Georgia coach Mike White offered up a quick summation of Thursday night’s NCAA Tournament Midwest Region first-round game against Saint Louis in Buffalo, N.Y.
“We’re playing a dangerous team,” he said. “And we’re pretty dangerous ourselves.”
The eighth-seeded Bulldogs (22-10) looked very dangerous at the end of the regular season by winning five of six, including a 98-88 defeat of then-No. 16 Alabama on March 3. But they authored a surprising one-and-done at the Southeastern Conference tournament with a 76-72 loss to Ole Miss.
Nevertheless, Georgia appears to be a better version of the program that reached the tournament last March and suffered a blowout loss to Gonzaga in the first round. The Bulldogs boast the fifth-most prolific offense in Division I at 89.8 points per game and have scored at least 100 points in eight games.
Jeremiah Wilkinson leads a balanced attack at 17.0 points per game, while Blue Cain has scored a career-high 13.3 per game. Kanon Catchings adds 12.0 and Marcus Millender chips in 11.9.
Cain said the team is motivated to make a better showing in the tournament than it did last season.
“Last year was a tough loss,” he said. “It happened really fast. We have to be ready to play from the tip. Just make sure we’re locked in. Enjoy the experience but also being really ready to compete and perform.”
Georgia also ranks No. 2 in the country in blocked shots at 6.1 per game, thanks largely to 6-foot-11 center Somto Cyril, who topped the SEC with 74 rejections.
However, the ninth-seeded Billikens (28-5) might prove to be a bigger challenge on the perimeter than inside, even though they boast the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year in center Robbie Avila. They do much of their damage from the perimeter, hitting 40.1 percent of their 3-pointers and averaging 10.9 makes per game.
Avila leads a balanced attack with 12.9 points while leading all NCAA centers in assists at 4.1 per game. He’s only the third center in NCAA history to make 200 or more 3-pointers since the shot became part of the game before the 1986-87 season.
But he’s far from the only threat in this lineup. Trey Green and Dion Brown each average 11.1 points, while Amari McCottry contributes 10.3. Three other players chip in between 9.1 and 9.9 per game for Saint Louis, which ranks 10th in Division I in scoring (87.2) and has tied the school record for wins in a single season.
Second-year coach Josh Schertz, whose team was upset by Dayton in the A10 semifinals, was a regular in the NCAA Division II Tournament during his days at Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.). But this will be his first trip in his fifth year in Division I.
“To have it happen at the Division I level is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” he said. “To get in in Robbie’s senior year with a bunch of guys that have sacrificed and worked was a great moment.”
Schertz hopes that the Billikens can find their form of the first three months instead of playing at the level of the last eight games, when they’ve been 4-4.
The winner advances to a second-round matchup Saturday against either No. 1 Michigan or No. 16 Howard.
–Field Level Media
