Georgia opened the 2026-27 season with a win, but you wouldn’t have known it from the way the Bulldogs talked afterward.
The 78-62 victory over North Carolina Central came with plenty of baggage. Senior guard Blue Cain called the performance “pretty bad,” Kanon Catchings echoed that view, and Mike White sounded more frustrated than relieved as he picked apart the disconnect he saw on the floor.
“I thought we were completely disconnected,” White said. “You had guys pouting when they get subbed out of the game.
Open teammates, but I decide to shoot it because I want to score. That’s not a recipe for a really good team who advances in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s just not.”
Georgia had enough talent to finish the job, but not enough polish to make it comfortable. The Bulldogs were nearly outrebounded 37-36, missed 10 free throws and turned it over 11 times, with eight of those giveaways coming after halftime. They also shot just 6-for-26 from 3-point range and had more than a few defensive lapses along the way.
Cain said the group knows it has work to do.
“We had a lot of missed connections, a lot of things to improve on,” Cain said. “It’s better to learn those lessons through a win, so I’m grateful we got the win. We’ve got a lot to improve on.”
Cain finished with 15 points and six rebounds, though he went 0-for-3 from deep. Catchings led Georgia with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting and made two of the Bulldogs’ six 3-pointers. As a team, Georgia shot 66.7% from the floor.
Still, the numbers didn’t hide the bigger issue for White: the Bulldogs didn’t look like the team he expected after a strong offseason in practice.
“We’ve got to get on the same page,” White said. “I realize we’re one game in, but I was very surprised.
We’ve been a lot better in practice. Our press, most possessions, was ineffective, yet against each other in practice yesterday it was very effective.
A lot of it probably had to do with (NC Central coach LeVelle Moton) and his team, but we have to be much better than that moving forward.”
Georgia used its press for much of the night and forced 19 turnovers, but even that part of the game never quite looked as sharp as White wanted. He said the Bulldogs were not as effective as they had been in offseason workouts, and the Eagles did enough to keep the game uncomfortable.
“They came in here and controlled tempo, really pressured us, extended their defense, blew up a lot of our offensive stuff,” White said. “They were the aggressor for 40 minutes, executed and played very well.”
One sequence late in the first half summed up the night. With 4.2 seconds left, White called timeout, drew up a play and sent his team back out with a chance to add to the lead. Instead, the possession ended in a Blue Cain turnover, and White went into the locker room visibly irritated.
Even with Kareem Stagg sidelined by a hip injury, Georgia still found stretches that showed what White believes is possible. Catchings drilled a 40-foot three-pointer with about seven minutes left in the first half, waved his hands to get the crowd going and helped spark a 13-0 run. In 62 seconds, the Bulldogs scored eight points and briefly looked like they might pull away.
Those flashes only made the mistakes stand out more.
“We told ourselves, ‘If we can’t beat a mid-major to open the season, we’re not going to achieve the goals we’re trying to achieve in the long run,’” White said. “We knew it’d be challenging. I didn’t anticipate it being that challenging.”
Georgia is 1-0 and gets Tuesday off before returning to practice Wednesday. Presbyterian comes to Athens on Friday night, and the Bulldogs are hoping the next step looks a lot cleaner.
“In practice, we’re very connected and share the ball a lot,” Cain said. “Today, we didn’t move it as much.
Defensively we can improve a lot. Offensively we can improve a lot.”
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