INDIANAPOLIS — Don’t get caught up in the last game. That was the message from Georgia coach Mike White in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday night’s 84-67 loss to Seton Hall in the NIT semifinals.
Even though the Bulldogs were not competitive in the last game of the season, their second-year coach insists he’s close to getting Georgia basketball turned around.
“We were close (this year),” White said of the 20-17 season. “We were a game away from competing for a championship. ... These guys accomplished a lot, getting to the NIT Final Four. They wanted to be a part of this tournament. To get to 20 wins, of course, playing our best basketball down the stretch, all positives. It was a pleasure to work with these men.”
The question now: Which men will White work with next season? At the end of this season, freshmen Blue Cain, Silas Demary Jr., and Dylan James were regulars in the starting lineup. Another freshman, Mari Jordan, redshirted because of injuries and his value to Georgia or anybody else largely is unknown. The Bulldogs have one high school signee so far, and he’s a good one. Asa Newell, a 6-foot-8 forward from IMG Academy, is a 5-star prospect.
Three graduate transfers have no choice but to move on: 7-footer Russel Tchewa and guards Noah Thomasson and RJ Sunahara. Thanks to the pandemic season of 2020, seniors such as Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Frank Anselem-Ibe, M.A. Moncrieffe and Justin Hill have seasons of eligibility remaining should they and/or Georgia choose to continue the relationship.
Juniors such as RJ Melendez, a first-year transfer from Illinois, and Jalen DeLoach, formerly of Virginia Commonwealth, are particularly complicated decisions because of their up-and-down seasons. Melendez scored 35 in one game against Florida but averaged eight points in the other 16 SEC games in which he played. DeLoach (3.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg) rolled in and out of the rotation, but ended up playing the fewest minutes of his college career.
All players with eligibility remaining will be attractive targets for the transfer portal, which Georgia has been working and will continue to work. It’s a complicated exercise that effectively can continue into the summer with regard to graduate transfers.
White was planning to meet with his staff and move into the exit-interview stage “very quickly.”
“We’ll make sure that we’re bringing guys in here who are highly competitive, that are playing to win,” he said. “It’s a team sport with a lot of individual inspiration built-in, and that’s what we’re all fighting. But these guys I worked with for 37 games and 10 months were awesome to work with.”
Demary, who averaged 9.7 points while starting all but one game, was not sure yet what he’ll do after what he described as a challenging season.
“There was a lot of adversity at times,” Demary said. “You know, a new team and us learning how to play with one another. A lot of new faces coming in. Honestly, I just tried to be quiet and learn from the older guys. But I feel like I had a great freshman year.”
As for the older players, they felt good about what they were able to contribute to Georgia’s rebuild.
“I know I’m leaving it in good hands,” said Thomasson, who surpassed 1,500 career points and finished as Georgia’s leading scorer, at 13 points per game. “We came a long way from June when we started with a couple practices to now and April, and you know, losing in the NIT. ... I hope I can say I was a Georgia Bulldog for life, even in my short time here.”
