Daily Dawg Thread: February 05, 2025

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Daily Dawg Thread: February 05, 2025

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MTEN: Dawgs defeat Tech, 4-2

Niels Ratiu

The University of Georgia men’s tennis team defeated Georgia Tech 4-2 at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Facility on Tuesday evening to improve to 3-3 on the young season.

 

 

 

 

FAST FACTS:

·      The Bulldogs clinched the doubles point after taking courts one and three. Niels Ratiu/Miguel Perez Peña defeated No. 19 Krish Arora/Christophe Clement 6-4 before Freddy Blaydes/Oscar Pinto Sansano’s 7-6(1) victory over Gabriele Brancatelli/Robert Bauer gave Georgia the lead. No. 14 Thomas Paulsell/Ryan Colby fell to No. 44 Nate Bonetto/Gianluca Carlini, 6-4.

 

 

 

 

·      Ratiu/Perez Peña’s doubles victory marked their highest ranked doubles win as a pairing, as well as Ratiu’s highest ranked doubles win as an individual. 

·      Georgia Tech levelled the match at 1-all after No. 90 Bonetto took court one over No. 53 Colby

·      Georgia extended its lead in the all-time series against the Yellow Jackets as it now boasts a 74-18 record.

·      Perez Peña improves to 5-0 in dual-match action this spring. He’s followed by Pinto Sansano with a 5-1 record, Colby with a 3-2 record, Vulpitta with a 2-2 record, and Paulsell with a 2-3 record.

KEY QUOTES:

Georgia Head Coach Jamie Hunt

On the win…

“We had a tremendous atmosphere, and I want to give thanks to our fans for coming out and providing just a great atmosphere for our guys. Georgia Tech was tough, I mean, they came ready to play in doubles, but we answered the bell there, and I was really proud of our number three team. They went down a break early on and got it back and showed tremendous poise in the tiebreaker and executed really well. We had great doubles point and singles was a battle. It came down to kind of who could be tougher and more disciplined. I thought Miguel [Perez Peña] and Oscar [Pinto Sansano] down here were just fantastic to get us kind of two quick points in singles. Then Thomas [Paulsell]  showed a lot of heart, a lot of poise there, losing the second set, and then just responding in a tremendous way in the third set and really a lot of separation there. So, really proud of them. We’re competing really well. It wasn’t our best performance, but it’s something we can grow on, – just winning ugly, winning gritty. We’re excited to build on it.”

UP NEXT: Georgia moves on to the second match of a four-match home stand welcoming No. 5 Virginia to the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Facility on Friday at 6:00 p.m. E.T. On Sunday, the Bulldogs host another doubles header with North Carolina at 1 p.m. E.T. and Alabama State at 5 p.m. E.T.

T&F: Skylynn Townsend Named SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week

Georgia jumper Skylynn Townsend has garnered Southeastern Conference Women’s Freshman of the Week honors, according to a league announcement Tuesday.

This marks the second consecutive week a Lady Bulldog has won a league weekly honor.  Senior high jumper Elena Kulichenko was named the Women’s Co-Field Athlete of the Week following the season opener.

Townsend, a native of Prosper, Texas, built to a fifth triple jump of 13.30 meters/43 feet, 7 ¾ inches to take second in the triple jump at the Razorback Invitational.  This season best effort moved her to No. 8 on the school’s all-time top 10 list and No. 13 on the national list (top freshman).  Townsend also soared 6.15m/20-2.25 in the long jump to be the second freshman finisher.

The Bulldogs will return to action at the at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, S.C., on Feb. 14-15.  The SEC Indoor Championships arrive in College Station, Texas, on Feb. 27 through March 1.

MBB: Georgia (15-7, 3-6 SEC) vs. LSU (12-9, 1-7 SEC) Tonight at the Stege

Date: Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET

Venue: Stegeman Coliseum (10,523)

Location: Athens, Ga.

Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix

Game Giveaway: The first 750 UGA students will receive Spike slippers.

TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal, play-by-play; Jon Sunvold, analyst)

Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 84 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)

The Starting Five

• Georgia returns to the friendly and increasingly raucous confines of Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday to host the LSU Tigers. The Bulldogs will play three of their next four games at home.

• Georgia is 12-1 at home this season, with capacity crowds for three of four SEC outings – wins over No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 17/16 Oklahoma and a two-point loss to No. 1/1 Auburn.

• After playing six of eight games against top-25 teams in January, the Bulldogs flipped the calendar to February to find…six of seven outings versus teams ranked this week.

• With UGA at No. 23 on Jan. 13, Mike White has now led three programs with losing records the year before he arrived to the AP top-25 in less than three seasons…also doing so at La. Tech and Florida.

• Georgia has become one of the nation’s premier defensive teams under Mike White. Metrically, the Bulldogs currently rank in the top-25 nationally in defensive efficiency and effective FG pct defense.

The Opening Tip

The Georgia Bulldogs begin a stretch of three home dates over four games on Wednesday evening when they face LSU’s Tigers at historic Stegeman Coliseum. 

That span is part of a grueling February slate for Georgia. After playing six of eight games against top-25 opponents in January, the Bulldogs will face foes ranked this week in six of seven contests during the year’s shortest month.

The Bulldogs are 15-7 overall and 3-6 in SEC play and projected as an NCAA Tournament team by virtually everyone predicting a bracket…including a No. 10 seed by ESPN.com on Tuesday.

Georgia’s balanced offense features seven players who have led the Bulldogs in one or more games. Two more players have posted double-figure scoring outputs. All told, those nine Bulldogs have produced 79 double-digit performances. 

Asa Newell, who has been named SEC Freshman of the Week three times, leads a trio of Bulldogs averaging double figures at 15.2 ppg. He also paces UGA on the boards at 7.0 rpg. Among league leaders, Newell is ranked No. 15 in scoring and No. 11 in rebounding. He also is No. 3 in the SEC and No. 46 nationally in field goal percentage (.550).

Silas Demary Jr. and Dakota Leffew are scoring at double-digit paces of 11.1 ppg and 10.9 ppg, respectively, for the Bulldogs. Demary Jr. also sports team-high averages of 2.9 apg and 1.7 spg.

Scouting The Tigers

LSU is 12-9 overall and 1-7 in the SEC entering Wednesday’s matchup. The Tigers were 11-2 in non-conference play, including victories over Kansas State, UCF and Florida State.

Cam Carter leads a solid 1-2 scoring punch for LSU at 17.3 ppg, followed by Jordan Sears at 14.8 ppg. Jalen Reed averaged 11.1 ppg before suffering a season-ending injury in the eighth game of the season against Florida State.

Series History With LSU

LSU owns a 71-49 advantage in the all-time series with UGA.

The two teams split a home-and-home series last season, with each team winning on its home floor.

In the Tigers’ last trip to Athens on Jan. 24 last season, Russel Tchewa’s three-point play with 2.3 seconds remaining lifted Georgia to a 68-66 win over the Tigers.

Tchewa grabbed an offensive rebound and powered in a layup while being fouled to secure his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Silas Demary Jr. led Georgia offensively for the second time in three games with 15 points.

After three ties and seven lead changes in the opening 14:00, Demary scored 11 straight Georgia points to put the Bulldogs up 32-24. Georgia remained on top until a three-point play by Jalen Cook gave the Tigers a 66-65 edge with 16 seconds remaining. Tchewa followed a missed 3-point attempt with his stick-back and free throw.

The rematch on Feb. 27 in Baton Rouge also went down to the final horn. A pair of LSU free throws from Will Baker with 15 seconds left, followed by a pair of misses on potential game winners by Bulldogs, propelled the Tigers to a 67-66 victory.

The back-and-forth final minutes featured six lead changes and two ties in the final 5:38.

Mike White’s Pregame Presser

On how important this week’s games are for the team and the home court advantage:

“It’s important that we play well and we continue to get better, and if we do those things, if we continue to play really well at home, it’ll put us in a position to potentially have success. But we won’t talk about that final score until the last couple rounds of the game. We want to get off to a good start and have a really good shootaround tomorrow. We play really hard. We have a lot of fun. We play with a lot of passion. We play connected when we’re at home in the Steg. It’s an elite home court advantage now, like the rest of our league, and we’ve been elite at home. We’re 12-1, with only one loss to the number one team in the country by a couple points, so does that mean that we have success tomorrow? It’s a factor, but more importantly, I think our fans have helped us play well and play hard and play with pride, and our fans have been loud at home. And generally speaking, teams around college basketball play better at home. We certainly do. But we’ve got to play well to beat a good LSU team.”

On how the team focuses on the next game without worrying about what’s ahead:

“I think our guys are doing a really good job of that. I think they’ve been bought into that since our first game. They continue to experience the process and move on to the next play – next play mentality – and for us, the next play the last couple days has been that next film session, that next practice, the next drill in practice, drill to drill, play to play. So, our guys, although we’re a very young team, we’ve had a mature approach that we’re proud of. So, we got better today.”

On which players will need to step up defensively to defend the LSU backcourt:

“We’ve got five guys that we’re playing pretty consistently in the backcourt, and all of them have had positive moments in league play defensively, and all of them have stuff we’ve got to continue to work on. But Silas [Demary Jr.] would be the first guy that comes to mind, Tyrin Lawrence, Dakota [Leffew]’s been really good the last couple days defensively. We’ve just all got to continue to get better and compete. But it starts with those guys, as you mentioned, with their backcourt, with [Cam] Carter and [Jordan] Sears. Those two guys are a handful.”

On what he has liked about his team in SEC play and what needs to improve:

“The character of our guys, the resilience of our guys, the work ethic, the consistency. We talk about process a lot, and these guys have embraced that. They enjoy playing with one another. For the most part, we’ve been really good defensively coming off a game where in the second half we weren’t very good defensively. The number one offense in the country had a lot to do with that. But for the most part, in-league, non-conference, we’ve been a high-level defensive team that’s overcome some live ball turnovers a lot, and that number’s getting a little bit better as of late. Hopefully it continues to trend in that direction, but despite us throwing the ball to the other team at times and allowing them to get up and transition with numbers, our defensive numbers speak for themselves. They’re really, really high. Offensive rebounding has been really good for us, attacking the rim, drawing fouls are strengths for us. Defensive rebounding has really hurt us in league play, especially. Our numbers continue to decrease in trying to block out some of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country at the same time. So that’s another point of emphasis for us right now.”

On what stands about LSU’s team besides their backcourt:

“Their speed. They’re really a fast, long, athletic, deep team, but those two guards are really fast, and all of their frontcourt guys. It could be the fastest frontcourt in our league. Changing ends, rim running, and early ball screen dives, and deep post-ups. They’re hard to block out. The way they defend the rim, their ability to block shots. It’s an athletic, talented team. Matt [McMahon] and his staff do a good job. Those guards, they put them in space. They can go get baskets, and they attack the glass. They defend at a really high level like the rest of the SEC.”

On how SEC games are helping the younger players’ individual development:

“They’re playing, night in and night out, some of the best teams in the country – some of the best defenses, some of the best offenses, some of the best rebounders, playing in front of a great home crowd here, of course, and then playing in some really tough environments. You win or you learn, right? And so with these guys, they’ve embraced, ‘We weren’t very good last night at this. We’ve got to continue to get better in this area, in that area.’ Our guys are pretty good, too, about coaching each other and owning things, and, ‘My bad, I’ve got to do that a little bit better.’ The way our guys communicate with each other in terms of challenging each other is really healthy.”

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Greg is closing in on 15 years writing about and photographing UGA sports. While often wrong and/or out of focus, it has been a long, strange trip full of fun and new friends.