Scouting Gonzaga ahead of Georgia’s NCAA Tournament opener

After 10 long years of seeing Georgia find itself in the NIT or missing the postseason altogether, the program can dust off its dancing shoes yet again. In the third season under head coach Mike White, Georgia prepares to play in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

At 4:35pm ET on Thursday afternoon, ninth-seeded Georgia will face another group of Bulldogs in eighth-seeded Gonzaga in Wichita, Kansas. The winner will have the right to play either No. 1 seed Houston or No. 16 SIU-Edwardsville on Saturday in Wichita.

Georgia, however, has a tough test in the opening round. Gonzaga, out of the West Coast Conference, has earned a Sweet 16 berth in nine consecutive seasons ranging from 2015 through 2024. That dates back to Georgia’s last NCAA Tournament appearance, a seven-point loss to seventh-seed Michigan State.

White, however, had a knack for advancing in the tournament during his tenure at Florida, and expects his team to “make some noise,” as he told reporters Sunday. Georgia won four-of-five games to finish the regular season and SEC Tournament play to finish with a 20-12 record entering play in Wichita.

White will earn the 300th win of his career Thursday if Georgia beats Gonzaga.

Georgia returns to postseason play after a strong run in 2024. It advanced to the NIT semifinals with wins over Xavier, Wake Forest, and Ohio State before eventually falling to Seton Hall.

Ahead of Thursday’s tip-off, let’s do a bit of scouting on Gonzaga, which enters the tournament with a 25-8 record and comes off of a WCC championship over St. Mary’s.

• Gonzaga leads the overall series over Georgia, 3-2. Three of the five previous meetings were held on neutral courts.

• In their last meeting in 2014, Gonzaga beat Georgia, 88-76

• Gonzaga opened the season sixth-ranked nationally and rose as high as No. 3

• Georgia and Gonzaga have one common opponent – Kentucky. Gonzaga fell to the Wildcats by one point in the “Battle in Seattle” while Georgia beat Kentucky by 13 points at Stegeman Coliseum.

• Big man Graham Ike leads Gonzaga in points per game (17.1) and rebounds per game (7.5).

• Gonzaga is led by acclaimed point guard Ryan Nembhard. He averages 9.8 assists per game. Meanwhile, Georgia point guard Silas Demary Jr. does more of his work in the scoring column by averaging 19.8 points per game over his last nine contests.

• After allowing 10 3-pointers in the SEC tournament loss to Oklahoma, Georgia will have to deal with another sharpshooter. Gonzaga’s Nolan Hickman shoots 44% from beyond the arc.

• Despite having an underwhelming season with eight losses, veteran Gonzaga head coach Mark Few has 751 wins to his name.

• Gonzaga enters play as the No. 24 team in the Associated Press poll. Earlier in the season, Georgia found itself ranked No. 23 nationally for a week.

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