Georgia opens up the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship on Friday afternoon at 3:30 against the Miami Hurricanes. Miami is currently ranked #12 in the country and is coming off a final four appearance a year ago, so this will be another difficult test for Georgia.

Georgia is 2-1 on the year after bouncing back from the Oregon loss to defeat Wake Forest and NC Central last weekend. Georgia will look to continue its winning streak when they take on their toughest test yet. Miami will attack Georgia with speed on the perimeter, and they have elite, scoring guards who are hard to defend. Miami is a more similar team to Wake then Oregon because they do not have the interior presence Oregon did ,but they are also a much better team overall than Wake Forest currently is.

Miami is not a big, physical team and that should give Georgia some hope in this game as they really seem to struggle with big man on the inside. Miami will play most of the game with no one above 6′ 7” on the court but they will be elite offensively and try to pressure Georgia on defense. Miami has been led this year by their guard Wooga Poplar who is currently averaging about 21 PPG and shooting 70% (14-20!) from 3. Georgia’s main focus to begin the game should be to limit Poplar’s 3-point attempts and make sure he does not get going early. They are also an incredibly balanced team with everyone in their starting lineup currently averaging over 12 points a game.

The key for Georgia in this game if they want to be able to keep it competitive will be to limit Miami’s 3 point success. They are making about 12 threes a game so far this year on 50% shooting as a team, so Georgia has to be keyed in on that 3-point line all game. Georgia will also need to be able to protect the ball well because Miami averages around 11 steals a game this year. Georgia cannot help Miami out with live ball turnovers leading to easy layups and runouts.

On the offensive end, Georgia should be able to put up some points if they are not turning over the ball and getting open shots. This will be a game that Georgia will have the height advantage in and they should be able to take advantage of that on the boards. If Georgia wins this game, they will almost certainly have to win the rebounding battle, considering size is one of their big advantages in this game.

For Georgia, they will likely have to play a smaller lineup in this game because of who Miami puts on the court. I would not expect Tchewa to get as many minutes as he has been because Miami will play a 4 and sometimes 5 out offense. Tchewa is not built to have to guard off the dribble and on the perimeter and Miami makes every position guard on the outside. Tchewa will need to absolutely dominate the boards and the paint when he is in the game since he will be the largest player on the floor by a decent margin. I would look for Deloach to get the majority of minutes at center and provide Georgia with versatile defense that will allow them to contain this great shooting team.

This should be a fun up-and-down game as both teams will look to push the ball down the floor quickly. I think Georgia has a chance in this one because they do not matchup terribly with Miami and a hot shooting night could propel them to an upset.

Injury Update

RJ Sunahara is questionable to play on Friday. There has been no news on him since last week.

Projected Starting Lineups – Name (PPG,RPG)

Georgia	Miami
Silas Demary Jr. (9.3, 4.7)	Nijel Pack (12, 3)
Noah Thomasson (9.7, 4.0)	Wooga Poplar (20.7, 4.3)
RJ Melendez (8.0, 3.7)	Bensley Joseph (14, 2.3)
Jabdri Abdur-Rahim (16, 4.3)	Matthew Cleveland (17, 6.7)
Russel Tchewa (7.3, 6.0)	Norchad Omier (15, 11)

See everyone after for the post game recap!