ATHENS — The Georgia Bulldogs spent a lot of their time at SEC Basketball Media Days in Birmingham, Alabama, on Tuesday talking about fishing. The reason is that first-year player RJ Godfrey happened to share during his interview rounds the story about landing a lunker bass this summer on coach Mike White’s lake.
Turns out that several members of SEC Network’s basketball crew also have an affinity for fishing. So, the conversation kept bouncing back to when they might be able take a shot at landing the trophy fish that White has nicknamed “Loch Ness.”
“Coach White has a crazy fishing pond, so I went fishing every day,” Godfrey told SEC Network basketball analyst Ron Slay at the Bohemian Hotel in Birmingham on Tuesday. “He has a loaded pond, so I’m out there fishing for like three or four hours at a time, me and some of the guys.”
Said White: “Unbelievable! It might’ve been 15 pounds. I’ll text you a picture. I was actually in my living room watching a TV show with my wife when it went down. I heard the biggest scream, ‘Oh, my God!’ Five minutes later he comes in and shows me a picture. Wow! I’ve been searching for it the last few months and can’t get it.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of UGA Athletics
Credit: Photo courtesy of UGA Athletics
Of course, fishing season is over now. The Bulldogs are preparing to take the court for Season 3 under White in a few days. Georgia plays its first exhibition game at noon Saturday at Charlotte. They’ll come home to get ready for an exhibition against Central Florida on Oct. 29, and then the season opener against Tennessee Tech will be played at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Stegeman Coliseum.
So, the Bulldogs will seek to land trophy of a different sort. And that looks to be a bigger challenge than ever as the SEC has expanded to 16 teams to include Oklahoma and Texas and already was stout before that. Last year, Georgia made major headway in recording a 20-win season while reaching the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament.
Expectations outside the program remain low, as reflected in the media’s preseason prediction of the Bulldogs finishing 12th in the SEC. But inside the program, it would be hard to imagine any team having a more positive vibe.
White acknowledged as much Tuesday. But he did so remaining careful not to violate the team’s edict to avoid any discussion of postseason tournaments or other outcome-based goals.
“Continue to grow; that’s it,” White said in Birmingham. “We talked about some other things last year, had some distractions, and that starts with me. Part of growth is self-awareness, right? You have to look at yourself in the mirror, and I thought we got too caught up midseason and got ahead of ourselves in terms of talking about postseason and results. This team is bought into process, into growth and getting better every day.”
There’s reason to believe Georgia will remain on an upward trajectory. That started in April when freshman starters Silas Demery, Blue Cain and Dylan James announced their decisions to return for their sophomore season. Since then, the Bulldogs added 5-star prospect Asa Newell and 6-foot-11 leaper Somto Cyril of Atlanta. Godfrey, an integral part of NCAA Tournament teams at Clemson, Vanderbilt four-year letterman Tyrin Lawrence, and Sun Belt Conference defensive player of the year Justin Abson were among five transfer additions, and the Bulldogs brought in European club star Savo Drezgic from Serbia.
Everybody who has watched Georgia practice from the offseason into preseason camp agrees that the Bulldogs are a substantially improved team. What that will translate into over the next five months is anybody’s guess.
“I feel like the guys we brought in, we complement each other well,” said Demery, who averaged 9.7 points and dished out 92 assists while starting 36 of 37 games at point guard as a freshman last season. “Our two hot commodities are our freshmen Somto Cyril and Asa Newell. I feel like they’re everything everybody said about them.”
White likes what he has seen, too. And while he’s not willing to guess how or if that might translate into more wins, he’s certain Georgia will have a better basketball team in 2024-25.
“I will talk about our metrics,” White said. “Our metrics will take a big jump, and I expect that. Those are goals, for sure. But, in terms wins and losses, we know we’re going to be involved in a lot of of close games in this league. We’re better; we’re a good team. We are. But there’s also 15 other teams.”
With any luck, the Bulldogs will be fishing for an NCAA Tournament bid in March.
