Old faces and new meet as Georgia basketball opens season vs. Oregon

Ten of the 15 players that will take the floor in coach Mike White’s second season are new Bulldogs, with five transfers and five freshmen joining three returnees and a pair of walk-ons. Georgia will be facing Oregon for only the second time in school history, the last time coming in at a tournament in Bloomington, Indiana, in December of 1975. The Ducks won that one 87-74.

This time, nobody’s sure what to expect, White least among them. In addition to having a lot of “parity” on the roster, as he calls it, he’s also having to navigate through a couple of untimely preseason injuries.

“I like our parity, I like our depth,” White said. “We can come at you from a bunch of different spots. From a personnel standpoint, I think we can be hard to prepare for in that regard. … How productive that depth can be remains to be seen.”

Georgia’s four returning letterwinners include Bulldogs who led the team in the following stats last season – Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe (5.1 rpg), Jabri Abdur-Rahim (1.4 3-pt FGs per game, .387 3-point pct. and .818 FT pct) and Frank Anselem-Ibe (0.7 bpg).

Georgia’s freshman and transfer recruiting classes both were ranked as high as No. 11. The Bulldogs were only one of three teams to have both of those groups ranked top-20 nationally by On3.com. RJ Melendez, a transfer guard from Illinois, has led the Bulldogs through the preseason and two exhibition games. Freshman guards Blue Cain and Silas Demery both stood out in the public exhibition game against Eastern Kentucky.

The Bulldogs believe Russel Tchewa, a 7-foot, 275-pound graduate transfer from South Florida can bolster their low-post play. He had a double-double against the Colonels.

Oregon is coached by Dana Altman, who has led the Ducks to four Pac-12 championships and seven NCAA appearances. After reaching the Sweet 16 in 2021, Oregon was relegated to NIT appearances the last two seasons.

“Talented. They’re always a good program,” White said. “… I’m not overly familiar with that side of the country. But as much as you’ve seen them play in the postseason and all the success they’ve had, of course, they’re always interesting and fun to watch.”

Then there’s the Kario Oquendo factor.

Oquendo would’ve been a senior for the Bulldogs this season had he not decided to enter the transfer portal. With dozens of possible destinations, Georgia’s most explosive offensive player the last two seasons happened to land with the team that’s opening the season against the Bulldogs.

“It’ll mean a lot to me playing against my old team,” Oquendo told Oregon reporters this week. “Knowing some of the guys, knowing the coaching staff. It’ll be something I’ll be taking personally, and hopefully, my guys will take it personally, too.

“I loved going to Georgia, and now I love going to Oregon.”

There is some question how hard the Bulldogs fought to keep Oquendo in Athens. The 6-foot-4 guard led Georgia in scoring as a sophomore transfer in 2020-21, averaging 15.2 points. But his shooting percentages declined last season and his effort seemed to wane at times. He averaged 12.7 points on .392 shooting.

“He decided to enter the portal and we didn’t have much conversation after that,” White said. “… He’s a guy that we care about. I hope he has a great year. Obviously, I hope we do a great job against him. But he was a great kid and a great kid to coach.”