If so, thoughts?

I was there. We don't have anyone close to filling Asa's position on the inside. But I honestly think we are better everywhere else. Lots of good depth. We are penetrating much better this year. We are full court pressing this year. We seem to be quicker at the guard positions this year. My biggest concern is, can we ring the basket? That is the most important thing in a basketball game. If we consistently shoot well, we will make the tournament.

How was the shooting yesterday? Against State it was atrocious

Dawg44 said:

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I was there. We don't have anyone close to filling Asa's position on the inside. But I honestly think we are better everywhere else. Lots of good depth. We are penetrating much better this year. We are full court pressing this year. We seem to be quicker at the guard positions this year. My biggest concern is, can we ring the basket? That is the most important thing in a basketball game. If we consistently shoot well, we will make the tournament.

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I was there as well, and I agree: to my eyes, talent has been upgraded almost across the board. A few bullet points:

• It remains to be seen how Wilkinson's skill set translates to the SEC, but the dude is an athlete - he can jump out of the gym
• Kanon Catchings isn't Asa, but he he might be able to play a similar role; probably less of an interior defender, but more athletic and potentially a better shot-maker
• Blue had a very bad first half and a very nice second half; this may be a "he is what he is" situation at this point
• I like Kareem Stagg - a lot
• Somto was able to avoid fouls and stay on the court, and the only meaningful success Troy had came with him on the bench; just his presence changes almost every opponent shot attempt
• Abson is still Abson, and that's a complement
• Smurf Millender was solid-but-not-spectacular, and I think PG will continue to be a position of weakness (I loved Silas, but I will die on the hill that he was not a great point guard)
• Wilkins isn't ready and he'll struggle to find playing time
• Dylan James plays hard, and I love him for it, but he shows all the same warts as previous seasons; he's no better than 8 or 9 on this squad

Troy is not a bad team (they are #124 in KenPom rankings right now), and we could have named the score. They made a nice run early in the second half, but it was their starters against our bench. White put Somto and Wilkinson back in and immediately stretched the lead back to double digits. As has been mentioned over and over in these threads, shooting is the primary concern with this team - as with seemingly every UGA team over the last decade.

In a lesser conference, this would be a team contending for a conference tournament bye. In the SEC, it's gonna be a tough road. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, but I'm excited to tip it off next Monday!

DenmarkDane said:

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How was the shooting yesterday? Against State it was atrocious

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Better. Still not good enough, but better.

Thank you for the individual player evaluations. I see the same with Blue and James. I feel like both may have reached their peak. I don't see a potential for too much improvement beyond where they are now.

Dawg44 said:

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I was there. We don't have anyone close to filling Asa's position on the inside. But I honestly think we are better everywhere else. Lots of good depth. We are penetrating much better this year. We are full court pressing this year. We seem to be quicker at the guard positions this year. My biggest concern is, can we ring the basket? That is the most important thing in a basketball game. If we consistently shoot well, we will make the tournament.

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thanks so much dawg44

StevieBuckets said:

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Dawg44 said:

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I was there. We don't have anyone close to filling Asa's position on the inside. But I honestly think we are better everywhere else. Lots of good depth. We are penetrating much better this year. We are full court pressing this year. We seem to be quicker at the guard positions this year. My biggest concern is, can we ring the basket? That is the most important thing in a basketball game. If we consistently shoot well, we will make the tournament.

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I was there as well, and I agree: to my eyes, talent has been upgraded almost across the board. A few bullet points:

• It remains to be seen how Wilkinson's skill set translates to the SEC, but the dude is an athlete - he can jump out of the gym
• Kanon Catchings isn't Asa, but he he might be able to play a similar role; probably less of an interior defender, but more athletic and potentially a better shot-maker
• Blue had a very bad first half and a very nice second half; this may be a "he is what he is" situation at this point
• I like Kareem Stagg - a lot
• Somto was able to avoid fouls and stay on the court, and the only meaningful success Troy had came with him on the bench; just his presence changes almost every opponent shot attempt
• Abson is still Abson, and that's a complement
• Smurf Millender was solid-but-not-spectacular, and I think PG will continue to be a position of weakness (I loved Silas, but I will die on the hill that he was not a great point guard)
• Wilkins isn't ready and he'll struggle to find playing time
• Dylan James plays hard, and I love him for it, but he shows all the same warts as previous seasons; he's no better than 8 or 9 on this squad

Troy is not a bad team (they are #124 in KenPom rankings right now), and we could have named the score. They made a nice run early in the second half, but it was their starters against our bench. White put Somto and Wilkinson back in and immediately stretched the lead back to double digits. As has been mentioned over and over in these threads, shooting is the primary concern with this team - as with seemingly every UGA team over the last decade.

In a lesser conference, this would be a team contending for a conference tournament bye. In the SEC, it's gonna be a tough road. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, but I'm excited to tip it off next Monday!

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thanks so much for the notes

I just have a feeling we take a step back this year
small team and will struggle to shoot

But obviously quicker and have good potential to take care of the ball better and have less turnovers.

DenmarkDane said:

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But obviously quicker and have good potential to take care of the ball better and have less turnovers.

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Yeah, I should have mentioned turnovers. The final number wasn't great (15-ish), but several came in garbage time. The starters took decent care of the ball.

DenmarkDane said:

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But obviously quicker and have good potential to take care of the ball better and have less turnovers.

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good points, I hope we shock the world and win 23 games

StevieBuckets said:

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• Wilkins isn't ready and he'll struggle to find playing time

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Pleased to report I was very wrong about this. He struggled in the exhibition, but he has shown out since. He is still raw, but he's having a lot of fun, and I'm having fun watching him!

Do you think he's potentially SEC ready? Or will be close to it by January?

Anyone looked into our 3 opponent's RPI? We are the top scoring team in the SEC so far, but I'm not sure how much that means right now.

He's still very raw, and he plays out of control at times, but he looks like he'll deserve some SEC minutes.

Here's one thing that's wild about this team, though: we go 11 deep right now. That's crazy depth, but it also means at least a few guys are going to lose minutes when conference play comes around and White tightens up the rotations.

As far as the competition, here is the current KenPom rating of each team we've played (out of 365):

• Bellarmine: 319
• Maryland Eastern Shore: 359
• Morehead State: 284

So not great. However, UMES took Tech to OT (Tech was without at least one starter). Morehead State played 30 competitive minutes with Wake Forest.

At this point, I'm choosing to trust my eyes. Some of the scoring output is due to how fast we're playing: more possessions = more points. But there's more to it than that. We're forcing turnovers. We're also not turning it over at a high clip(!). So much will boil down to how well we shoot the 3. On paper, we are loaded with shooters, but they've only shown up 1/3 games so far.

Tech will be a good test. They defend well and I think they'll need to keep us in the 70s to win. Run them out of the building and I start to get really excited...

Either way, this team is fun to watch. Georgia fans haven't gotten to say that much in the last 25 years...

Those are good observations. Looking forward to continuing to watch this team develop. I was thinking lately about how White didn't sign a senior out of the portal this year. I wonder if that was intentional after getting a few top players lately for only one year? I do enjoy watching these transfers when I know they have potentially more than one year to give us.