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MBB: Georgia To Face Xavier In Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic

Georgia (5-0) vs. Xavier (3-2)

Date: Friday, November 21

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET

Venue: TD Arena (5,100)

Location: Charleston, S.C.

Streaming: ESPN (John Schriffen, play-by-play; Score Williams, analyst)

Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 374 (Cabell Philpott, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst)

The Starting Five

• Georgia opens play in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic on Friday evening at 9:00 p.m. by facing Xavier at TD Arena. The tourney’s Palmetto Bracket also features Clemson and West Virginia.

• As of Thursday, the Bulldogs are ranked in the top-10 nationally in 11 of 28 statistics tracked by the NCAA, including No. 1 in fastbreak points (32.8 ppg) and No. 2 in scoring margin (+36.8 ppg).

• Georgia’s Dunkyard Dawgs have scored 27.1 percent of their field goals – 45 of 166 – on dunks, the highest percentage in the nation according to BartTorvik.com.

• As of Thursday, EvanMiya.com has 10 Bulldogs rated among the nation’s top-450 players in its metrics, along with Gonzaga as the only teams in the country with double-digit players.

• Georgia topped the 90-point plateau in each of its first four games…after scoring 90 or more points in nine of 102 games during Mike White’s first three seasons at Georgia.

The Opening Tip

Georgia travels to Charleston this weekend looking to extend a red-hot start to the season. The Bulldogs will face Xavier on Friday at approximately 9:00  p.m. ET in the first round of the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic and then take on either Clemson or West Virginia on Sunday.

It would be hard to fathom a better beginning to the 2025-26 campaign for Georgia, at least statistically speaking.

As of Thursday, the Bulldogs are ranked among the nation’s top-10 teams in 11 stats tracked by the NCAA – that’s 39.3 percent of the 28 total team categories the NCAA measures. Most notably, Georgia led the nation in both fastbreak points (32.9 ppg) and blocks (9.2 bpg), while also ranking second in scoring margin (+36.8 ppg) and third in bench points (49.0 ppg).

Those stats point to two of the Bulldogs’ strengths, both backed up by metrics – speed and depth. According to KenPom.com, Georgia ranks No. 10 in adjusted tempo. EvanMiya.com has the Bulldogs and Gonzaga as the only teams with 10 players featured in its top 450 nationally.

Eleven Bulldogs have played double-digit minutes in every game, with 10 of them already recording double-figure scoring outputs. Jeremiah Wilkinson paces a trio of scorers contributing 10-plus points per game at 15.6 ppg, followed by Blue Cain at 15.0 and Jake Wilkins at 12.6 ppg.

Scouting The Musketeers

Xavier is 3-2 under first-year coach Richard and coming off an impressive 99-69 win over Old Dominion on Tuesday night.

Tre Carroll is Xavier’s leading scorer at 15.0 ppg, a single point more than Roddie Anderson III at 14.8 ppg. Jovan Milicevic is also scoring at a double-figure pace for the XU at 11.2 ppg, while Filip Borovicanin paces the Musketeers on the boards at 5.4 rpg.

Series History vs. Xavier

The Musketeers own a 3-2 edge in previous meetings between UGA and XU.

The most recent matchup came in the opening round of the 2024 NIT. Georgia led for more than 36 minutes and by as much as 23 points with 13:25 left in the contest before withstanding a furious Xavier rally to secure a 78-76 victory. A complete box score from that contest is available below.

The Musketeers pulled with two points twice in the final 95 seconds. Georgia answered the first with a bucket before Xavier’s attempt to tie the game with one second left was off the mark.

The Bulldogs then went on the road and secured wins at Wake Forest and Ohio State in a span of three days to reach the NIT semifinals before falling to Seton Hall, the tourney’s eventual champions, at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The matchup in Charleston will be the second neutral-site contest. Georgia and Xavier also met in the Round of 64 of the 2008 NCAA Tournament in Washington, D.C. The Bulldogs built a 35-26 halftime lead, but the Musketeers rallied to a 73-61 victory to end the Bulldogs’ improbable postseason run. 

As the sixth seed from the SEC East, Georgia won four games – one at the Georgia Dome and three at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum – to capture the 2008 SEC Tournament title. The tourney moved from the Dome after it was struck by a tornado shortly before the Bulldogs were set to face Kentucky in the second round. Georgia then defeated the Wildcats and Mississippi State on the same day – March 15 – before besting Arkansas, 66-57, in the title tilt.  

Last Time Out

Freshman Jake Wilkins’ 14-point, five-block, four-steal performance led a balanced Georgia attack in an 87-57 win over Florida A&M on Monday night at Stegeman Coliseum.

All told, five Bulldogs scored in double digits, including a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds from Blue Cain. Georgia seized control early, building a 16-6 lead less than seven minutes in and maintaining a double-figure lead for the final 29:17 of the night.

“I thought we played a good first half, outside of the way we shot it,” head coach Mike White said. “I liked our approach, and our shot selection, the way it moved, but we played really hard. (In the) second half, we weren’t sharp, continued to struggle shooting a ball, and I thought our defensive energy let up a little bit.”

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