ATHENS — Georgia had one of the best offenses in the country last season, a big reason the team set a program record with 22 wins and punched its ticket to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.
The Bulldogs averaged 89 points per game — fifth nationally — and led the nation in fast break points, scoring nearly 20 in transition.
But the up-tempo style came at the cost of its defense.
Too many times last season, Georgia’s defensive inefficiencies cost them ball games during conference play. It proved to be their undoing in a blowout loss to Saint Louis in the NCAA Tournament.
Even when the offense was feeling itself, the Bulldogs could never really put teams away because they were allowing nearly 80 points a game (324th in Division 1). In conference play, that number ballooned to 84.1 points per game.
On the perimeter, Georgia did have success creating turnovers — around eight per game — but teams found great success from long distance, shooting 33.6% from three on 271 makes. Most of the makes came off of second-chance opportunities because of how poorly Uga was at securing rebounds.
For a team that ranked sixth nationally in blocks per game, Georgia finished 125th in defensive rebounds and 206th in rebound margin.
“Last year we were so electric and so good offensively,” Saint Louis transfer forward Brady Dunlap said. “Then we were not great on defensive rebounding and defense in general.”
Dunlap is one of the many transfers Uga added this offseason to help address this problem. Prior to being at St. Louis last season, the 6-foot-8 senior played at St. John’s under coach Rick Pitino.
Dunlap thinks that if Georgia can cut that gap down just a little bit, the better chance the Bulldogs have at winning more games.
Also arriving in Athens with a background playing with defensive-minded coaches are guard Freddie Dilione V (Penn State and Tennessee) and center James Scott (Ole Miss).
With the season beginning just over a month away head coach Mike White sees a team that should be better on defense, while maintaining that vintage up-tempo pace on offense.
“I think this team will be better defensively than last year’s group; I don’t know that we’ll score quite as easily. We’ll play just as fast,” White said. “I hope we do score quite as easily as we did last year to complement that with what I think will be a better defensive team and definitely a better rebounding team.”
White explained how the team has been relentless all summer and fall, making an effort to improve on that side of the court.
“We got guys that want to play defense, that want to buy in and do the little things,” guard Smurf Millender said.
One of the biggest philosophies Dunlap learned under Pitino was controlling the possession game.
However, to take strides there, Georgia must play better overall team defense and control the glass, even against taller, lengthier lineups like Florida, Duke or Tennessee.
Time will tell if Georgia’s newest additions can make a difference down low, but any positives there should lead to a few more wins this season.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about winning games,” Dunlap said. “So I think if we can focus on defending the basketball, creating turnovers, as well as just winning the glass every game as much as we possibly can … just going to be crucial to winning the game.”