{"id":160597,"date":"2025-09-16T10:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/160597\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:03:08","slug":"georgia-basketball-has-new-ncaa-tournament-banner-in-practice-gym-it-wants-to-add-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/160597\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia basketball has new NCAA Tournament banner in practice gym. It wants to add another"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new banner on the wall in the Georgia basketball<\/a> practice gym, recognizing the program\u2019s 2025 March Madness appearance.<\/p>\n

The reminder of the first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2015 <\/a>didn\u2019t go up while the Bulldog players were soaking it all in.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just walked in the gym and saw it one day,\u201d fourth-year coach Mike White said on Monday Sept. 15. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really share the moment as a team, but as a staff, we looked up and admired it a couple of times. We\u2019re moving on. We want to hopefully hang another one here at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are actually additional banners hanging next to the 2025 one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey left some empty ones to try to get back\u2026I think to try to inspire us,\u201d junior guard Blue Cain said.<\/p>\n

Georgia<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

James regularly wears a March Madness beanie he got for the trip to Wichita.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to keep my hair out of my face,\u201d he said. \u201cKind of trying to show off or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cA really different team than last year\u2019s team,\u201d White said of a group that includes eight newcomers. \u201cJust from a speed and quickness and size, strengths and weaknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

White lauded the team\u2019s ball handling, passing and shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work to do, of course, but we got some talented guys out the portal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

White said he expects this to be his best passing team \u201cin a while,\u201d with St. Mary\u2019s transfer Jordan Ross and UT-San Antonio transfer Marcus \u201cSmurf\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this group will score easier,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll be fun to watch, we\u2019ll play fast, we\u2019ll shoot a lot of 3s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cal transfer Jeremiah Wilkinson \u201cis about as athletic a guard as I\u2019ve coached,” White said. “Can really score it and developing as a passer and can play on and off the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t pack it in and we won\u2019t be quite as long and big,\u201d he said. \u201cCan we hold our own on the glass? That will be something we\u2019re working toward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other transfers are forward Kanon Catchings from BYU and guard Justin Bailey from Wofford.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a lot of scoring firepower,\u201d James said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of highlight-reel players.\u201d<\/p>\n

James said that will come from Cyril and Cain, but he mentioned that the 6-foot-1 Wilkinson \u201ccan jump out of the gym,\u201d and put Catchings and Millender in the category of players that fans will find exciting.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

White said he\u2019s \u201coptimistic,\u201d that the 260-pound Cyril will benefit in changes in how Georgia runs its offense.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

White now has a message he can sell when recruiting players now that he didn\u2019t before at Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be lying to you if I didn\u2019t tell you that we didn\u2019t use the NCAA Tournament, breaking through being a 9 seed, the highest seed in 20 years at Georgia in recruiting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia basketball seeks another banner year after March Madness trip<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new banner on the wall in the Georgia basketball practice gym, recognizing the program\u2019s 2025 March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[97682,399,97681,49093,398,396,3789,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-160597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-dylan-james","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-georgia-basketball","11":"tag-mike-white","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-ncaa-tournament","15":"tag-ncaafootball","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}