Josh Brooks ‘thrilled’ about Georgia basketball and ‘eager to face Gonzaga’

“We’re eager to face Gonzaga, a perennial power in college basketball.”

UGA’s No. 9-seeded Bulldogs play the No. 8-seeded “Zags” at approximately 4:35 p.m. (TV: TBS) on Thursday in Wichita, Kansas, with Midwest Region No. 1-seed Houston likely awaiting the winner Saturday.

Gonzaga has the longest current active streak of Sweet 16 appearances in college basketball, winning its first two games in the past nine NCAA tournaments under coach Mark Few.

White, whose hire at UGA was viewed with skepticism at the time, has a postseason tournament streak of his own, albeit, largely from his time at Louisiana Tech and Florida.

White is 9-0 in first-round postseason tournament games, winning all four of his opening-round NCAA tournament games at Florida, and all five of his NIT tourney appearances between the three schools, including Georgia’s run to the NIT Final Four last season.

Regardless of how UGA fares in Wichita against Gonzaga — and possibly Houston — Brooks recognizes the program’s appearance as a decisive step into the future.

After all, this is a Georgia basketball program that has won only one SEC regular-season title and two SEC tourney titles since the conference began play in 1932.

“This achievement not only highlights our current success,” Brooks said, “but it also sets a strong foundation for future growth and excellence.”

SEC basketball, like football, baseball and softball, has risen to the forefront of the nation, with an NCAA-record 14 teams making it into the 68-team field this season.

As much as Georgia can and will sell its rise to success under White — UGA’s 20-12 record represents only the sixth time in the school’s 119 seasons that it has recorded 20 wins in a regular season — it also will have the advantage of recruiting to the talent-rich SEC.

White is a former SEC player himself, once leading Ole Miss to three consecutive 20-win seasons from 1997-99 as the Rebels’ starting point guard.

Each of those Ole Miss campaigns culminated with NCAA Tournament bids, and it was White dribbling out the clock in the Rebels’ historic 72-70 win over basketball blue-blood Villanova in 1999, giving the Rebels their first NCAA tournament victory.

Brooks, no doubt, considered White’s playing experience in the SEC when making the hire three seasons ago.

White, for his part, is putting much of the season celebration on hold.

“It (making the NCAA tourney) is incredible, but we want to celebrate in the spring,” White said. “We want to make some noise, we want to play well.

“We’ll talk more about the big picture in the spring, but we’ve come a long way.”