Conference affiliations Georgia was a founding member of the
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA), the first collegiate athletic conference formed in the United States. Georgia participated in the SIAA from its establishment in 1895 until 1921. In 1921, the Bulldogs, along with 12 other teams, left the SIAA and formed the
Southern Conference. In 1932, the Georgia Bulldogs left the Southern Conference to form and join the
Southeastern Conference (SEC).
1931–1932 Coach
Rex Enright led Georgia to great success in the old Southern Conference during the 1931 and 1932 seasons. His 1931 team finished with a 23–2 (15–1) record. The Bulldogs were upset in the Southern Conference tournament semi-finals by
Maryland, 26–25. The 1932 team didn't have the dominating record that the 1931 team did, finishing 19–7 (7–4). However, this team did something that the previous year's team could not do in winning the Southern Conference tournament defeating
Mississippi State,
Virginia,
Duke, and
North Carolina.
1981–1982 Coach Hugh Durham brought Georgia to its first ever postseason appearance in
1981. That team finished with a 19–12 (9–9) record. They earned a
National Invitation Tournament (NIT) bid and the enthusiasm surrounding the program earned them home games in first defeating
Old Dominion and then in a loss to
South Alabama. The 1982 Bulldogs were 19–12 (10–8) were once again NIT bound. This time UGA made it all the way to the NIT Final Four defeating
Temple, Maryland, and
Virginia Tech before losing a heartbreaker to
Purdue at
Madison Square Garden. These two teams marked the beginning of a postseason streak of eight straight seasons, longest in Georgia basketball history. This string included three NCAA appearances (including one
Final Four in 1983) and five NIT bids. This was a remarkable streak of consistency for a program that had never before experienced the postseason beyond the
SEC tournament.
1983 Former
NBA star
Dominique Wilkins is considered the greatest player in school history. However, Wilkins never played in the
NCAA tournament; the Bulldogs made their first NCAA appearance in 1983—which would have been Wilkins' senior year had he not opted for the NBA. The
1983 team made it to the Final Four of the
NCAA Championship before being eliminated by eventual champion
North Carolina State. On the way to the Final Four, UGA defeated
Virginia Commonwealth, #3
St. John's led by legendary coach
Lou Carnesecca and
Chris Mullin, and defending national champion North Carolina led by
Dean Smith and featuring
Michael Jordan,
Sam Perkins, and
Brad Daugherty. The latter two victories coming at the
Carrier Dome in
Syracuse, New York. UGA previously had won the Southeastern Conference tournament in
Birmingham, Alabama, defeating
Ole Miss,
Tennessee, and
Alabama to earn the league's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
1987 The
1987 Georgia basketball team had multiple key players injured during the season, leaving the team with only seven players on the roster. Coach Hugh Durham had no choice but to alter the playing style of his team after conference play had started, slowing the game down and "taking the air out of the ball." What looked to be a disastrous season, where the team might not win another game, turned into an inspiring one as the team rallied to an 18–12 (10–8) record and earning an NCAA tournament bid. When Durham ordered the NCAA tournament banner to be displayed at
Stegeman Coliseum, he had it made in silver, rather than the traditional red, with the initials "TMW" at the bottom. The initials standing for what this team will forever be known as in UGA basketball history, "The Miracle Workers."
1996–1998 Tubby Smith led the Bulldogs to a 21–10 (9–7) record securing its first NCAA bid since the
1991 season. Georgia made the most of it by defeating
Clemson and the West Regional's top seed, Purdue, in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, before losing a heart stopping overtime game to
Syracuse in the Sweet 16. In 1997, Georgia finished 23–9 (10–6) winning the prestigious Rainbow Classic holiday tournament in
Hawaii, defeating
Washington State,
Memphis, and Maryland. UGA beat
LSU,
South Carolina, and
Arkansas to advance to the SEC tournament final in
Memphis, losing the final to
Kentucky. Smith's successor,
Ron Jirsa, led the 1998 Bulldogs to a 21–14 (8–8) record, reaching the 20 win mark for the third consecutive year for the first time in Georgia basketball history. They would go on to reach the
1998 NIT Final Four winning at
Iowa, at North Carolina State, and beating
Vanderbilt at home.
2008 SEC Tournament: The Dream Dawgs In the 2007–2008 season, Georgia's men's basketball team came into the
2008 SEC men's basketball tournament with a 13–16 overall record and a 4–12 conference mark. At one point, the team sustained two five-game losing streaks during a 2-of-12 stretch in conference play. In the first round of the tournament, Georgia was slated to play Ole Miss, who had beaten the Bulldogs in the season-closer, securing the Rebels' only road SEC win of the season. The game went into overtime after Rebel
David Huertas hit all three free throws after a three-point shooting foul, and looked to go into a second extra period after
Chris Warren did the same. However, with 0.4 seconds left in overtime, Georgia senior
Dave Bliss banked in the game-winner to shock the Rebels and send Georgia into a second-round matchup with Kentucky. On the night of March 14, 2008, tornadoes hit
Atlanta, in whose
Georgia Dome the SEC Tournament was housed. The Georgia-Kentucky matchup was rescheduled for the early afternoon of March 15, 2008, with the winner advancing to play the SEC West's #1 seed, Mississippi State, later that evening. The remaining games in the tournament would be played at
Alexander Memorial Coliseum, the basketball complex of
Georgia Tech, UGA's in-state rival. Again playing an overtime game in which Georgia star
Sundiata Gaines fouled out, Georgia freshman Zac Swansey hit a turnaround three-point jumper with 1.4 seconds left to give the Bulldogs the team's first ever win over Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. That night, Georgia defeated Mississippi State 64–60 to become the first team since Kentucky in 1952 to win two tournament games in one day, and the first-ever #6 seed from a division to advance to the modern (post-1992) SEC tournament finals. In the finals, Georgia faced Arkansas, which had lost to Georgia 82–69 in the regular season. Georgia prevailed again, at one point leading the Razorbacks by nineteen points en route to winning its first tournament championship in 25 years. Sundiata Gaines and
Terrance Woodbury were both named to the All-Tournament Team, with Gaines winning the tournament's MVP. The improbable list of achievements—winning the tournament as a 6-seed, playing two games in one day to reach the finals, playing two games (against Kentucky and Mississippi State) in which Gaines fouled out with a substantial amount of time to play, doing it on a rival's home court, and winning four consecutive elimination games following a season during which their longest winning streak stood at three—earned the 2007–2008 team the nickname of Dream Dawgs. With the victory, Georgia secured itself an automatic bid in the
2008 NCAA tournament. Georgia's appearance in the tournament was the tenth overall in team history and the first since the
2002 NCAA basketball tournament. After their SEC Championship run, the Bulldogs were seeded 14th in the NCAA Tournament, playing against the #3 seeded
Xavier Musketeers. After developing a lead early in the 2nd half, the Bulldogs could not hold on, as Xavier went on to win 73–61. Coach
Dennis Felton failed to follow up the surprise successes of 2008 with victories in 2008–09, and he was fired on January 29, 2009.
2009–2018: Mark Fox era On April 3, 2009,
Nevada head coach
Mark Fox was announced as the next head coach of the Bulldogs. In nine seasons with Fox, the Bulldogs posted a 163–133 record and made the
NCAA tournament twice, in
2011 and
2015. In both instances, the Bulldogs exited in the Round of 64. Fox was fired on March 10, 2018 following an 18–15 finish to the
2017–18 season as the Bulldogs failed to qualify for any postseason competition.
2018–2022: Tom Crean era On March 15, 2018, former
Marquette and
Indiana head coach
Tom Crean was announced as the next head coach of the Bulldogs.
Anthony Edwards, Georgia native and first overall pick of the
2020 NBA draft, played his only year of college basketball for the Bulldogs in 2019-20.
2022–present: Mike White era On March 13, 2022, former
Florida head coach
Mike White was announced as the next head coach of the Bulldogs. Under White, the Bulldogs made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2025 and 2026. ==Team awards and records==