ATHENS, Ga. — Some things in life seem constant. Georgia basketball not being very good, for example. Within those constants, however, it can be a wild ride. It was just a few weeks ago when Georgia was winning SEC road games, competing with Tennessee and Kentucky and living on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and the future looked bright for Mike White and the Bulldogs.
Now, not so much.
Georgia has lost eight of its past nine games, the latest a non-competitive home loss to Texas A&M, itself not a special team this year. The Bulldogs probably won’t make the NIT and may not even finish with a winning record (they’re 15-14 with two games and then the SEC tournament to go). And some fans, judging by my inbox and some message boards, already are souring on White, who is still only in Year 2.
It’s way too soon to say it’s a failure. It’s not too soon to be worried.
White inherited a program that had just experienced its worst season in four decades. So he already has things better, which was part of the reason Georgia president Jere Morehead and athletic director Josh Brooks hired White: They saw a 40-something coach who had won consistently at Florida and could get Georgia back to respectability. Then from there, you never know.
But the “from there” part will be the stumbling block. Two years, especially considering where the team was before White arrived, used to be too early to think about these things. That may not be true in the NIL and transfer portal era.
There has been a common refrain about Georgia basketball: Why isn’t it better with all the talent in this state? The on-the-record answer has been that this isn’t Georgia football, with a history of success and support that attracts recruits. The off-the-record answer has been that Georgia’s administration didn’t want its basketball program to get in trouble with the NCAA, post-Jim Harrick, so it hired coaches who did things the right way, even if it meant watching other football-first SEC programs lift off under different kinds of coaches.
The NIL era, however, could change some of that thinking. It’s not about mixing with the AAU crowd, it’s about using now-legitimate means to bring in good players. The trick with that is raising the NIL money. Georgia has a lot of casual basketball fans who want the program to be better, but how many are willing to reach into their pocket for it?
The portal, meanwhile, is putting more immediate pressure on coaches. Teams can get better quickly, especially in a sport where one or two players can have a huge impact. White brought in five transfers last offseason, and for a while, it was paying dividends. But the good feelings faded, while the optics have looked worse.
It’s not a great look that South Carolina is as good as it is in Year 2 under Lamont Paris. Chris Jans, hired two years ago, got Mississippi State into the NCAA Tournament last year and is on the bubble this year. As bad as Missouri is this year — winless in conference play — Dennis Gates at least got an NCAA berth in his first year.
It’s also not a good look, twice over, that Florida is doing well under Todd Golden, who replaced White. The Gators are 20-9 and were ranked before losing at South Carolina last weekend. White, to be fair, left Florida in better shape (19-13 in his final year, in the NIT) and inherited a much more difficult situation.
When Tom Crean was fired two years ago, I wrote that Jonas Hayes would have been an intriguing hire: It would have been high upside and high risk, but considering the state of the program, the play for upside was worth it. Georgia’s administration went for the safer hire, which still could work, and Hayes is struggling in his second year at Georgia State. But there’s another former Georgia assistant with Atlanta ties who is doing extremely well: Amir Abdur-Rahim, who was a Crean assistant for one year and helped reel in his best class. Then he became a head coach and turned around Kennesaw State (1-28 to NCAA Tournament in his fourth year) and now South Florida (four straight losing seasons before Abdur-Rahim arrived, now 22-5 and on the NCAA bubble).
Just file that name away.
Again, this isn’t to throw dirt on the White era. There’s still reason to be optimistic: Asa Newell, the No. 11 overall prospect in the 2024 class per the 247Sports Composite, is coming to Georgia next year. Pair Newell, a 6-foot-9 athletic forward, with the right pieces, and Georgia could be a real NCAA contender next year.
That makes this offseason — the portal season — very important for White. He needs to hold onto key pieces from this year’s team and sign some good players out of the portal. The four freshmen this year all qualify: Guard Silas Demary and 3-point shooter Blue Cain and forward Dylan James have all shown promise.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim, a senior forward, could use his final year of eligibility. RJ Melendez, an Illinois transfer last year, is a forward who can help. Ideally, Georgia keeps its core pieces, Newell lives up to the billing, and White adds a point guard, center or just any kind of impact player in the portal.
The disappointment of how Year 2 is wrapping up is going to make Year 3 that much more important. Perhaps pivotal.