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KJ Bolden Named Freshman All-American
Bulldog first-year safety KJ Bolden has been named to the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) Freshman All-America Team.
Bolden, a native of Buford, Ga., is one of nine players from the Southeastern Conference on the 32-man team. This marks the ninth straight year that Georgia has had at least one FWAA Freshman All-American, including three in 2023 (Earnest Greene III, CJ Allen, Peyton Woodring).
Bolden played in all 14 games for the SEC champion Bulldogs, including starting two contests (vs. Florida, No. 7 Tennessee). He finished fifth on the team with 59 stops, including two tackles for loss and a sack. Bolden added an interception and a forced fumble for his squad that picked up four top-15 victories.
MBB: Dawgs Meet Vols in Knoxville Tonight
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Venue: Food City Center (21,678)
Location: Knoxville, Tenn.
TV: SEC Network (Brian Custer, play-by-play; Richard Hendrix, analyst)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 389 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
The Starting Five
• The No. 23-ranked Georgia Bulldogs trek to Knoxville on Wednesday to face No. 6 Tennessee in the first of four matchups against current top-10 teams in UGA’s next six outings.
• The Bulldogs are ranked No. 23 in both the AP and coaches polls this week, UGA’s first AP poll appearance since Jan. 10, 2011 and the first time the Dogs are in both polls March 10, 2003.
• Mike White has led three different programs with losing records the season before he arrived to top-25 rankings in the AP poll, also doing so at Louisiana Tech in 12-20 in 2010-11 to No. 25 in 2013 and Florida 16-17 in 2014-15 to No. 12 in 2017. UGA was 6-26 in 2021-22, the season before White’s arrival.
• The Bulldogs entered the week ranked 29.3 in an average of six popular metrics (NET, KenPom, Torvik, KPI, BPI and SOR) – an increase of 189.7 spots since Mike White became UGA’s head coach.
• Tennessee is UGA’s fourth straight ranked opponent, the first time the Bulldogs have ever played a quartet of ranked foes in successive outings. Last Saturday vs. Oklahoma was just the fifth time Georgia faced a trio of consecutive ranked foes…also so in 1982-83, 1999-2000, 2016-17 and 2020-21.
The Opening Tip
For the first time in nearly 22 years – since March 10, 2003 to be exact – Georgia is ranked in both the Associated Press and coaches polls. After sweeping No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 17/16 Oklahoma last week, the 14-2 Bulldogs ascended to No. 23 in each ledger on Monday. Their reward? Facing four top-10 teams over the next six games, with three of those matchups being on the road.
Georgia will face No. 6/6 Tennessee at Food City Center in Knoxville on Wednesday. The Volunteers are the fourth of five consecutive ranked foes the Bulldogs will play to christen the 2025 calendar.
After falling to No. 24/23 Ole Miss in Oxford on Jan. 4, Georgia bounced back last week to top the Wildcats on Tuesday and the Sooners on Saturday before a pair of raucous sellout crowds at Stegeman Coliseum. Following Wednesday’s game, Georgia will host No. 1/1 Auburn before another packed house on Saturday.
The additional top-10 outings are at No. 5/4 Florida on Jan. 25 and at No. 4/5 Alabama on Feb. 2.
Wednesday’s game against Tennessee will represent the first time the Bulldogs have every played four ranked foes in a row.
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 65 double-digit performances, an average of 4.1 per game.
Asa Newell, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the third time this season on Monday, leads a quartet of Bulldogs averaging double figures at 15.4 ppg. He also paces UGA on the boards at 6.8 rpg. Among league leaders, Newell entered this week ranked No. 17 in scoring and No. 13 in rebounding – including an SEC-best 3.6 offensive boards per game. He also is No. 3 in the SEC and No. 39 nationally in field goal percentage (.581).
Rounding out the double-digit point producers in the scoring column are Dakota Leffew at 12.4 ppg, Silas Demary Jr. at 11.9 ppg and De’Shayne Montgomery at 11.3 ppg.
Scouting The Volunteers
Tennessee’s five-week run atop the AP and coaches polls ended on Monday when the Volunteers slipped to No. 6/6.
Tennessee was the nation’s last undefeated team before falling at No. 8/8 Florida last Tuesday in Gainesville.
Graduate Chaz Lanier tops all Vols in scoring and entered this week literally a single point shy of leading the SEC. He has scored much of his 19.0 ppg from behind the arc, pacing the league and ranking No. 4 nationally in 3-pointers per game at 3.7 3FGpg and ranking second in the SEC 3-point percentage at .437.
Tennessee has an additional trio of double-figure scorers – Zakai Zeigler at 11.9 ppg, Jordan Gainey at 11.2 ppg and Igor Milicic Jr. at 10.4 ppg. Zeigler leads the SEC and is No. 5 in the nation in assists at 7.6 apg, while Milicic is fourth in the league on the boards at 8.6 rpg.
Series History With Tennessee
Tennessee enters Wednesday’s matchup with a 99-61 lead in the all-time series between the Bulldogs and Vols.
Last season on Jan. 13 in Athens, Georgia led by as many as 11 points in the second half; however, No. 5 Tennessee rallied for an 85-79 win before a sellout crowd at Stegeman Coliseum.
The Volunteers gradually built a 14-point first-half lead before the Bulldogs exploded on a combined 15-0 run over the last 3:47 of the first half and the opening 34 seconds of the second stanza to go up 43-42.
Georgia’s lead maxed out at 11 points twice, lastly at 75-64 at the 6:24 mark. Tennessee then closed out the contest on a 21-4 surge.
The loss ended the Bulldogs’ 10-game winning streak, which equaled the fourth-longest in 118 seasons of Georgia Basketball and was UGA’s longest since the 1947-48 campaign.
In the Bulldogs’ last trip to Knoxville on Jan. 25, 2023, Georgia started quickly but could not maintain that pace, dropping a 70-41 decision to No. 4 Tennessee. The Bulldogs scored the game’s first four points and remained within a single bucket at 19-17 midway through the first half before the Vols embarked on a 16-5 surge to take control.
Last Time Out
Dakota Leffew and Asa Newell both scored a team-high 15 points to lead Georgia in a 72-62 win over No. 17/16 Oklahoma before a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum crowd last Saturday.
With the win, the Bulldogs secured back-to-back wins over ranked foes for the first time since January 2007. Georgia also defeated No. 6/7 Kentucky, 82-69, last Tuesday.
A Justin Abson hook shot put the Bulldogs up 51-50 with 10:36 remaining and ignited a 9-2 surge by Georgia to grab the lead for good.
Newell’s output included a trio of old-fashioned three-point plays during a perfect 5-of-5 effort at the line, and Leffew scored seven of his points in the final 4:26 to help ice the win.
“They’re all huge,” head coach Mike White said. “And I say they’re all, like there’s going to be a bunch, who knows how many we can get and how many some of these other teams win. It’s just great opportunities, but every one of them is just going to be a war. And you have to appreciate the wins that you do get. We appreciate the home court advantage that we had tonight, and we have to work on our force moving forward.”
Some Stuff On The Polls
Georgia is ranked No. 23 in both the Associated Press and coaches polls this week.
The Bulldogs last appeared in the AP poll on Jan. 10, 2011, when they were No. 24. Within that week’s coaches poll, Georgia was No. 29 among teams receiving votes.
The last time the Bulldogs were featured in both national polls was March 10, 2003, when Georgia was No, 21 and No. 22 in the AP and coaches polls, respectively. The Bulldogs were ranked during 13 weeks throughout the 2002-03 season, topping out on Jan. 27 when Georgia was tabbed No. 15 by the AP and No. 17 by the coaches.
A pair of wins over ranked foes last week pushed the Bulldogs into this week’s polls.
Georgia’s 82-69 win over No. 6 Kentucky last Tuesday represented the Bulldogs’ highest over a ranked foe since defeating No. 5 Kentucky, 65-57, on Jan. 17, 2004. It was also UGA’s highest over a ranked opponent at Stegeman Coliseum since beating No. 3 Georgia Tech, 83-80 in double overtime, on Jan. 3, 2004 . . . a span of 21 years and one day.
The Bulldogs’ wins over No. 6 Kentucky and No. 17 Oklahoma were their first back-to-back victories over ranked opponents since beating No. 25 Kentucky (78-69 in OT) and No. 21 LSU (57-54) on Jan. 24 & 28, 2007, respectively.
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