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MBB: Arkansas Visits The Stege Today

Date: Saturday, January 17, 2026

Time: 4:00 p.m. ET

Venue: Stegeman Coliseum (10,523)

Location: Athens, Ga.

Game Giveaway: The first 750 UGA students will receive a free Georgia-themed winter hat

TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart, play-by-play; Dane Bradshaw, analyst)

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

The Starting Five

• No. 21/22 Georgia will host No. 17/17 Arkansas on Saturday at a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum, where the Bulldogs are 51-14 (.785) during Mike White’s four seasons in Athens.

• Georgia will honor its 1996 “Sweet 16” team on Saturday. In Tubby Smith’s first season, UGA defeated Clemson and No. 1 seed Purdue before falling to eventual NCAA runner-up Syracuse in overtime.

• The Bulldogs are No. 21 and No. 22 in this week’s AP and coaches polls, respectively. Georgia has been ranked for five consecutive weeks, its longest span since being in 11 straight polls in 2002-03.

• Stegeman Coliseum’s rims may take a beating on Saturday. Georgia leads the nation in percentage of field goals that are dunks (122 dunks=20.6 pct.), while Arkansas is ranked No. 6 (100 dunks=16.3 pct.).

• Jeremiah Wilkinson has posted 30-point performances in each of Georgia’s SEC home outings – 31 against Auburn on Jan. 3 and a season-high 32 versus Ole Miss on Wednesday.

Keeping An Eye On…

Entering Today’s Game:

Smurf Millender is…

• 29 points from 1000 for his career

Among UGA’s Career Leaders

Blue Cain is…

• 3 3-pointers from No. 19 Sundiata Gaines

• 4 3-pointers from No. 18 Rashad Wright

• 8 3-pointers from No. 17 Turtle Jackson

• 22 3-point attempts from No. 18 Ty Wilson

Somto Cyril is…

• 5 blocks from No. 14 Albert Jackson

• 13 blocks from No. 13 Terry Fair

Among UGA’s Season Leaders

Somto Cyril is…

• 2 blocks from No. 18 Charles Claxton (‘93)

• 3 blocks from No. 17 Charles Claxton (‘92)

• 4 blocks from co-No. 14s Willie Anderson (’87 & ’88) and Yante Mateo (’18)

• 5 blocks from No. 13 Trey Thompkins (’11)

• 6 blocks from co-No. 11s Donte’ Williams (’12) & Somto Cyril (’25)

The Opening Tip

The No. 21/22 ranked Georgia Bulldogs will host No. 17/17 Arkansas in a Saturday matinee tipping off at 4:00 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum. The Bulldogs are looking to rebound from a 97-95 overtime setback to Ole Miss on Wednesday, their first home loss of the season. Georgia is now 14-3 overall, with two of those three Ls coming in overtime (also to Clemson).

Georgia is ranked for a fifth straight week, the Bulldogs’ longest stretch in the top 25 since an 11-week span during the 2002-03 campaign. 

Georgia’s statistical start to the 2025-26 campaign has been equally impressive.

As of Friday, the Bulldogs were leading all 365 Division I teams in scoring offense (96.4 ppg), fastbreak points (24.8 ppg), free throw makes (21.8 fts pg) and blocks (7.4 bpg). Among the 28 statistics tracked by the NCAA, Georgia ranked in the top 5 in 6 categories and in the top 25 in 14. 

Georgia has one of the nation’s deepest rotations, playing at a pace among the country’s quickest.

Eleven Bulldogs are averaging double-figure minutes, and according to the oft-used metric KenPom.com, Georgia entered this weekend ranked No. 3 nationally in adjusted tempo (74.8) and No. 5 in average offensive possession length (14.6).

Georgia’s depth is not just in numbers but also in its offensive production. 

Ten of the 11 Bulldogs playing double-digit minutes have scored 10+ points in a game, combining to record 72 double-figure scoring outputs this season. 

Jeremiah Wilkinson is averaging a team-high 17.8 ppg, while Blue Cain is contributing 14.1 ppg and Marcus “Smurf” Millender is chipping in 11.8 ppg. 

Kanon Catchings and Somto Cyril are just shy of double figures at 9.8 ppg – three points each to be exact. Cyril also paces Georgia in rebounding (6.2 rpg), blocks (2.7 bpg) and field goal percentage (.800 – that’s not a typo, it’s .800).

Scouting The Razorbacks

Arkansas, which is ranked No. 17 in both the AP and coaches polls this week, is 13-4 overall and 3-1 in the SEC to date. The Razorbacks are tied atop the league standings with Florida, Missouri, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

Arkansas sports the nation’s best 1-2 freshman scoring punch in Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas. Acuff leads Arkansas, which is fourth in the SEC in scoring at 19.8 ppg, while Thomas is contributing 15.7 ppg. Those averages rank fifth and 18th among all freshmen nationally as of Friday. 

Trevon Brazile provides another double-figure scorer at 13.4 ppg and leads the Razorbacks on the glass at 6.7 rpg.

Series History With Arkansas

Despite an 11-7 edge for Georgia in games played in Athens, Arkansas leads the overall series between the Bulldogs and the Razorbacks, 28-17.

Last season on Jan. 22 in Fayetteville, Arkansas rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat Georgia, 68-65, at Bud Walton Arena.

A pair of Asa Newell free throws with 14.8 seconds left tied the game, 65-65. Aduo Thiero was fouled with 1.8 seconds remaining and clinched the game at the line. 

In the Razorbacks’ most recent trip to Athens on Jan. 10, 2024, Georgia never trailed en route to a 76-66 victory over Arkansas. The Bulldogs scored the game’s first six points and never looked back. The lead bulged to 13 before Georgia settled on a 34-24 halftime lead. Arkansas inched back and pulled with three on three occasions; however, the Bulldogs answered each time.

Last Time Out

An Ole Miss putback with .02 seconds left in overtime lifted the Rebels to a 97-95 upset over Georgia on Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum. The setback snapped the Bulldogs’ 12-game home winning streak, dating back to a Feb. 25 victory over No. 3 Florida last season.

Jeremiah Wilkinson poured in 32 points, a season high and the most points by any Bulldog this season, to lead the Bulldogs.

“Really tough loss,” head coach Mike White said. “A ton of things we could have done better, credit Ole Miss. They played well. They’re a good team. You can’t just outscore people in this league. We’ve got to be a lot better defensively. I’ve got to do a better job defensively. They shot 60-percent of the second half at home with 10,000 people cheering for us, and we played with some energy and we made some shots and got loud in there, but gave up layups, gave up open threes.”

MTEN: Dawgs Travel To Tech Today

The University of Georgia men’s tennis team will open the spring 2026 season at Georgia Tech on Saturday, January 17 at 5 p.m. at the Byers Tennis Complex in Atlanta.  

Match 1 – Georgia at Georgia Tech
Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026
5:00 p.m.
Live Stats: https://gado.gs/dyf
Streaming: https://gado.gs/dyg
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

BULLDOG BULLETIN
Wreck Tech: The Bulldogs lead the all-time series against the Yellow Jackets, 74-18, including a 14-match winning streak dating back to 2011.  

Fresh From the Start: Since 2000, Georgia is 23-3 in season openers. 

New Faces, New Places: The Bulldogs have welcomed four new faces to Athens for the 2025-26 season, including three transfers: Derrick Chen, Santiago Giamichelle, and Will Jansen, as well as freshman Noah Johnston.  

Chen, a Cambridge, United Kingdom native, comes to Athens as a graduate transfer after spending the last four years with the California Golden Bears, where he put together a 54-30 dual singles record and grabbed 25 dual doubles wins.

Throughout his collegiate career, Chen was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete following the 2023-24 campaign and was selected to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll that same year. He was a Pac-12 Honorable Mention following his freshman season with two match-clinching victories over UNLV and No. 47 Washington. 

Giamichelle, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, arrives in Athens after spending the last two seasons at the University of Central Florida. Prior to his time with the Knights, the Argentine played one season for the University of Texas-Arlington Mavericks. Over the course of his career, Giamichelle has recorded a 57-28 singles record along with a 54-33 mark in doubles. Last season at UCF, he played primarily on courts four and five, posting 9-1 and 6-4 records, respectively. Overall, in dual match play in 2025, Giamichelle went 15-5 and helped the Knights reach a super regional against TCU.

The rising senior was named to the 2025 Big-12 All-Tournament Doubles Team and will hold team captain honors for the season. As a sophomore, Giamichelle was crowned doubles champion of the ITA Southeast Regional Championship. He holds a career-high doubles ranking of No. 20 and defeated the No. 13-ranked duo of Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous-Karpenschif (Florida State) in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. 

Jansen, a native of London, England, stepped onto campus as a rising senior with one year of experience with the Buckeyes after spending his first two collegiate seasons at the University of North Carolina. As a Tar Heel, he compiled a 15-6 dual singles record during his freshman season, including two ranked victories, before an injury-riddled sophomore campaign held him to just a 7-8 dual singles mark with three ranked victories. In doubles for North Carolina, Jansen posted a 20-11 record, primarily alongside Karl Poling. In one season for Ohio State, Jansen posted a 12-10 overall singles record, going 10-6 in the spring and totaled 21 doubles wins, three of which were ranked victories. He helped the Buckeyes to a 28-4 record this past spring and reached the super regional against No. 12 Mississippi State.

The London native has been ranked as high as No. 35 in the ITA singles rankings and No. 23 in the ITA doubles rankings. Jansen was named a 2024-25 ITA Doubles All-American after reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA doubles championships in November 2024. 

The First Serve: The Bulldogs enter the spring season after several strong performances in the fall. 

Headlined by Will Jansen’s run in the NCAA Singles Championships, where he advanced to the round of 16 and earned the program’s 56^th All-American accolade.  

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