Georgia basketball learns 2026 NCAA Tournament seed, First‑Round opponent

The Georgia Bulldogs men’s basketball team is headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. The Hoop Dawgs will open play on Thursday, March 19, against the Saint Louis Billikens.

Georgia earned the No. 8 seed in the Midwest Regional and will meet No. 9 seed Saint Louis at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y. The winner will advance to face top‑seeded Michigan in the Round of 32-assuming the Wolverines avoid a historic 1‑vs‑16 upset against the Howard/UMBC play‑in winner.

“We’re excited to still be playing,” Georgia head coach Mike White said. “Excited to represent the University of Georgia in the NCAA Tournament. I love coaching this group. We’re playing a dangerous team, and we’re pretty dangerous ourselves. We had a great regular season and showed great fight the other day after a slow start in the SEC Tournament. We’re honored to have another chance to see where this thing takes us and thrilled for our guys to compete together again.”

Georgia and Saint Louis will tipoff at approximately 9:45pm ET on Thursday evening and the game will be televised by CBS. The crew on the call will feature Brian Anderson (play-by-play), Jim Jackson (analyst), and Allie LaForce (reporter). Tickets for the game are available via our partner StubHub.

White’s 2025–26 Bulldogs enter the NCAA Tournament as the winningest and highest‑scoring team in the 121‑year history of Georgia basketball. This year’s squad set a new program record with 2,874 points in 32 games, surpassing the previous mark of 2,764 points scored over 37 games in 2023-24.

Georgia finished the regular season 23-10, a testament to both its growth and its grind. The Bulldogs collected notable non‑conference wins over Georgia Tech, Xavier, Florida State, and Cincinnati. In SEC play, they secured marquee home victories against Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama, and Texas, along with road wins at Kentucky, LSU, and Mississippi State.

2026 NCAA Tournament Bracket (PDF)