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MBB: Georgia travels to Mississippi State Today
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2026
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Humphrey Coliseum (9,100)
Location: Starkville, Miss.
TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal, play-by-play; Jon Sundvold, analyst)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 387 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
The Starting Five
• Georgia travels to Mississippi State on Saturday looking to break the Bulldogs’ record for regular-season victories. At 21-9, Georgia has tied the 1930-31 and 1996-97 teams for UGA’s most regular-season wins. FYI, 24 is the Bulldogs’ most-ever wins during a single season set in both 1982-83 and 1996-97.
• Blue Cain and Jeremiah Wilkinson enter Saturday’s game with 999 and 971 career points, respectively. Marcus “Smurf” Millender topped the 1,000-point mark earlier this season on Jan. 24 at Texas.
• The Bulldogs have posted three straight 20-win seasons for the third time in 121 seasons (also from 1996-98 and 2014-16). UGA now has 16 20-win campaigns; seven times during the regular season.
• The “Dunkyard Dawgs” lead the nation in percentage of field goals that are dunks at 18.8 percent (186 of 933 FGs). Individually, Somto Cyril leads in D-I players in dunks with 78 rim rattlers.
• Georgia entered the weekend ranked No. 5 nationally in scoring offense at 90.0 ppg. That’s 7.3 ppg better than the Bulldogs’ season scoring mark of 82.7 ppg by the 1990 SEC Championship squad.
Entering Today’s Game:
Among UGA’s Career Leaders
Blue Cain is…
• 1 point from becoming UGA’s 49th 1,000-point scorer and the first since Yante Maten in 2017
• 3 3-point FGs from No. 15 Jabri Abdur-Rahim
• 6 3-point FGs from co-No. 13s Ty Wilson and Ray Harrison
• 13 3-point FGAs from No. 12 Ray Harrison
Somto Cyril is…
• 13 blocks from No. 6 Donte Williams
Among UGA’s Season Leaders
Somto Cyril is…
• 4 blocks from No. 6 Lavon Mercer (‘80)
• 9 blocks from No. 5 Nicolas Claxton (‘19)
Justin Abson is…
• 1 block from No. 18 Charles Claxton (‘92)
• 2 blocks from co-No. 15s Yante Maten (‘18) & Willie Anderson (in both ‘87 & ‘88)
• 3 blocks from No. 14 Trey Thompkins (‘11)
• 4 blocks from co-No. 12s Somto Cyril (‘25) & Donte’ Williams (12)
Jeremiah Wilkinson is…
• 29 points from 1,000 career points
• 1 3-point FG from No. 14 Jody Patton (‘91)
• 4 3-point FGs from co-No. 12s Anthony Edwards (‘20) & Levin Stukes (‘06)
• 5 3-point FGAs from No. 10 J.J. Frazier (16)
The Opening Tip
The Georgia Bulldogs will look to make a little history on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Starkville to face Mississippi State.
With Tuesday’s 98-88 win over No. 16 Alabama, Georgia notched its 21st win of the season. That tally matches the 1930-31 and 1996-97 Bulldogs for the most regular-season wins ever for UGA. A victory on Saturday would give these Bulldogs sole possession of that qualifier and inch them closer to the program record of 24 victories in a single season, set in 1982-83 and 1996-97.
The win over the Tide was equally important for Georgia’s postseason resume. The Bulldogs now own seven Quad 1 wins, three more than last year’s NCAA Tournament squad for Georgia possessed.
According to bracketmatrix.com, Georgia is a unanimous pick to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, with the Bulldogs appearing in all 117 projections for “March Madness” by various bracketologists as of Thursday.
Georgia’s statistical resume for the 2025-26 campaign is quite impressive.
As of Friday, the Bulldogs led all 365 Division I programs in both fastbreak points (20.1 ppg) and blocks (6.3 bpg) and also were ranked among the top-10 nationally in scoring (No. 5 at 90.0 ppg) and bench points (No. 7 at 34.2 ppg).
Georgia has a deep rotation playing at a pace among the country’s quickest.
Eleven Bulldogs are averaging double-figure minutes, and they have combined to record 123 double-figure scoring outputs this season.
Jeremiah Wilkinson is averaging a team-high 17.4 ppg, while Blue Cain is contributing 13.6 ppg, Marcus “Smurf” Millender is chipping in 11.8 ppg, and Kanon Catchings is adding 11.3 ppg.
Somto Cyril is just shy of a double-figure scoring average at 9.7 ppg and leads the Bulldogs in rebounding (5.6 rpg), blocks (2.4 bpg) and field goal percentage (.755).
Scouting The Bulldogs
Mississippi State slipped to 13-17 overall and 5-12 in the SEC with Tuesday’s loss at No. 5 Florida. State’s Bulldogs have now suffered four consecutive setbacks.
Josh Hubbard leads State offensively with a scoring average of 21.4 points per game, which ranks second in the SEC. Hubbard exploded for a season-high 46 points in a 91-85 win over Auburn on Feb. 18 in the Bulldogs’ most recent victory. Jayden Epps has contributed 13.7 ppg.
Series History With State
Mississippi State owns a 60-59 advantage in all-time meetings between the SEC’s Bulldogs on the hardwood.
On Feb. 8 last season in Athens, Georgia, dropped a 76-75 decision to No. 22 Mississippi State at Stegeman Coliseum.
Though State led for 32:19 of the contest, the score was separated by one or two possessions for much of the evening. Georgia tied the game five times in the second half, lastly when Asa Newell scored five points in a span of nine seconds to make it 71-71 with 4:04 remaining.
The Bulldogs gained possession down one with just under eight seconds on the clock but failed to score.
BSB: Dawgs Run-Rule Queens
No. 8 Georgia defeated Queens in eight innings due to the run-rule, 12-2, to begin a four-game series at Foley Field on Friday.
Fast Facts
- Joey Volchko (4-0) earned the start on the mound for Georgia. In six innings, he allowed two runs off four hits, while striking out six, to earn his fourth win on the year.
- In the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs took a 5-1 lead.
- Daniel Jackson (1-3, RBI, 2B, BB) tied the game with an RBI double to extend his hit streak to 12 games, adding an additional RBI to his team-leading total of 25. Senior Brennan Hudson (1-2, 3 RBI, HR, BB) homered for the eighth time this season, a two-run blast to right. Of Hudson’s 10 hits thus far, eight are home runs.
- Georgia added four more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
- Junior Tre Phelps (1-3, RBI, HR, BB) got the inning started with a leadoff home run, his seventh of the year. Senior Michael O’Shaughnessy (1-4, 2 RBI, 2B, BB) knocked an RBI-double to score Jackson, elongating his hit streak to nine games.
- Sophomore Henry Allen (2-4, 3 RBI, HR) completed the run-rule in the eighth, knocking a two-run blast to right, to extend the lead to 10.
Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson
On Joey’s performance today after the start of the game was delayed for two hours and 19 minutes due to rain/lightning…
“We keep going through some adversity stuff with him, which is good. We need to. He warmed up, played catch and we thought we were fine. That cell popped up, and the lightning got us and pushed us back. We thought we were going to go again at 4 p.m., and another one popped up. The mental gymnastics you have to go through on that then come out and give us six innings. It’s really big.”
#37 Joey Volchko | RHP | Jr.
On working through the game on the mound…
“I went back to being really aggressive in the zone early. I was trying to pick corners in the second and third with the sweeper and curveball. I think as I established the heater and worked off that, it got a lot better.”
Up Next
Georgia (12-4) returns to Foley Field for a doubleheader Saturday afternoon against Queens, with the first pitch of Game 1 set for 1 p.m. Game 2 will begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1. Both games will be available on SECN+ and the Georgia Bulldogs Sports Network.
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