a key buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the intermission that put the Bulldogs up 50-43 at halftime.

Alabama closed within five points twice in the second stanza. With 9:38 left, the Tide pulled within 72-67; however, Catchings answered with a 3-pointer. At the 1:36 mark, Alabama made it 90-85, but Blue Cain converted a three-point play that ignited a 7-0 surge to end any doubt.

“Alabama is a great team,” Catchings said. “They got me out (of the NCAA Tournament while at BYU) last year in the Sweet Sixteen, so I feel like that’s a great team. They’ve got great players, and they’ve beat great teams, and we beat them.”

Blue, Jeremiah Look To Join Smurf Millender In Millennium Club

Blue Cain has scored in 97 of the 100 games he has played as a Georgia Bulldog. That fact is significant because the junior from Knoxville, Tenn., enters the regular-season finale a single point shy of 1,000 for his career.

It has been quite some time since a Bulldog reached the 1,000-point milestone exclusively in a Georgia uniform. Cain would become the first UGA player to do since Yante Maten on Jan. 4, 2017 – a span of 3,349 days.

Cain scored 274 points (7.4 ppg) as a freshman, upped that tally to 318 points (9.6 ppg) as a sophomore before scoring 407 (13.6 ppg) this season. He has recorded 43 double-figure scoring outputs, with 23 of those in the current campaign.

Jeremiah Wilkinson also is closing in on 1,000 career points at 971. After scoring 484 points as a freshman at Cal, Wilkinson has put up 487 this season as a Bulldog.

Houston native Marcus “Smurf” Millender reached 1,000 career points with approximately 30 family and friends on hand for his return to the Lone Star State at Texas on Jan. 24. Millender scored his 1000 points at three different schools, with 309 as a freshman at South Alabama, 461 as a sophomore at UT San Antonio and 230 in his junior campaign as a Bulldog.

Bulldogs Notch Third Straight 20-Win Campaign

Georgia has reached the 20-win plateau for a third-straight season.

Over 121 seasons, Georgia has only posted three straight 20-win tallies just thrice – also doing so from 1996-98 and from 2014-16. Only 17 Bulldogs have ever played on three 20-win teams – five from 1996-98, seven between 2014-16 and five new 2026 pledges to the fraternity in Blue Cain, Dylan James, Brandon Klatsky, Jaden Newell and Markel Jennings.

Georgia has now produced 16 20-win efforts overall but only seven of those teams reached that mark during the regular season – 1931, 1985, 1997, 2011, 2015, 2025 and 2026.

Georgia Breaks Season Swats Record

With his second blocked shot of the night at the 17:03 mark of the second half at Vanderbilt, Somto Cyril pushed the 2025-26 Bulldogs into the record books for the most rejections ever by a Georgia basketball team.

Cyril’s swat gave these Bulldogs 176 blocks, besting Georgia’s previous season record of 175 rejections established during the 2015-16 campaign. That tally is now at 190.

That record is no surprise considering the Bulldogs have led the nation in swats per game pretty much since rejecting 24 opponent attempts in the first three contests of the season.

Georgia Putting Up Points At A Record-Breaking Pace

The Bulldogs are well on their way to shattering the program’s all-time scoring record.

Georgia is averaging 90.0 points per game, an extremely healthy 7.3 ppg better than the Bulldogs’ current best-ever effort of 82.7 ppg en route to winning the 1990 SEC Championship.

Those Bulldogs scored 2,399 points over 29 games. During 27th contest of this season against Texas, Georgia passed that mark. These Bulldogs have now scored 2,700 points, just 64 shy of the most ever by Georgia – 2,764 in 37 games played during the 2023-24 campaign.

Somto Shatters UGA’s FG Percentage Mark

During his 5-of-7 shooting against Texas on Feb. 21, Somto Cyril met the 100 FG made minimum tally to qualify for Georgia’s single-season leaders’ ledger…and shattered the Bulldogs’ field goal percentage record.

Cyril has now connected on 75.5 percent (114-of-151) of his shots from the field this season – 11.2 percent better than the previous record by a Bulldog.

Almost unfathomably, he could miss his next 27 shot attempts and he would still own the Georgia record.

Dunkyard Dawgs, Cyril Lead The Nation In Slams

According to BartTorvik.com, Georgia entered this weekend leading the nation in percentage of its field goals that have been dunks at 18.8 – 186 of 933 the Bulldogs’ FGs this season – as outlined below.

Somto Cyril’s 78 dunks is the most in the nation and is a whopping 28 more than any other SEC player. Kareem Stagg is second among the Bulldogs with 21 dunks, followed by Jake Wilkins with 20; Kanon Catchings, Dylan James and Jeremiah Wilkinson with 14 each; Justin Abson with 13; and Blue Cain with 12.

Dunking It
Rank	Team	Pct.
1.	Georgia	18.8
2.	N. Carolina	16.2
3.	Duke	16.0
4.	Michigan	15.4
	Florida	15.4
	Arkansas	15.4
7.	Indiana	14.9
8.	Kansas	14.6
9.	Kentucky	14.3
10.	Providence	14.1

Dogs Among Top Scoring Teams In Several Ways

Georgia entered this weekend ranked No. 5 in D-I in scoring offense at 90.0 points per game.

Much of Georgia’s production has come either in a hurry or while standing still. The Bulldogs lead the country in fastbreak points (20.1 ppg) and are No. 27 free throws made (18.2 ppg). That equates to roughly 42.6 percent (38.3 of 90.0 ppg) of Georgia’s offensive output.

Georgia’s scoring has been consistent. In 60 halves of hoops, the Bulldogs scored 40 or more points 45 times, with 12 50-point periods and three segments of 60 or more points.

Georgia played 102 games in Mike White‘s first three seasons in Athens. The Bulldogs reached 90 points nine times and 100 points twice. In 30 games this season, Georgia has topped 90 points in 14 outings and surpassed the century mark in a school-record seven contests.

Smurf’s Game Gets Bigger

After a slow start early in the season, Marcus “Smurf” Millender has nearly doubled his production and shooting efficiency over the last 25 games.

Millender averaged 6.8 points in Georgia’s first five games, but is nearly doubling that to 12.8 ppg since. He connected on just 26.2 percent (11-of-42) overall and 21.7 percent (5-of-23) from 3-point range in the first five games, but has upped those tallies to 49.8 percent (109-of-219) overall and 42.7 percent (50-of-117) on 3-pointers thereafter.

Millender has now put up double-digit scoring tallies in 19 of 25 games and distributed five or more assists in 11 of those contests. At Kentucky, he delivered eight assists – the single-game high of any Bulldog this season – while committing just one turnover

The stretch includes two dramatic game winners. Millender canned a clutch 3-pointer with 11 seconds left against Xavier in the opening round of the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic on Nov. 21 and converted a three-point play with 5.5 seconds left at Missouri on Jan. 20.

Dogs’ Dishing, Ball Control Much Better

Mike White has called the 2025-26 Bulldogs one of the better passing teams he’s coached.

A year ago, the Bulldogs ranked No. 262 nationally in assists per game at 12.5 and No. 298 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 0.96. This season, Georgia entered this weekend well over 100 spots better in each stat – No. 114 in assists (14.9 apg) and No. 82 in assist-to-turnovers (1.41).

A large part of that is the performance of the four guards Georgia added via the transfer portal during the offseason – Justin Bailey, Marcus “Smurf” Millender, Jordan Ross and Jeremiah Wilkinson. That quartet has delivered a combined 260 passes-to-points while committing just 128 turnovers – equating to 8.7 apg and a stellar ratio of 2.03 assists-to-TOs.

Somto Surging Among Bulldogs’ Blocks Ledgers

Sophomore Somto Cyril is quickly ascending on Georgia’s single-season and career leaders lists for blocked shots.

In 30 contests this season, the Enugu, Nigeria native has already blocked 72 shots. That’s the No. 7 season mark by a Bulldog.

Cyril’s numbers are bolstered two career-high outputs in SEC play – six against Auburn and eight versus Arkansas.

In 33 games last season, Cyril swatted 51 shots, which was the second-most ever by a Georgia freshman.

Cyril joined Georgia’s top-10 career blocks leaders at Vanderbilt on Feb. 25. His current tally of 123 rejections in less than two seasons is already No. 7 all-time among Bulldogs and 13 away from No. 6.

Cain Joins Georgia’s Season, Career Free Throw Leaders

Blue Cain ranks among Georgia’s single-season and career leaders in free throw percentage.

The minimum to qualify for UGA’s career free throw leaders percentage leaders is 125 made attempts, which Cain achieved with two free throws at Florida on Jan. 6. Cain is now 148-of-176 and his 84.1 conversion rate is now the second-best ever by a Bulldog.

The minimum to qualify for Georgia’s single-season free throw percentage leaders is 50 made attempts, which Cain reached with two makes at South Carolina on Jan. 19. Cain is currently 72-of-80 and his 90.0 conversion rate is the third-best ever by a Bulldog.

Double-Digit Dogs’ Have Hit Double Figures

No less than 10 different Georgia Bulldogs recorded double-figure scoring outputs in the first five games of the season. Those Dogs have now combined to produce 123 double-digit tallies.

Blue Cain leads that pack at 24 contests, followed by and Jeremiah Wilkinson with 23, Smurf Millender with 20; Kanon Catchings with 16; Somto Cyril with 14; Jordan Ross with eight; Kareem Stagg and Jake Wilkins with five each; and Justin Bailey and Dylan James both with four.

Stagg’s Impact Takes Dramatic Upswing

Kareem Stagg’s PT and production has skyrocketed in the Bulldogs’ seven most recent outings.

The freshman from Chesapeake, Va., scored six points in just over 64 minutes of action in Georgia’s first 10 SEC outings – easy to commute averages of 0.6 ppg and 6.4 mpg.

Over the last seven games, Stagg has scored 50 points (7.1 ppg) while logging 139 minutes (19.8 mpg), including career highs of 11 points (South Carolina) and 27 minutes (Oklahoma).

COMPLETE GAME NOTES PDF

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