WICHITA, Kan. — It turns out the Georgia basketball game plan for Gonzaga is pretty direct.
“Make it very difficult on them,” said UGA sophomore Blue Cain. “Play physical and our style, and play very confident.”
Sounds good, especially when one considers the newness of the NCAA tournament setting to the Bulldogs, and the experience of the Zags’ team they’ll face at 4:35 p.m. (TV: TBS) at INTRUST Bank Arena.
To be clear, it’s a talented Gonzaga team with a powerful front line the UGA players liken to SEC tourney champ Florida.
Zags’ point guard Ryan Nembhard leads the nation with 325 assists, drawing comparisons to Mississippi State All-SEC selection Josh Hubbard, who scored 16 points on UGA and dished out six assists in the Maroon Bulldogs’ 76-75 win in Athens.
Fact is, Georgia basketball has gone toe-to-toe with the best teams in the nation in the SEC this season, and the players are taking confidence from that — even if they feel like they aren’t being given much of a chance.
“Nobody believed we could make it, we were picked bottom of the league, so our mantra was growing every day,” Georgia point guard and team captain Silas Demary Jr. told DawgNation in his locker room interview before Wednesday’s practice in Wichita.
“Still, a lot of people don’t believe we should be here, so that gives us more fuel.”
To Demary Jr.’s point, none of the Georgia basketball players made first team, second team or third team on the SEC coaches’ team or Associated Press team.
Asa Newell, who ranked in the Top 15 in the SEC in scoring and rebounding, while also finishing second in offensive rebounding, third in field goal percentage and fifth with seven double-doubles, was selected to the All-SEC Freshman Team.
Newell, in particular, has a lot riding on the game from both a team and individual standpoint facing a Gonzaga program that he visited during recruiting and listed among his final four programs to join.
“This is an amazing opportunity, and I’m just very blessed to be here,” Newell, a 6-foot-10, 225-pound projected NBA lottery pick who has keyed Georgia’s first run into the NCAA tourney in some 10 years.
“I prayed to God for an opportunity like this and he fulfilled it, and now it’s on us to take advantage of it.”
Newell figures to see plenty of quality big men in the Thursday game, including Graham Ike, a 6-9 redshirt senior who averages 17.1 points in only 22.5 minutes per game.
Georgia also has a player in Clemson transfer RJ Godfrey, a physical 6-8, 230-pound presence, who has valuable experience from last year’s NCAA tournament with the Tigers.
Godfrey will be part of the plan to neutralize a Zags’ front court that has helped Gonzaga lead the nation with 43.1 points per game in the paint.
Coach Mike White, who split two meetings with Gonzaga coach Mark Few while at Florida, said avoiding foul trouble against the Zags’ deep front line will be important.
“Four discipline is a big key to this game, particularly with Gonzaga’s ability to convert,” White said. “They’re one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the nation (80.1 percent, third in the nation.”
What White didn’t say is that if the Bulldogs can keep the game close with Gonzaga, the trend favors Georgia.
The Zags are 0-4 when trailing at the 10-minute mark and 0-4 when trailing at the 5-minute mark — and 0-5 in games decided by 0-5 points, and 0-3 in overtime.
“We’re attacking it with hunger,” White said. “We’re chasing it with excitement, we’re going to play with joy and we’re going to play with connection.”
The fluid nature of basketball demands on-court chemistry, and it will be up to the Georgia backcourt to find itself quickly in that area against a silky-smooth Zags’ offense that leads the nation with a 2.09 assist-turnover ratio.
UGA, conversely, ranks 296th in the country in assist/turnover ratio (0.97), an area that White and his players have steadily improved playing in a rough-and-tumble SEC that set an NCAA record with 14 teams invited to this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“We’ll respond to adversity, to runs,” said White, himself a former NCAA tournament basketball player during his playing days at Ole Miss, where he led the Rebels to three 20-win seasons and dribbled out the clock on his school’s first-ever NCAA tournament win, over Villanova in 1999.
“What does that mean for the outcome of the game? Who knows, but this is a resilient group, and you’ve got to be resilient against really good teams on the big stage because adversities are coming.”
Georgia vs. Gonzaga breakdown
Key areas where Gonzaga has the edge
(With national rank in parenthesis)
Scoring: Gonzaga 86.6 (2), Georgia 75.6 (125)
FT percentage: Gonzaga 80.1 (2), Georgia 71.7 (198)
Assists T/O ratio: Gonzaga 2.09 (1), Georgia 0.97 (296th)
Key areas where Georgia has the edge
(With national rank in parenthesis)
Blocked shots per game: Georgia 5.2 (14th), Gonzaga 3.0 (229th)
Opponents FG percentage: Georgia 40.9 (37th), Gonzaga 41.4 (54th)
Offensive rebounds per game: Georgia 11.8 (84th), Gonzaga 11.2 (132nd)
