ATHENS, Ga. — Five Saturday home dates and a New Year's Eve matchup at Kentucky highlight the Georgia Bulldogs' 2017-18 Southeastern Conference basketball schedule, which was announced by the league office on Thursday.
“I think this schedule is great for our fans because we have a significant number of Saturday home games,” head coach Mark Fox said. “Certainly having Saturday games is more fan-friendly. Hopefully, it will help give our football program some good recruiting weekends, too.”
Georgia will host Alabama (Jan. 6), South Carolina (Jan. 13), Auburn (Feb. 10), Tennessee (Feb. 17) and LSU (Feb. 24) for Saturday matchups at the newly renovated Stegeman Coliseum this winter. The Bulldogs’ remaining home dates include Ole Miss on Wednesday, Jan. 3; Arkansas on Tuesday, Jan. 23; Florida on Tuesday, Jan. 30; and Texas A&M on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
“You know there are going to be 18 very solid teams on our league schedule,” Fox said. “No matter what order they’re placed in there’s going to be a lot of great, competitive games.”
The SEC slate begins with a Sunday, Dec. 31 trip to Lexington to face Kentucky.
The rest of Georgia’s road slate includes trips to the Bulldogs’ five home-and-home foes – Auburn, Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Tennessee – as well as contests at Missouri, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
Times and television assignments for all 14 SEC teams will be announced at a later date.
The Bulldogs will welcome back nine of their top-10 scorers from last season, when Georgia finished 19-15 and earned a postseason bid for the fifth time in head coach Mark Fox’s eight seasons in Athens. Headlining the returnees is two-time, consensus All-SEC forward Yante Maten. A senior from Pontiac, Mich., Maten enters the 2017-18 campaign as the league’s active leader in career points, rebounds and blocked shots.
The Bulldogs are in the midst of one of their winningest stretches ever. Georgia’s seniors from the 2016-17 season won 80 games, the second-most ever by a group of Bulldogs. Over the past five seasons, Georgia has won 51 SEC games, the largest half-decade tally in school history.
Seasons tickets for the Bulldogs’ 15-game home schedule are $225 for the public and $112.50 for UGA faculty/staff.
Contributors to the Georgia Bulldog Club's Basketball Enhancement Fund (BEF) may order season and SEC Tournament tickets here.
Season tickets my be ordered by non-BEF contributors here.
Also, BEF donors and season ticket holders will receive an exclusive pre-sale for all single game tickets from September 5-30. Single game tickets will only be available for BEF donors and season ticket holders during this time and will be available both online or by calling the UGA ticket office at 877-542-1231.
Basketball Enhancement Fund Information
BEF contributions are utilized for determining renewable season tickets and various other benefits available to Georgia Basketball supporters. The BEF has established records for both amount contributed and number of contributors in each of the past two years. The Georgia Bulldog Club is hoping for another record-setting effort and is challenging donors to contribute 110 percent of their previous donation.
The minimum donation to purchase renewable season tickets is $150 per seat. A gift of $150 also will be recognized with a car decal and an invitation to a designated preseason practice of the Bulldogs. Varying levels of BEF donations are used to determine ability to purchase premium courtside seating, as well as tickets to the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Additional potential benefits associated with contribution levels include reserved parking at Stegeman Coliseum, invitations to the team's preseason and postseason banquets and pre- and in-game hospitality.
For more information on making a BEF contribution, contact the Georgia Bulldog Club via phone (706-542-9220) or email (gadawgs@sports.uga.edu).
Stegeman Coliseum Renovation Information
Stegeman Coliseum is undergoing major renovations this summer. Work is ongoing in Phase II of an approximately $8-million project to the Coliseum’s interior. Prior to last season, Phase I included the addition of an HD scoreboard and a dramatic mural covering the distinctive end wall of the arena’s east end. This summer, renovations include a massive center-hung scoreboard, new seats, significantly upgraded sound and lighting systems and additional LED signage.
The current projects follow a $13-million renovation in 2010 that transformed Stegeman’s concourses, upgrading the graphics, enhancing spectator access to concessions and restrooms and adding 5,000-square feet of concourse space on each side of the arena. Those efforts won awards from both the American Institute of Architects and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.