Georgia
Men’s Hoops Cruises in Season Opener
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech men’s basketball opened the 2024-25 campaign with a 85-62 rout over visiting West Georgia on Wednesday evening at McCamish Pavilion.
Playing his first game in the White and Gold, Oklahoma transfer Javian McCollum led Georgia Tech (1-0) with a game-high 18 points. Kowacie Reeves Jr. added 15 points and Baye Ndongo chipped in 10 to round out three scorers in double-figures for the Yellow Jackets. Ten different players scored for the Jackets, who never trailed in the opener.
Thanks to five points from McCollum and four from Reeves, Tech raced out to an early 11-2 lead and never looked back. The Jackets closed the first half with a 26-13 run and led by 21 at the break, 50-29. The advantage never shrank to less than 20 in the second period, despite making just one field goal in the final nine minutes of the game.
Georgia Tech’s 23-point win was aided by seven assists from Naithan George and 10 rebounds from Colorado transfer Luke O’Brien, both game highs. McCollum had four steals to go along with his 18 points.
The margin of victory was the Jackets’ largest under head coach Damon Stoudamire, surpassing its 22-point win over Georgia Southern in last season’s opener.
Shelton Williams-Dryden led West Georgia (0-2) with 13 points.
Tech returns to action on Sunday when it hosts North Florida. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion and the game will be televised on ACC Network Extra.
Georgia Tech’s bench celebrates after Javian McCollum scores three of his game-high 18 points in Wednesday’s season opener vs. West Georgia. (photo by Eldon Lindsay)
POST-GAME NOTES
TEAM NOTES
- Tech is 39-7 in season openers since joining the ACC for the 1979-80 season, 37-5 when those openers are at home.
- Tech is playing its first seven games of the season at McCamish Pavilion, the longest homestand to start a season for the Yellow Jackets since 1980-81 The Jackets do not play away from home until Dec. 3 (ACC opener at North Carolina).
- Tech posted its largest margin of victory under Damon Stoudamire – 23 points. Tech’s largest margin of victory last year was 22 points in the Yellow Jackets’ season-opener vs. Georgia Southern (84-62).
- Tech shot 63.4 percent inside the arc (26-of-41).
- Tech scored 50 points in the first half and connected on 56.8 percent from the floor.
- Tech assisted on 20 of its 33 made field goals (60.6 percent).
PLAYER NOTES
- Javian McCollum’s 18 points against West Georgia got him over 1,000 points for his career. He began the season with 990 (590 in two seasons at Siena, 400 in his one season at Oklahoma).
- McCollum has scored in double figures 45 times in his career.
- McCollum’s four steals against West Georgia were one more than any player had for Tech last season.
- McCollum stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals against West Georgia.
- Naithan George had seven assists vs. West Georgia, the ninth time in his career he has dished seven or more. His career high in assists is 11 vs. Notre Dame, Jan. 9, 2024.
- Luke O’Brien posted his sixth career double-figure rebound game with 10 vs. West Georgia (the previous five all in the 2022-23 season). Career high 14 vs. Seton Hall on March 14, 2023.
- Kowacie Reeves, Jr., scored 15 points against West Georgia, his 14th double-figure game as a Yellow Jacket and 33rd of his career.
- Baye Ndongo scored 10 points with seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks against UWG. It was his 20th career double-figure scoring game.
- Damon Stoudamire is one of 19 head coaches at the NCAA Division I level who played in the NBA.
Naithan George dished out a game-high seven assists in the first game of his sophomore campaign. (photo by Eldon Lindsay)
MULTIMEDIA
PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO
The SEC has announced the future Georgia football conference opponents for the 2026 through 2029 seasons.
Georgia will face Florida, South Carolina and Auburn every season. The SEC announced on Friday that the annual opponents will be revisited every four seasons.
Georgia football future SEC opponents, schedule
- 2026: Florida (Atlanta), at South Carolina, Auburn, at Alabama, at Ole Miss, at Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Vanderbilt
- 2027: Florida (Tampa), South Carolina, at Auburn, at Kentucky, at Texas, at Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi State, Tennessee
- 2028: Florida (Jacksonville), at South Carolina, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas, at Oklahoma, at Missouri, at Vanderbilt
- 2029: Florida (Jacksonville), South Carolina, at Auburn, Kentucky, Texas, Texas A&M, at LSU, at Mississippi State, at Tennessee
“it’s hard. I mean, it’s brutal. And everybody’s the same,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on Tuesday night. “I mean, we all gotta play each other. It’s really tough, highly ranked teams, physical teams. It’s just going to continue to be a grind. I mean, looking forward with the nines coming, it’s going to be scary because you just don’t have enough. Nobody has enough depth.”
Dates for the 2026 schedule will be announced in December, according to the conference. The schedules will be flipped in 2028 and 2029 from the home-road splits in 2026 and 2027.
In its scheduling outline, the SEC made it clear it wants competitively balanced schedules, which will be determined using the entire schedule and not just the annual opponents. Tennessee reportedly will face Alabama, Vanderbilt and Kentucky in each of the next four years. The latter two are not exactly football powerhouses.
According to the SEC, the highest opponent average winning percentage for any school in the 2026-29 schedules is 55.67% while the lowest is 46.65%, a difference of only 9.02%. From 2020 through 2023 — when the league still used the divisional format — the highest winning percentage was 61.32% and the lowest was 39.76%.
In addition to nine conference games, the SEC stipulates that schools face one Power Four in its nonconference scheduling.
Georgia’s game against Georgia Tech satisfies that requirement. Georgia has future nonconference games against Louisville, Florida State, Clemson and Ohio State on its schedule for the time being.
As it stands, Georgia has 13 games scheduled for the 2025 season. The Bulldogs have nonconfernce games against Tennessee State, Western Kentucky, Louisville and Georgia Tech.
“We’re working through that right now, and a lot of that’s going to be determined as we learn when and where our schedule is going to be in the next few weeks,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said. “But that’s something we’re attacking right now to see what our options are going to be in 2026. So we’re going to take it one year at a time right now. The first focus is going to be on 2026 and then 2027 and moving on. So still a lot of work to be done, and I work closely with Coach Smart and Mark Robinson and the league to kind of figure out what is that going to mean for our schedule moving forward.”
Georgia takes on Alabama this week, with the game scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
The grounds for his arrest are still unknown, even to his attorneys.
We’re back for another week of college football action and the slate is loaded, including three games between ranked opponents.
Here’s how to watch in Week 3. Scroll down for live scores, highlights and more.
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Here are the best games this Saturday:
Clemson at Georgia Tech (+3), Noon ET, ESPN: The Tigers are just 3-point favorites ahead of their first road game. It’s a sign that expectations for Clemson have been way off. With Haynes King back, the Yellow Jackets will want to keep it on the ground.
Georgia at Tennessee (+4), 3:30 p.m., ABC: Has Georgia’s offense been good enough ahead of this pivotal SEC game? Saturday is the day to air it out as Tennessee will be without its top two corners again.
South Florida at Miami (-17.5), 4:30 p.m., The CW: The Bulls are the surprise team so far this season. Can they pull off a third straight upset, or will the ‘Canes handle business?
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Florida at LSU (-7), 7:30 p.m., ABC: This game was going to be the day’s marquee matchup before Florida’s loss to USF. A Florida victory would certainly quiet the idea that Billy Napier is on the hot seat.
Texas A&M at Notre Dame (-6.5), 7:30 p.m., NBC: Aggies QB Marcel Reed has thrown for seven TDs so far and A&M’s offense has racked up 953 total yards. The Irish will surely try to get the ball to their star running backs after a subpar opener.
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