ATHENS – Georgia men’s basketball’s upset win over No. 18 Memphis moved the Bulldogs to 3-5 going into the December homestand. Including the previous two games, the Bulldogs will have eight games in a row at home, including three games in five days from Dec. 18-22

“I think anytime you get a good win like that, people are going to be a little more excited to come into practice and get better,” Jabri Abdur-Rahim said. “We saw what we can do. We saw how good we can be. I think that just excited everybody.”

Abdur-Rahim shot the crucial 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs the lead that they would hold until the end of the game. He details how the most important thing for his team to do is to continue to build on their performance.

Super senior Braelen Bridges had 10 points and four rebounds in the win over Memphis and agreed that the practices have been more intense and upbeat since the victory.

“It’s a good vibe on the team right now,” Bridges said. “We plan to use the big win over Memphis as a boost. We view it as momentum, to play hard and stack these wins up before conference play,”

The Bulldogs will round out their non-conference games against Gardner-Webb on Dec. 29 before opening up SEC play against Texas A&M in the new year on Jan. 4, the last game of the homestand.

The Bulldogs have a game on Tuesday against Jacksonville before a 10-day break until they play again against George Mason. Head coach Tom Crean says that the break is a good time to really isolate skills, to work on fundamentals, shooting and to build new things the team will need to have going into the busy Christmas season.

“I think our schedule would have been challenging for a veteran team let alone one that’s got 10 new players with the teams we were playing and the style of plays that we were playing.” Crean said.

Printed with permission from the Red & Black independent student media organization based in Athens, Ga.; redandblack.com/sports