Men's Basketball Opens 2026-27 Against N.C. Central

Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (0-0) vs. N.C. Central (0-0)
Date: Monday, November 2, 2026
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Stegeman Coliseum (10,523)
Location: Athens, Ga.
TV: SECN+ (Matt Stewart, play-by-play; Marcus Thornton, analyst)
Streaming: SECN+
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network; Sirius 256 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix

The Starting 5

Georgia christens its 122nd season of hoops on Monday by hosting N.C. Central in the second game of a doubleheader at Stegeman Coliseum also featuring UGA's Lady Bulldogs vs. West Georgia.
The Bulldogs posted a school-record 22 regular-season victories last season, reaching the 20-win plateau for the third straight campaign and securing a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.
Georgia has won 78 games in Mike White's first four seasons in Athens, the most-ever during the initial quartet of campaigns among the program's 23 head coaches (Hugh Durham's 66 is second).
The Bulldogs are riding a 36-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents at Stegeman Coliseum and are 55-17 (.764) at home under Mike White.
Georgia is one of only three Power Conference men's hoops programs with four season-ending starters returning from last season. The Bulldogs are joined by Colorado and Florida.

Keeping An Eye On…

Entering Today's Game - Among UGA's Career Leaders

Blue Cain is...
• 5 points from No. 42 Chris Daniels
• 8 points from No. 41 Jarvis Hayes
• 12 points from No. 40 Gerald Crosby
• 41 points from No. 39 Rashad Wright
• 2 3FGs from co-No. 13s Ty Wilson and Ray Harrison
• 8 3FGs from No. 12 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
• 11 3FGAs from No. 11 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
• 25 3FGAs from No. 10 Bernard Davis
• 1 steal from co-No. 17s Billy Humphrey and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
• 18 steals from No. 16 Willie Anderson

The Opening Tip

The Georgia Bulldogs will open their 2026-27 campaign on Monday evening by hosting N.C. Central at Stegeman Coliseum at approximately 7:30 p.m. The matchup is the second of a doubleheader which also will feature the Georgia Lady Bulldogs against West Georgia at 5:00 p.m.

Georgia is looking to continue the impressive and consistent growth under Mike White, and possibly make some program history.

The Bulldogs reached the 20-win mark during each of the past three seasons, just the third time they've strung together a trio of years hitting that plateau (joining 1996-98 and 2014-16). Georgia has never produced four straight 20-victory tallies.

The Bulldogs earned bids to the 2025 and 2026 NCAA Tournaments, just the fourth time they've secured back-to-back March Madness invitations (along with 1990-91, 1996-97 and 2001-02). Georgia has never appeared in three consecutive NCAA tourneys.

That success has made White the winningest of Georgia's 23 all-time head coaches over their first four seasons. His 78 victories is a dozen more than the second-best tally, 66 wins by Hugh Durham between 1978-82.

SCOUTING REPORT ON NCCU

N.C. Central is beginning its 18th season under LeVelle Moton, who has led the Eagles to four NCAA Tournament bids, an NIT appearance and four sweeps of the MEAC regular-season and tournament titles during his tenure in Durham.

NCCU's roster features just one returning letterwinner from last season's 14-18 squad, Ryan Archey. Rounding out the Eagles are 14 newcomers, one freshman and 13 transfers.

Two Eagles are Georgia natives returning to the Peach State. Freshman Duor Duor was a two-time Class AA all-state performer at South Atlanta High School, earning first-team honors as a senior and second-team status as a junior. Junior Chandler Thomas is from Warner Robins and was honored as a first-team All-GCAA (Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association) selection at South Georgia State last season after averaging 16.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE EAGLES

Georgia won both of the previous meetings with N.C. Central, a pair of matchups in Stegeman Coliseum during the past seven years.

Most recently on Nov. 12, 2022, Jabri Abdur-Rahim's 13-point performance paced Georgia en route to a 64-54 victory over the Eagles. Abdur-Rahim was 10-of-11 at the line, including 8-of-8 in the second half.

N.C. Central used a 7-0 run to grab a 32-29 lead with 14:22 remaining in the game before a 3-pointer from Blue Cain ignited a 19-4 surge as the Bulldogs regained control.

In the initial matchup on Dec. 4, 2019, Anthony Edwards scored 21 points, 19 of those in the first half, as Georgia topped the Eagles, 95-59. Rayshaun Hammonds added 19 points, and Tyree Crump chipped in a 16 for the Bulldogs

LAST TIME OUT

Georgia rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to tie Clemson with 13 seconds left before a buzzer beater gave the Tigers an 82-80 win last Friday in a preseason game at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Kanon Catchings knotted the score 80-80 on a 3-pointer from the right wing, the first time the game had been tied since 15-15 at the 12:56 mark of the first half. James Scott blocked Dylan Faulkner's short jumper with three seconds remaining; however, Faulkner rebounded the ball and scored on a putback as time expired.

Catchings led the Bulldogs with 19 points and was joined in double figures by Brady Dunlap with 16 points an Marcus "Smurf" Millender with 11.

Georgia shot just 64.3 percent from the line on 14 attempts. Conversely, the Tigers converted on 75.7 percent of their 37 trips to the charity stripe.

"Clemson executed down the stretch," head coach Mike White said. "They did a great job of drawing fouls throughout the game. We've got to clean a lot of things up, but we were competitive against a very good program on the road. We have a lot to learn from tonight's game, both positively and negatively."

DOGS SPORT STRONG RECORD IN INITIAL OUTINGS

Georgia has compiled an 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.

Since Stegeman was christened late in the 1963-64 season, the Bulldogs are 57-6 (.905) in their first home game of each season.

Georgia's most significant win in to begin a season at Stegeman also was its first season opener in the arena. The Bulldogs bested No. 13 North Carolina, 64-61, in their first game of the 1964-65 season on Dec. 3 1964.

MIKE WHITE IN SEASON OPENERS

Mike White has a 11-4 mark in season openers during his head coaching career.

White was 2-2 in initial outings at Louisiana Tech and then 6-1 in the first contests at Florida. He is 3-1 in his openers with the Bulldogs.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MARCH TO SAMPLE THE MADNESS

Georgia is predicted by most bracketologists to make a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance next March. In the final preseason versions released in late October, the Bulldogs were tabbed to be a No. 9 seed by CBS Sports and a No. 10 seed by ESPN.

From November through the end of the campaign, Georgia will face a schedule loaded with other teams expected to be in next March's first-ever Field of 76.

ESPN predicts the Bulldogs will play exactly half of their 32 regular-season dates versus NCAA tourney teams, facing Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Cincinnati, Duke, Florida (twice), Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma (twice), Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

CBS one-ups that prognostication with all of the aforementioned teams plus LSU in its bracket.

BULLDOGS LOOK TO BETTER MEDIA'S EXPECTATIONS ... AGAIN

Georgia was predicted to finish 11th in the Southeastern Conference in preseason balloting of selected league and national media in association with Tipoff '26, the SEC's Media Days for hoops.

The Bulldogs will attempt to outperform the media's expectations for a fifth-consecutive season under Mike White.

In fact, Georgia is the only SEC men's basketball program to finish better than the media's predicts in each of the past four seasons.

The Bulldogs' best differential was last season when they were voted to finish 14th but cut that in half and finished 10-8 in league action while tying for seventh. That was their highest SEC effort since tying for sixth in 2016.

In previous seasons under White, Georgia was predicted 13th in 2022-23 and finished 11th, tabbed 12th in 2023-24 and ended up 11th and projected 12th in 2024-25 and placed ninth.

BLUE IS BULLDOGS' BEST AT THE LINE

Blue Cain's 4-of-4 day at the line against Mississippi State in the regular-season finale last season pushed him ahead of J.J. Frazier for the best career free throw percentage effort ever by a Bulldog.

The minimum to qualify for UGA's career free throw leaders percentage leaders is 125 made attempts, which Cain achieved at Florida on Jan. 6, 2206. Cain eventually finished his junior year at 154-of-182, making his 84.6 conversion rate is .5 better than Frazier's 84.1 percent.

As one would expect, Cain also sports two of the best single-season free throw percentage efforts in Georgia history.

Cain's 90.7 mark (78-of-86) last season is second only to Channing Toney's 91.0 percent (61-of-67) in 2004-05. He connected on 84.1 percent of his trips to the charity stripe as a sophomore in 2024-25, which ranks No. 14 among the Bulldogs' best all-time single-season tallies.

IN SEVERAL WAYS, 2025-26 BULLDOGS WERE GEORGIA'S BEST EVER

Georgia's school-record 22 regular-season wins last season was just the tip of the iceberg for what was accomplished during the 2025-26 campaign.

Additionally, those Bulldogs established the following programs season records:

Broke the record for total points with 2,951 points in 33 games, bettering the previous record of 2,764 points in 37 games in 2023-24.
Broke the record for scoring average at 89.4 points per game, bettering the previous record of 82.7 ppg in 1989-90.
Broke the record for field goals with 1013 makes in 33 games, bettering the previous record of 997 FGs in 1982-83.
Broke the record for 3-pointers with 324 in 33 games, bettering the previous record of 300 trifectas in 37 games in 2023-24.
Broke the record for 3-point attempts with 960 FGAs in 33 games, bettering the record of 883 shots behind the arc in 37 games in 2023-24.
Broke the record for blocked shots with 199 swatted shots, bettering the previous record of 175 rejections in 34 games in 2015-16.

SMURF & KEMO ARE LATEST BROTHERLY BULLDOGS

Marcus "Smurf" Millender and Kemauri "Kemo" Millender are the fifth set of brothers to play for the Bulldogs. The brothers believed the 2021-22 season at Clear Brook High School ended their playing days together before they were reunited in Athens this summer.

The Millenders are joining a ledger brotherly Bulldogs that includes current assistant coaches Jarvis and Jonas Hayes, as well as Willie and Shandon Anderson, Chad and Alec Kessler and Mike and Matt Bucklin.

COMPLETE GAME NOTES PDF

View the full game notes PDF.

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Players Mentioned

Blue Cain

Kanon Catchings

Brady Dunlap

James Scott

University of Georgia Athletics