UGA MBB
Some "Strength" of SEC schedule notes for @UGABasketball
Credit @uga_mjiggsmobs
• Georgia is "THE ONLY" league team that has road trips to each of the four SEC teams ranked in the top-10 throughout conference play – Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee. A trip to No. 8/9 Texas A&M was added for good measure.
• Georgia is "ONE of TWO" teams that will play two of those top-10 programs twice – Auburn and Florida. Kentucky is the other – Alabama and Tennessee.
• Of Georgia’s 18 SEC games, 15 are against teams featured in the latest published edition of ESPN.com’s Bracketology, including FIVE ROAD outings at TOP-2 SEEDS – No. 1 Alabama, No. 1 Auburn, No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 2 Texas A&M.
• Georgia will have played more than half of its January and February games against top-10 competition – eight of 15 contests.
@ESPNLunardi @madeformarch @GoodmanHoops @John_Fanta @bracketproject @DelphiBrackets @BracketWAG @ProjSports @CBKReport @jppalmCBS
Next Opponent: Missouri
National Stats
PPG
UGA 159
MO 23
FG%
UGA 113
MO 37
FT%
UGA 205
MO 179
3P%
UGA 263
MO 35
REB
UGA 93
MO 194
A
UGA 236
MO 195
TO
UGA 307
MO 106
A/TO
UGA 284
MO 106
BL
UGA 11
MO 213
UGA
268 Newell 15.0 6.7 0.9
318 Demary 11.8 4.1 3.2
275 Leffew 10.7 2.0 2.0
551 Cain 8.8 4.0 1.5
434 Godfrey 7.2 4.2 1.0
1404 Montgomery 6.9 2.1 0.8
617 Cyril 4.4 4.3 0.5
726 James 3.1 2.0 0.4
Drezgic 2.9 1.1 0.5
Abson 1.9 2.3 0.7
MO
284 Bates 13.3 2.8 1.2
35 Mitchell 12.9 4.7 1.8
60 Grill 12.7 3.3 1.1
15 Robinson 9.1 3.3 3.2
221 Perkins 8.3 2.5 2.4
537 Pierce 7.3 3.2 0.8
486 Warrick 7.0 1.0 1.4
720 Crews 4.9 2.0 0.3
328 Allen 3.3 2.4 0.6
948 Gray 3.0 5.3 0.6
429 Shaw 3.0 1.9 0.3
Marshall 1.1 1.2 0.2
UGASports.com: Preview: No. 21 Missouri at Georgia
https://uga.rivals.com/news/preview-no-21-missouri-at-georgia
Columbia Tribune: Missouri basketball at Georgia: Scouting report, score prediction for Tigers’ trip to UGA
MU’s next stop is at a Georgia team that is barely clinging to a spot in the March Madness field because of a rough recent run, but has just two home losses this season that were by a combined three points to Auburn and Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs (16-9, 4-8) have lost three of their past four games, and their only wins in the past 10 games have come over Oklahoma, LSU and South Carolina, which make up the bottom three teams in the SEC.
A road win in a Quad 1 venue would go a long way for the Tigers. Here is what you need to know about Georgia before Saturday’s game:
What are Georgia’s strengths leading into Missouri basketball visit?
The Bulldogs are efficient at the gritty work, crashing the boards, getting to the line and impacting opponents' shooters.
With a 36.8% offensive rebounding percentage, Georgia is among the top five teams in the SEC and ranks among the top 5% of teams nationally at getting its misses back, according to CBB Analytics.
Much like Mizzou, the Bulldogs are adept at getting to the free throw line, ranking in the top five in the SEC and in the 90th percentile nationally with 22.5 shots from the stripe per game.
Georgia also excels at limiting its opponents’ effective field goal percentages, which is a good indicator that the Bulldogs are generally good at stopping teams from 3. They have a top-six rate for steals in the SEC and and top-five block rate, which suggests they’ll play some aggressive defense — and that they do it pretty well.
The good news for Mizzou is that it just showed it could win playing a rough-and-tumble style, dominating Oklahoma at the rim for a 24-point win Wednesday. The Tigers might just get more of the same Saturday in Athens.
What are Georgia’s weaknesses?
Georgia is not a 3-point shooting team. It's rarely a team that gets hot from deep, too.
The Bulldogs haven’t scored double-digit triples in a game against a team ranked inside the top 150 on KenPom this season, meaning they haven’t eclipsed 10 in a game since SEC play started. In 12 conference games, Georgia has shot better than 40% from behind the arc just one time.
So, the chances UGA catches lightning from deep are low, but they aren’t exactly reliant on that part of the game. CBB Analytics charts Georgia as lofting 20.9 triples per game, which is the lowest number in the league. The Bulldogs connect on 32.5% of those attempts, which ranks just outside the bottom third of all Division-I teams.
Expect the offense to run downhill. If Bulldogs get hot from 3, that would be an outlier.
Player to watch: Asa Newell
Newell likely will find his way onto the SEC all-freshman team at the end of the season. The rookie forward was a top-20 prospect in his signing class, and he’s lived up the billing in Year 1.
Through 25 games, Newell is averaging 15 points, 6..7 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.0 block per game. Listed at 6-foot-11, he’s projected as a top-25 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft by ESPN.
Missouri’s immediate challenge with the freshman is keeping him from causing damage in post, which could make this another important game for Mizzou forward Mark Mitchell. Newell has the size, wingspan and athleticism to be a problem around the rim, and that has made him the centerpiece of the Bulldogs’ offense.
Where can Mizzou create matchup advantages?
Georgia has been turnover prone this season, coughing the ball up on 16.6% of its possessions. That has been the second-worst mark in the SEC, and ranks in the bottom quarter nationally. Mizzou has been one of the better teams in the country at creating turnovers, and it wouldn’t hurt to stay dangerous on defense in Athens.
This also has the feel of another game where the opposition will sell out to stop the 3-ball, which is something Oklahoma mostly managed. That was, however, at the expense of leaving Mitchell in single coverage, which he took advantage of to the tune of a career-high 25 points.
In two of Georgia’s past three losses, the opposing team shot just 30% from behind the arc. The Bulldogs need to put in a shift to hold Caleb Grill and Co. to that kind of mark, but that also comes at a cost.
If the Dawgs do play aggressive perimeter defense, it’s going to fall on Mizzou’s post players to navigate Newell and UGA’s frontcourt to lead the offense.
Score prediction: Missouri 78, Georgia 70
The Bulldogs are going to have to pick their poison on how they defend the Tigers, and recent defensive trends against the Tigers suggest that will mean an all-hands-on-deck approach at stopping the triple. If MU gets the paint production it did against OU, it can win on the road.
https://www.columbiatribune.com/sto...r-missouri-basketball-at-georgia/78301028007/
Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball is better with Mark Mitchell. How the star answered Dennis Gates' challenge
“Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates gave Mark Mitchell what the coach called a “gentle reminder.”
Mitchell spent the majority of the final 12 minutes of Mizzou’s loss to Texas A&M on Saturday on the bench. Gates wasn’t pleased with what he’d seen from the forward on the defensive end of the floor, and that earned Mitchell a lengthy spell on the sideline in crunch time of the eventual loss.
Gates doesn’t quite want to call it a ‘benching,’ per se, preferring “telling guys the truth.”
That truth?
“I was not happy with his performance at all,” Gates said, “and he witnessed sitting on the bench.”
However you want to word it, the move was a warning. Mitchell returned to his usual role in the starting lineup against Oklahoma — a vital matchup in the scope of MU’s season and NCAA Tournament ambitions.
You tell us if the star forward heard what his coach was laying down.
Mitchell posted a career-high 25 points, surpassed the milestone of 1,000 career points, and left the Soonerswithout an answer for his direct, devastating plan of attack as Mizzou ran out to an 82-58 win Wednesday evening at Mizzou Arena. With Mitchell at the top of his game, the Tigers looked in a different league to their visitors.
“I think he got the message,” Gates said, “to be able to come out and respond how he responded.”
“Obviously, after the last game, nobody wants to sit on the bench that long, and obviously we had a chance to win,” Mitchell said. “So, yeah, I can definitely say I was a little motivated, but I was just trying to come out and get the win.”
The Duke transfer and Kansas City, Kansas, native was punishing in the paint as the Sooners sold out on keeping Mizzou quiet from 3.
Their mistake.
Mitchell frequently found himself in one-on-one matchups, which he capitalized on with lethal efficiency. Each drive to the rim inevitably drew one of two things: Points, or points via free throws. He went 6-of-12 from the field and 13-of-18 from the line.
“We had to make a decision if you're single-covering Mitchell or not,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said postgame, “and he made us pay.”
When there was traffic in his way, he showed patience to wait for the right opening with an extra step or dribble to get to his target. When he wanted to get aggressive, he had the athleticism to finish directly over the top of forwards and between traffic, which also contributed to his seven rebounds.
The result, almost invariably, was always the same: Mizzou pulling away behind its blockbuster junior.
This was the Mitchell that opened eyes when he announced his transfer from Duke last offseason.
As a decision-maker, he was operating on a different plane.
After forcing a steal underneath his own basket, he sprinted up court, worked inside star OU forward Jalon Moore, and had a narrow angle to the basket. In five minutes, he’d already turned that type of look into a layup and free throws for four points.
Instead, as two more Oklahoma defenders abandoned their men and converged to meet Mitchell at the rim, he kicked a pass out to the wing for Caleb Grill, who popped it over to the corner for Tamar Bates, who drove inside for an easy pickings, two-handed dunk. It wasn't on Mitchell's stat sheet, but it went on the scoreboard.
As a defender, Mitchell showed the ability to guard one through five, possessing the top-end speed and rangy length to even keep in front of star OU guard Jeremiah Fears, who went 3-of-13 from the field in an eight-point night. Moser almost appeared flustered in the postgame press conference as he called that type of versatility "unique."
It was the best example to date of the Mitchell who Missouri fans hoped he might just be when he made the transfer from Duke closer to home in the offseason: A dynamic clinician with the ability to take control of a game.
A cut above, at his best, anyone else on the court.
The past few games had painted a different picture. In a loss at Tennessee, Mitchell was essentially a non-factor as the Vols bullied him on the boards and stuffed him at the rim as he went 0-of-6 from the field. That capped a run of four straight games with seven points or fewer. Against Texas A&M, Mitchell’s defensive effort spurred Gates to act.
A gentle reminder, as the coach called it.
“I'm just proud of how he responded,” Gates said. “I don't have to yell, I don't have to scream at Mark. I can just talk to him just like this, and he responds a certain way and with a certain look, and that’s what I appreciate most.”
When Mitchell is operating at his highest potential, defenses have to pick the best of two bad options. Leave him single-covered, and he’ll make chances. Overcommit and the Tigers have the proven deep ball shooters to make you pay for that, too.
The Tigers all but assured an NCAA Tournament berth with the 24-point win. Their ceiling isn’t quite clear after dropping two straight games against top-10 teams, but a double-bye in the SEC Tournament is still in reach and a 4-seed in the Big Dance appears to be attainable.
There's still a lot to sort out, but Wednesday was a major step in a positive direction. By beating down OU in a must-win, the ceiling looks a lot higher when Mitchell is on.
“When he's erring on the side of aggression, he's a completely different player,” Gates said. “When he's out there thinking and not playing with his instincts, he doesn't provide us what I need him to provide. I want him to go out, take risks, and do different things because he draws so much attention and then makes the right play.
“But if he's not going to be aggressive, like he wasn’t against Texas A&M, he's not going to play. If he's aggressive, he'll play, and we'll continue to keep him in the game, and we'll have the production that we saw tonight.”
https://www.columbiatribune.com/sto...th-best-missouri-basketball-game/78389495007/
Some "Strength" of SEC schedule notes for @UGABasketball
Credit @uga_mjiggsmobs
• Georgia is "THE ONLY" league team that has road trips to each of the four SEC teams ranked in the top-10 throughout conference play – Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee. A trip to No. 8/9 Texas A&M was added for good measure.
• Georgia is "ONE of TWO" teams that will play two of those top-10 programs twice – Auburn and Florida. Kentucky is the other – Alabama and Tennessee.
• Of Georgia’s 18 SEC games, 15 are against teams featured in the latest published edition of ESPN.com’s Bracketology, including FIVE ROAD outings at TOP-2 SEEDS – No. 1 Alabama, No. 1 Auburn, No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 2 Texas A&M.
• Georgia will have played more than half of its January and February games against top-10 competition – eight of 15 contests.
@ESPNLunardi @madeformarch @GoodmanHoops @John_Fanta @bracketproject @DelphiBrackets @BracketWAG @ProjSports @CBKReport @jppalmCBS
Next Opponent: Missouri
National Stats
PPG
UGA 159
MO 23
FG%
UGA 113
MO 37
FT%
UGA 205
MO 179
3P%
UGA 263
MO 35
REB
UGA 93
MO 194
A
UGA 236
MO 195
TO
UGA 307
MO 106
A/TO
UGA 284
MO 106
BL
UGA 11
MO 213
UGA
268 Newell 15.0 6.7 0.9
318 Demary 11.8 4.1 3.2
275 Leffew 10.7 2.0 2.0
551 Cain 8.8 4.0 1.5
434 Godfrey 7.2 4.2 1.0
1404 Montgomery 6.9 2.1 0.8
617 Cyril 4.4 4.3 0.5
726 James 3.1 2.0 0.4
Drezgic 2.9 1.1 0.5
Abson 1.9 2.3 0.7
MO
284 Bates 13.3 2.8 1.2
35 Mitchell 12.9 4.7 1.8
60 Grill 12.7 3.3 1.1
15 Robinson 9.1 3.3 3.2
221 Perkins 8.3 2.5 2.4
537 Pierce 7.3 3.2 0.8
486 Warrick 7.0 1.0 1.4
720 Crews 4.9 2.0 0.3
328 Allen 3.3 2.4 0.6
948 Gray 3.0 5.3 0.6
429 Shaw 3.0 1.9 0.3
Marshall 1.1 1.2 0.2
UGASports.com: Preview: No. 21 Missouri at Georgia
https://uga.rivals.com/news/preview-no-21-missouri-at-georgia
Columbia Tribune: Missouri basketball at Georgia: Scouting report, score prediction for Tigers’ trip to UGA
MU’s next stop is at a Georgia team that is barely clinging to a spot in the March Madness field because of a rough recent run, but has just two home losses this season that were by a combined three points to Auburn and Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs (16-9, 4-8) have lost three of their past four games, and their only wins in the past 10 games have come over Oklahoma, LSU and South Carolina, which make up the bottom three teams in the SEC.
A road win in a Quad 1 venue would go a long way for the Tigers. Here is what you need to know about Georgia before Saturday’s game:
What are Georgia’s strengths leading into Missouri basketball visit?
The Bulldogs are efficient at the gritty work, crashing the boards, getting to the line and impacting opponents' shooters.
With a 36.8% offensive rebounding percentage, Georgia is among the top five teams in the SEC and ranks among the top 5% of teams nationally at getting its misses back, according to CBB Analytics.
Much like Mizzou, the Bulldogs are adept at getting to the free throw line, ranking in the top five in the SEC and in the 90th percentile nationally with 22.5 shots from the stripe per game.
Georgia also excels at limiting its opponents’ effective field goal percentages, which is a good indicator that the Bulldogs are generally good at stopping teams from 3. They have a top-six rate for steals in the SEC and and top-five block rate, which suggests they’ll play some aggressive defense — and that they do it pretty well.
The good news for Mizzou is that it just showed it could win playing a rough-and-tumble style, dominating Oklahoma at the rim for a 24-point win Wednesday. The Tigers might just get more of the same Saturday in Athens.
What are Georgia’s weaknesses?
Georgia is not a 3-point shooting team. It's rarely a team that gets hot from deep, too.
The Bulldogs haven’t scored double-digit triples in a game against a team ranked inside the top 150 on KenPom this season, meaning they haven’t eclipsed 10 in a game since SEC play started. In 12 conference games, Georgia has shot better than 40% from behind the arc just one time.
So, the chances UGA catches lightning from deep are low, but they aren’t exactly reliant on that part of the game. CBB Analytics charts Georgia as lofting 20.9 triples per game, which is the lowest number in the league. The Bulldogs connect on 32.5% of those attempts, which ranks just outside the bottom third of all Division-I teams.
Expect the offense to run downhill. If Bulldogs get hot from 3, that would be an outlier.
Player to watch: Asa Newell
Newell likely will find his way onto the SEC all-freshman team at the end of the season. The rookie forward was a top-20 prospect in his signing class, and he’s lived up the billing in Year 1.
Through 25 games, Newell is averaging 15 points, 6..7 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.0 block per game. Listed at 6-foot-11, he’s projected as a top-25 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft by ESPN.
Missouri’s immediate challenge with the freshman is keeping him from causing damage in post, which could make this another important game for Mizzou forward Mark Mitchell. Newell has the size, wingspan and athleticism to be a problem around the rim, and that has made him the centerpiece of the Bulldogs’ offense.
Where can Mizzou create matchup advantages?
Georgia has been turnover prone this season, coughing the ball up on 16.6% of its possessions. That has been the second-worst mark in the SEC, and ranks in the bottom quarter nationally. Mizzou has been one of the better teams in the country at creating turnovers, and it wouldn’t hurt to stay dangerous on defense in Athens.
This also has the feel of another game where the opposition will sell out to stop the 3-ball, which is something Oklahoma mostly managed. That was, however, at the expense of leaving Mitchell in single coverage, which he took advantage of to the tune of a career-high 25 points.
In two of Georgia’s past three losses, the opposing team shot just 30% from behind the arc. The Bulldogs need to put in a shift to hold Caleb Grill and Co. to that kind of mark, but that also comes at a cost.
If the Dawgs do play aggressive perimeter defense, it’s going to fall on Mizzou’s post players to navigate Newell and UGA’s frontcourt to lead the offense.
Score prediction: Missouri 78, Georgia 70
The Bulldogs are going to have to pick their poison on how they defend the Tigers, and recent defensive trends against the Tigers suggest that will mean an all-hands-on-deck approach at stopping the triple. If MU gets the paint production it did against OU, it can win on the road.
https://www.columbiatribune.com/sto...r-missouri-basketball-at-georgia/78301028007/
Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball is better with Mark Mitchell. How the star answered Dennis Gates' challenge
“Missouri basketball coach Dennis Gates gave Mark Mitchell what the coach called a “gentle reminder.”
Mitchell spent the majority of the final 12 minutes of Mizzou’s loss to Texas A&M on Saturday on the bench. Gates wasn’t pleased with what he’d seen from the forward on the defensive end of the floor, and that earned Mitchell a lengthy spell on the sideline in crunch time of the eventual loss.
Gates doesn’t quite want to call it a ‘benching,’ per se, preferring “telling guys the truth.”
That truth?
“I was not happy with his performance at all,” Gates said, “and he witnessed sitting on the bench.”
However you want to word it, the move was a warning. Mitchell returned to his usual role in the starting lineup against Oklahoma — a vital matchup in the scope of MU’s season and NCAA Tournament ambitions.
You tell us if the star forward heard what his coach was laying down.
Mitchell posted a career-high 25 points, surpassed the milestone of 1,000 career points, and left the Soonerswithout an answer for his direct, devastating plan of attack as Mizzou ran out to an 82-58 win Wednesday evening at Mizzou Arena. With Mitchell at the top of his game, the Tigers looked in a different league to their visitors.
“I think he got the message,” Gates said, “to be able to come out and respond how he responded.”
“Obviously, after the last game, nobody wants to sit on the bench that long, and obviously we had a chance to win,” Mitchell said. “So, yeah, I can definitely say I was a little motivated, but I was just trying to come out and get the win.”
The Duke transfer and Kansas City, Kansas, native was punishing in the paint as the Sooners sold out on keeping Mizzou quiet from 3.
Their mistake.
Mitchell frequently found himself in one-on-one matchups, which he capitalized on with lethal efficiency. Each drive to the rim inevitably drew one of two things: Points, or points via free throws. He went 6-of-12 from the field and 13-of-18 from the line.
“We had to make a decision if you're single-covering Mitchell or not,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said postgame, “and he made us pay.”
When there was traffic in his way, he showed patience to wait for the right opening with an extra step or dribble to get to his target. When he wanted to get aggressive, he had the athleticism to finish directly over the top of forwards and between traffic, which also contributed to his seven rebounds.
The result, almost invariably, was always the same: Mizzou pulling away behind its blockbuster junior.
This was the Mitchell that opened eyes when he announced his transfer from Duke last offseason.
As a decision-maker, he was operating on a different plane.
After forcing a steal underneath his own basket, he sprinted up court, worked inside star OU forward Jalon Moore, and had a narrow angle to the basket. In five minutes, he’d already turned that type of look into a layup and free throws for four points.
Instead, as two more Oklahoma defenders abandoned their men and converged to meet Mitchell at the rim, he kicked a pass out to the wing for Caleb Grill, who popped it over to the corner for Tamar Bates, who drove inside for an easy pickings, two-handed dunk. It wasn't on Mitchell's stat sheet, but it went on the scoreboard.
As a defender, Mitchell showed the ability to guard one through five, possessing the top-end speed and rangy length to even keep in front of star OU guard Jeremiah Fears, who went 3-of-13 from the field in an eight-point night. Moser almost appeared flustered in the postgame press conference as he called that type of versatility "unique."
It was the best example to date of the Mitchell who Missouri fans hoped he might just be when he made the transfer from Duke closer to home in the offseason: A dynamic clinician with the ability to take control of a game.
A cut above, at his best, anyone else on the court.
The past few games had painted a different picture. In a loss at Tennessee, Mitchell was essentially a non-factor as the Vols bullied him on the boards and stuffed him at the rim as he went 0-of-6 from the field. That capped a run of four straight games with seven points or fewer. Against Texas A&M, Mitchell’s defensive effort spurred Gates to act.
A gentle reminder, as the coach called it.
“I'm just proud of how he responded,” Gates said. “I don't have to yell, I don't have to scream at Mark. I can just talk to him just like this, and he responds a certain way and with a certain look, and that’s what I appreciate most.”
When Mitchell is operating at his highest potential, defenses have to pick the best of two bad options. Leave him single-covered, and he’ll make chances. Overcommit and the Tigers have the proven deep ball shooters to make you pay for that, too.
The Tigers all but assured an NCAA Tournament berth with the 24-point win. Their ceiling isn’t quite clear after dropping two straight games against top-10 teams, but a double-bye in the SEC Tournament is still in reach and a 4-seed in the Big Dance appears to be attainable.
There's still a lot to sort out, but Wednesday was a major step in a positive direction. By beating down OU in a must-win, the ceiling looks a lot higher when Mitchell is on.
“When he's erring on the side of aggression, he's a completely different player,” Gates said. “When he's out there thinking and not playing with his instincts, he doesn't provide us what I need him to provide. I want him to go out, take risks, and do different things because he draws so much attention and then makes the right play.
“But if he's not going to be aggressive, like he wasn’t against Texas A&M, he's not going to play. If he's aggressive, he'll play, and we'll continue to keep him in the game, and we'll have the production that we saw tonight.”
https://www.columbiatribune.com/sto...th-best-missouri-basketball-game/78389495007/
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