ATHENS — The full schedules for Georgia’s men’s and women’s team basketball teams finally are out. If it feels a little anticlimactic, there’s a reason.
Blame it on the maddening way the SEC and its members release basketball schedules. It’s done incrementally.
First, they will announce a smattering of marquee non-conference matchups. Then, they’ll release the entirety of the non-conference slate. Next comes the conference opponents each school will face, but with no accompanying dates. Finally, the teams will release their whole conference schedule, dates included.
Times and television? You will have to wait a while still for that.
In any case, here’s what we have so far for the Bulldogs’ men’s and women’s teams:
- In SEC play, the Georgia men will face Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, LSU and South Carolina twice. The Bulldogs will travel to Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri and Vanderbilt. Florida, LSU, Ole Miss and South Carolina are the home games. As of Thursday, there are now some dates to go with that
- The Bulldogs, who were 16-16 in Year 1 under coach Mike White, open on the road against Missouri on Jan. 6. That’s one of four trips they will make the first month of the year, including Kentucky (Jan. 20) and Florida (Jan. 27).
- Georgia will have its most extensive travel in February, with trips to Mississippi State (Feb. 7), Arkansas (Feb. 10), Vanderbilt (Feb. 21) and LSU (Feb. 27).
- The last month of the season is bracketed by Auburn. The Bulldogs will take on the Tigers at Stegeman Coliseum on Feb. 24 and end the regular season on The Plains on March 9. The SEC Tournament is back in Nashville, Tennessee (March 13-17).
- Georgia announced a ramped-up, non-conference slate earlier this summer. The Bulldogs – who went to Italy to play three-game exhibition junket in July – will open the season Nov. 6 against Oregon in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series in Las Vegas. Ten days later, they will travel to the Bahamas to face Miami, Kansas State and Providence in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship.
- Wake Forest returns a home game to Georgia on Nov. 10, the Bulldogs are on the road against Florida State (Nov. 29) in the ACC-SEC Challenge, and the annual Georgia Tech rivalry returns to Athens on Dec. 5. Mercer, High Point, Mount St. Mary’s, North Florida and Alabama A&M complete a comparatively tedious end-of-December slate.
The second season for women’s coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson is flipped in comparison. The non-conference slate is relatively weak, followed by the always treacherous SEC slate. The Lady Bulldogs were 22-12 last season, which ended in a hard-fought, second-round loss to Iowa in the NCAA tournament.
- The season begins with a home game against North Carolina A&T. Georgia then plays Belmont in Nashville and Georgia Southern and Mercer in Athens.
- A late November trip takes the Lady Bulldogs to the Bahamas for the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship Nov. 20-22 in Nassau. There they will play Columbia and Purdue. Georgia returns to Athens for a four-game homestand highlighted by a date with Duke (Nov. 30) in the ACC-SEC Challenge. That’s followed by Furman (Dec. 3), Troy (Dec. 6) and archrival Georgia Tech (Dec. 16).
- Georgia will participate in the Sun Coast Tournament in Tampa on Dec. 19 through Dec. 20, where they face Pitt and Ball State and an opponent to be determined. After Christmas, Georgia will return home to host Wofford on Dec. 30.
- The conference slate gets off to an intriguing start as Texas A&M comes to town Jan. 4. The Aggies are, of course, coached by former Georgia coach Joni Taylor. They beat the Lady Bulldogs 75-73 last season in College Station in one of only a few wins for A&M. Three of the next four games are on the road.
- The Lady Bulldogs play Vanderbilt and Ole Miss twice each, they get Tennessee at home (Feb. 1) and will have to play the powerhouse that is South Carolina on the road (Feb. 18). But they get defending national champion LSU in Athens on Feb. 29.
Times and television information will be released at a later date.
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