Bulldogs Take On Maryland Eastern Shore For First Time

Wednesday, November 5

Athens, Ga.

7:00

University of Georgia

Maryland - Eastern Shore

Bulldogs Take On Maryland Eastern Shore For First Time

November 04, 2025 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (1-0) vs. Maryland Eastern Shore (0-1)
Date: Wednesday, November 5
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Venue: Stegeman Coliseum (10,523)
Location: Athens, Ga.
TV: SEC Network+ (Jeff Dantzler, play-by-play; Mark Slonaker, analyst)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 374 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix

The Starting 5

Georgia continues a hectic opening to the 2025-26 season on Wednesday evening when the Bulldogs host Maryland Eastern Shore in both teams' second outing in a 48-hour span.
The Bulldogs defeated Bellarmine, 104-59, on Monday night, Georgia's largest margin of victory (45 points) in a season opener since defeating Seattle, 103-48, on Nov. 28, 1986.
Georgia is riding a 28-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents at Stegeman Coliseum and is 42-13 (.764) at home under Mike White.
The 104 points Georgia scored against Bellarmine represented its most under Mike White and the Bulldogs' highest offensive output since putting up 110 versus Savannah State on Nov. 9, 2018.
The Bulldogs' win over Bellarmine in the season opener was the 300th career victory in Mike White's head coaching career. White won 101 in four seasons at Louisiana Tech and 142 in seven campaigns at Gainesville before securing the final 57 Ws to reach 300 at Georgia.

The Opening Tip

Georgia hosts Maryland Eastern Shore on Wednesday evening at Stegeman Coliseum in the second of three games in a seven-day span to open the 2025-26 season. The Bulldogs bested Bellarmine, 104-59, to tip off the campaign on Monday night.

Georgia returns to action roughly 46 hours later to face UMES, which pushed Georgia Tech to overtime in Atlanta on Monday night. The Bulldogs wrap up their busy first week of the season by entertaining Morehead State in a Sunday matinee at 2:00 p.m.

Bulldogs Take On Maryland Eastern Shore For First Time

Wednesday night's matchup with Maryland Eastern Shore will be the first ever on the hardwood between UGA and UMES.

Georgia is 10-0 all-time against the programs currently competing with Maryland Eastern Shore in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) – 3-0 vs. Delaware State and S.C. State; 2-0 vs. N.C. Central; and 1-0 vs. Howard and Norfolk State.

Scouting The Hawks

Maryland Eastern Shore is in its second season under head coach Cleo Hill, Jr. Though this is also Hill's second campaign at the Division I level, he has experience consistent head coaching success in Division II stints at Cheyney, Shaw and Winston-Salem State before arriving at UMES.

Maryland Eastern Shore is coming off a strong showing in its season opener, pushing Georgia Tech to overtime on Monday before falling 56-52. The Hawks led by one with a second remaining until a Peyton Marshall free throw extended the game.

Joseph Locandro was stellar in his debut for UMES, scoring 17 points on a 7-of-8 shooting night from the floor which including a 3-of-3 effort from 3-point range. Justin Monden added 10 points, including a jumper with 10 seconds remaining that put the Hawks up by one.

Last Time Out

Blue Cain and Jeremiah Wilkinson scored 15 points apiece to lead Georgia to a 104-59 victory over Bellarmine the Bulldogs' season opener on Monday night at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia took control of the contest midway through the first half. The Bulldogs used a 13-3 run over 3:37 to build a 30-18 lead with 8:59 left in the first half. Georgia led by double figures for the rest of the game, with the lead topping out at game's final margin of 45 points.

Eleven players logged double-digit minutes for Georgia; however, a player who checked in for the final 68 seconds stole the show. Redshirt junior Brandon Klatsky took care of two milestones with a single shot from the left corner with 57 seconds left, recording the first points of his collegiate career and pushing Georgia to the century mark on the scoreboard. Klatsky added two steals and another layup before dribbling out the clock to end the contest.

The victory was the 300th of Mike White's head coaching career.

"One of my best friends texted me this morning, a guy actually, the first guy to hire me, got me into coaching at Jacksonville State named Mike LaPlante," White stated. "He said 'Good luck tonight going for number 300.' I didn't think about it again until after the game. But I've just been really fortunate to coach really good players and great people. As much as anything, (it's) working with great people and working at three big-time institutions. I'm really fortunate."

White Is 1-0 Vs. Hawks

Mike White won a previous meeting against Maryland Eastern Shore while he was the head coach at Louisiana Tech.

On Nov. 25, 2011, White picked up the second victory of his head coaching career with a 73-54 decision over UMES in the opening round of the Jim Thorpe Classic in Laramie, Wyo. After trailing 31-29 at halftime, the Bulldogs outscored the Hawks 44-23 in the second stanza. Trevor Gaskins led a quintet of double-digit scorers for Tech with 15 points.

Hey I Know That Dude

The UMES roster features one loose association with Georgia Basketball.

Senior Zion Obanla played at George Ranch High School in Houston, Texas, the alma mater of former Bulldog Noah Thomasson. Thomasson was the leading scorer for Georgia when the Bulldogs advanced to the NIT semifinals two seasons ago. He is currently playing for Arriva Polski Cuker in Torun, Poland, and averaging team highs of 14.8 points and 4.8 assists per game.

When texted to confirm Thomasson and Obanla played together, Thomasson quickly replied: "He rode the school bus with me from 8th grade on up!"

Bulldogs Score Most Points Under Mike White

Georgia's 104-point outburst against Bellarmine represented the third time the Bulldogs have reached the 100-point mark during Mike White's three-plus seasons in Athens.

Last season, Georgia hit the century mark twice, defeating Jacksonville 102-56 on Nov. 30 and beating Buffalo 100-49 on Dec. 19.

The 104 points were the most by the Bulldogs since defeating Savannah State, 110-78, in the season opener to the 2018-19 season on Nov. 9, 2018.

Georgia has now reached 100 points 58 times during the Bulldogs' 121 seasons of basketball. In what most would consider an extremely direct correlation, Georgia is 56-2 on those contests.

Bulldogs, White Sport Strong Record In Initial Outings

Georgia improved to 87-34 (.719) record in season openers during the Bulldogs' 121 seasons of basketball. That includes a 40-5 (.889) mark in season openers at Stegeman Coliseum.

Mike White now has an 11-4 mark in season openers during his head coaching career. He was 2-2 in initial outings at Louisiana Tech and 6-1 in the first contests at Florida and is 3-1 in his openers with the Bulldogs.

Preseason Analytics Like the Bulldogs

Coming off its best season in a decade, Georgia began the 2025-26 campaign with its highest preseason projections ever among two of college basketball most popular metrics.

The Bulldogs were listed at No. 32 according to BartTorvik.com and No. 44 by KenPom.com as outlined below.

In Torvik projections dating back to 2008, Georgia's previous preseason high was No. 38 last November.

In KenPom's predictions, which began in 2002, the Bulldogs' best preseason listing was No. 27 in 2014-15.

Another metric, EvanMiya.com, listed Georgia at No. 40 in its preseason projections. That site also ranks individual players and believed the Bulldogs have one of the deepest rosters in the SEC. Georgia had nine players ranked in EvanMiya's top 551 players in the country. That tied Vanderbilt for the most players in that range. Trailing the Dogs and the Dores were Arkansas and Kentucky with eight; Florida, Oklahoma and Texas with seven; Mississippi State, Missouri and Texas A&M with six; and Alabama and LSU with five.

Recent Metrics

Top-10 AP Opponents
	Torvik		KenPom
Season	Pre	Post	Pre	Post
2019-20	58	88	55	95
2020-21	104	93	95	95
2021-22	237	193	159	219
2022-23	126	159	93	154
2023-24	88	73	57	84
2024-25	38	34	65	38
2025-26	32		44

A "Stegtacular" Home Court Advantage

Georgia's home court advantage? It's real and it's Stegtacular.

The Bulldogs were 15-3 in Athens last season, matching the program record for home wins in a single season. Georgia also won 15 home games during the 2013-14 and 2015-16 campaigns; however, those tallies include an NIT victory.

The Bulldogs won their first 11 home contests, building a 13-game home winning streak dating back to the 2023-24 seasons. After producing just eight double-digit home winning streaks in Georgia's first 116 seasons of basketball, the Bulldogs have produced three double-digit winning streaks at Stegeman during Mike White's three seasons alone.

White's success at Stegeman is not confined to his UGA tenure. He was 7-1 in Athens as a visiting head coach, leading Louisiana Tech to a 2014 NIT victory at Stegeman and compiling a 6-1 mark at Florida from 2015-22.

With a 42-13 home mark since becoming Georgia's coach, White is a combined 49-14 (.778) in Stegeman. He is a perfect 28-0 versus non-conference competition at home with the Bulldogs.

Georgia currently owns a modest three-game winning streak at Stegeman that features two impressive victories. That began with an 88-83 upset of No. 3 Florida on Feb. 25 and continued with a 79-68 decision over Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale.

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