There’s a new banner on the wall in the Georgia basketball practice gym, recognizing the program’s 2025 March Madness appearance.
The reminder of the first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2015 didn’t go up while the Bulldog players were soaking it all in.
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“We just walked in the gym and saw it one day,” fourth-year coach Mike White said on Monday Sept. 15. “We didn’t really share the moment as a team, but as a staff, we looked up and admired it a couple of times. We’re moving on. We want to hopefully hang another one here at some point.”
There are actually additional banners hanging next to the 2025 one.
“They left some empty ones to try to get back…I think to try to inspire us,” junior guard Blue Cain said.
Georgia has seven returning players including Cain, junior forward Dylan James, sophomore center Somto Cyril and senior forward Justin Abson. Three walk-ons also were part of that tournament team that lost in the first round, 89-68, to Gonzaga and finished 20-13.
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James regularly wears a March Madness beanie he got for the trip to Wichita.
“I try to keep my hair out of my face,” he said. “Kind of trying to show off or whatever.”
Georgia will hold its first preseason practice on Sunday. The team has held shorter, competitive practices in the summer and is to hold four one-hour practices this week.
“A really different team than last year’s team,” White said of a group that includes eight newcomers. “Just from a speed and quickness and size, strengths and weaknesses.”
White lauded the team’s ball handling, passing and shooting.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, of course, but we got some talented guys out the portal,” he said.
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White said he expects this to be his best passing team “in a while,” with St. Mary’s transfer Jordan Ross and UT-San Antonio transfer Marcus “Smurf” Millender, who were brought in during an offseason when top guard Silas Demary transferred to UConn, but he wants to see how well the team rebounds.
“I think this group will score easier,” he said. “I think we’ll be fun to watch, we’ll play fast, we’ll shoot a lot of 3s.”
Cal transfer Jeremiah Wilkinson “is about as athletic a guard as I’ve coached,” White said. “Can really score it and developing as a passer and can play on and off the ball.”
White thinks the team will defend at a high level even after losing 6-foot-11 Asa Newell, the Hawks NBA first-round draft pick.
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“We won’t pack it in and we won’t be quite as long and big,” he said. “Can we hold our own on the glass? That will be something we’re working toward.”
The other transfers are forward Kanon Catchings from BYU and guard Justin Bailey from Wofford.
“We got a lot of scoring firepower,” James said. “We’ve got a lot of highlight-reel players.”
James said that will come from Cyril and Cain, but he mentioned that the 6-foot-1 Wilkinson “can jump out of the gym,” and put Catchings and Millender in the category of players that fans will find exciting.
Georgia signed three freshmen: Jake Wilkins, son of Georgia legend Dominique Wilkins, forward Kareem Stagg from IMG Academy and 7-foot-1 center Jackson McVey from Overtime Elite.
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White said he’s “optimistic,” that the 260-pound Cyril will benefit in changes in how Georgia runs its offense.
The 6-foot-8, 220-pound Stagg has been sidelined by a hand injury, but White said he expects by Sunday the team will be at full strength.
The team has exhibition games at Georgia State on Oct. 15 and at home against Troy on Oct. 26 before opening the season at home on Nov. 3 against Bellarmine.
White now has a message he can sell when recruiting players now that he didn’t before at Georgia.
“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that we didn’t use the NCAA Tournament, breaking through being a 9 seed, the highest seed in 20 years at Georgia in recruiting,” he said. “It’s obviously helped us.”
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This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia basketball seeks another banner year after March Madness trip