ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia Bulldogs received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday as the No. 9 seed in the Midwest Regional. Georgia will play its Round of 64 game against eighth-seeded Gonzaga on Thursday at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas. Game time and TV information will be released later tonight.
"(It's a) great accomplishment for our program and this team," head coach Mike White. "Georgia is dancing. We've got more basketball ahead of us, so it's a great day. A great day for the SEC of course, a historic day for our league. We're fired up and ready to get to work."
Officially, this will be the Bulldogs' 10th NCAA Tournament appearance, including a trip to the Final Four in 1983. Georgia is returning to "March Madness" for the first time since 2015. In their most recent tournament, the Bulldogs dropped a 70-63 decision to Michigan State, which went on to reach the Final Four.
Georgia recorded its 20th win this season against Vanderbilt on March 8, just the sixth time in 119 seasons that the Bulldogs have reached the 20-win plateau during the regular season. The Bulldogs did so despite playing one of the nation's most challenging schedules. Georgia played eight games against top-10 competition, the most of any school in the nation. Of the Bulldogs' 32 games, 18 were against teams that received NCAA bids.
The Bulldogs feature a balanced offensive attack, with seven different players leading Georgia in scoring at least once this season. Asa Newell, an SEC All-Freshman selection by league coaches, sports team-high averages of 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Sophomore Silas Demary Jr. is averaging 13.4 points per game and team-best averages of 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Sophomore Blue Cain and graduate Dakota Leffew are contributing 9.6 ppg and 9.5 ppg, respectively.
