I've lived in three states during my life Georgia, Kentucky, and currently Alabama. While Living In Kentucky and now Alabama I've been surrounded by college basketball fans who were always having a lot more fun than I was every winter. I've watched both Alabama and Auburn ascend to relevancy in college basketball in only a few years. It has not been fun. At all. I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about what needs to change in order for Georgia to obtain sustainable success and grow into a premier destination for basketball. It all starts with the culture Mike White can build this season and next season. When coach White was first hired one of the most interesting quotes to come from his introductory press conference was "I believe in the limitless future of Georgia basketball." Here is the blueprint I've come up with for Georgia to achieve that "limitless future" dawg fans so desperately want to see.
As I mentioned earlier, it all starts with the culture that Mike White can build in the early years of his time at UGA. If you've watched any number of games this year it's obvious this team is "different" and there are plenty of examples of that on this team. The excellent communication and intensity this team shows on both sides of the ball are indicators of a team that is bought into the coaches and the game plans they have. We already have multiple instances where we as fans have seen this team having fun and that is great to see. The locker room celebration after the Notre Dame victory was something we rarely saw last season. From what I've seen so far this season, there hasn't been any arguing or signs of bad blood/poor attitudes on this team. Many times in sports you see a coach getting on to a player and the player shows poor body language/emotion. You can tell that player doesn't have the team first and is upset they're getting yelled at. A winning culture has players and coaches talking to each other, not at each other. Big difference. If every player on this team has a team-first attitude and they keep team improvement as their main focus Coach White can build a winning culture at Georgia. Finding success on the court paired with the culture building that will be taking place this season and next season will play a large role in Georgia becoming relevant in Basketball.
As we all know recruiting is a very important aspect of the game. I'd like to focus particularly on recruiting in the state of Georgia. In order to become relevant again Georgia has to shut off the GA pipeline that Bruce Pearl and Auburn have established. This won't happen in the near future but it can start as early as the 2024 recruiting class. Bruce Pearl was hired at Auburn in march 2014. If you look at the 2015-2022 Auburn recruiting classes, pearl has signed 12 players from Georgia. 8 of those 12 were rated as a top 6 player in the state of Georgia and the best being Jabari Smith (#1) who went on to be drafted 3rd overall in the 2022 NBA draft. THREE of Auburn's starting five in their final four run in 2019 were from the state of Georgia. Seeing the success Auburn has enjoyed since hiring Pearl one can only dream where Georgia would be if they were the premier program in-state prospects were choosing. Like I mentioned in my most recent recruiting story, There is PLENTY of talent close to home that Mike White can build a winning program around. If Georgia can find some success over Auburn on the court this season that would be a great building block leading to more in-state recruiting success. Auburn comes into town on January 4th to tip off SEC play for the dawgs. I am very excited about this game because I believe this is the biggest and most important game this season in year one of the Mike White era. If Georgia wants to cut off the recruiting pipeline Auburn has established in the state of Georgia it starts with head-to-head success.
Retaining talent on your team from year to year has become a very difficult task in the era of NIL. This is a very important aspect that has a major impact on how successful a program is. One thing coach Crean actually did during his UGA tenure fairly well was recruiting at a high level. Signing elite talent is great but unless you're a blue-blood program, only getting them for a year won't do much to help build your program. Coach Crean's two best classes at UGA was the 2019 and 2020 class which featured guys like Anthony Edwards, Toumani Camara, Jaekwon Walton, Sahvir Wheeler, and Christian Brown. That's a SOLID haul in terms of talent in two classes. As we know now the culture just wasn't there during Crean's tenure at Georgia and that made it hard to retain players. Ant-man was a one-and-done no matter what because of how talented he was. Could you imagine if that group stayed together for 3-4 years what could've been accomplished under a winning culture? Unfortunately, we didn't see a ton of development from those guys and they rarely played with as much effort as we see this this years team currently playing with. I blame that on the piss poor coaching from Tom Crean and his staff. Jaekwon was a player I REALLY liked coming out of high school and he was only at UGA one full season before entering the transfer portal in December 2020. Losing out on KyeRon Lindsay is not a good start for Mike White in this category but I'm a very optimistic person. I'm hoping that Lindsay was not a culture fit and Coach White told him to "believe or leave." It's better to get the "bad eggs" out early so they don't bring your team down in the future. This is just a random guy talking I'm not going to act like I know anything about this situation. I don't want to judge someone I don't know but I'm hoping as a fan that's what was going on here. I wish nothing but the best for Kyeron and his future.
Another aspect of this program that can definitely improve is the game day atmosphere at the Stege. It's no secret UGA is a football school and that will never change. The university has made it clear they want to improve the basketball program. In 2017 UGA spent more than 20 million on stadium and facility upgrades for the basketball program. Many fans don't realize the quality of the basketball facilities that UGA has. There is a website called stadium journey that has come up with an algorithm for ranking basketball arenas. These rankings take into account a facility’s food, atmosphere, neighborhood, fans, access, value, and more. In their 2020 rankings, Stegeman Coliseum ranked number 21 in the country. I believe the facilities are there now the culture and wins need to come alongside that. One way Georgia can improve the home game atmosphere for students is by moving the student section closer to the court. This will create a tougher environment for away teams to play in. Auburn and Duke are two teams that come to mind who have their student sections close to the court. We can all agree those are two very loud and intimidating places to play. Increased fan involvement starts with showing up to more games besides when Auburn and Kentucky come to town. Moving the student section closer to the court means finding a new home for the Georgia donors who typically sit there with their arms crossed for the entire game. Georgia does try giving away free stuff to attract more fans but winning games is the most effective way to grow fan interest.
Are you seeing a common theme here? Having a winning culture that's fun to be in for the players directly affects almost everything else in a program. Once the culture is in place the wins will come, the players will be developed, and the fans will show up. When you combine those things UGA will become more attractive for top in-state products. It will become a no-brainer to stay home and play college ball for the program they've been a fan of their whole life. Once Georgia starts building a wall around the state and keeps the likes of Bruce Pearl, Nate Oates, and Rick Barnes from stealing the top in-state talent, Georgia will ascend and a majority of those programs could fall behind Georgia. I truly believe Mike White can be the guy to accomplish these things and help Georgia find its "limitless potential."