All Gas, No Brakes: Georgia’s High-Octane Offense Has the SEC and NCAA Tournament Teams on Notice

“It’s been great. We love playing with each other,” says Wilkinson, a transfer from Cal who leads the Bulldogs in scoring. “We love playing this style, being able to get out, shoot a lot of shots, heat people up. When we have momentum, I don’t think there’s a more fun brand of basketball to play.” 

Wilkinson was one of five transfers Georgia signed in the spring. The program was coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade but had lost four starters, including standouts Asa Newell (NBA Draft) and Silas Demary Jr. (transferred to UConn). White went into the offseason determined to address two areas where his team has struggled immensely: perimeter shooting and assist-to-turnover ratio. In the process, he hoped to put together a group that could push the pace and put up a lot more points than the 72.8 the Bulldogs averaged over his first three seasons in Athens.

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White has always preferred to play uptempo but has often had to make adjustments based on personnel during his 15-year career. While at Louisiana Tech from 2011-15, a few of White’s teams that won CUSA regular-season titles ranked in the top 25 in pace, steals and three-point attempts. “In a perfect world, this is the way I’d like to play,” he says. But to do so requires a deep roster with ample shooting, playmaking and athleticism. 

With 6-foot-11 sophomore center Somto Cyril and 6-foot-9 junior forward Dylan James returning to hold down the interior, Georgia chased perimeter players in the portal, eventually earning five commitments: Wilkinson (Cal), Catchings (BYU), 5-foot-11 junior guard Marcus “Smurf” Millender (UTSA), 6-foot-3 senior guard Justin Bailey (Wofford) and 6-foot-3 junior guard Jordan Ross (Saint Mary’s). The class wasn’t highly regarded — 247Sports ranked it 11th in the SEC — but it made perfect sense given the style White was aiming to implement.

Wilkinson is a lightning-quick guard who won ACC Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman at Cal, averaging 15.1 points per game; Catchings is a versatile wing with NBA upside given his size, athleticism and ability to spread the floor; Millender and Bailey are tremendous outside shooters, both of whom connected on more than 43 percent of their threes in 2024-25; and Ross is an experienced and poised floor general. 

Those five, plus returning 6-foot-5 junior guard Blue Cain, gave Georgia the firepower it needed to transform its identity. White told Wilkinson early on, “We plan on having one of the highest scoring offenses in the country.” 

To achieve that goal, the work had to begin right away. The team had to be in elite shape to execute the system properly, so workouts over the summer were highly intense. “We only did drills where we had to get out and run,” says Wilkinson. That has continued throughout the season, but White’s practices have been shorter than in previous years to keep his guys as fresh as possible for games.

Players quickly bought into the system, which emphasizes attacking the rim and generating open threes, but it took time for them to adjust to it. Even Wilkinson, an explosive guard whose game is tailor-made for such a high-octane style, struggled with it at first. As one of the engines of the offense, he had to find the right balance between hunting his own shots and getting others involved. Everyone had to grow accustomed to the tempo and to defending 94 feet from the basket. The challenge was, and still is, remaining disciplined while moving at breakneck speeds.

By now, the team is acclimated and developing a better rhythm. “I feel like the biggest part of it is just trusting yourself and trusting your body to know that I’m capable of doing this,” Wilkinson says. “And the coaches are going to show us that we’re capable of it. They showed us in practice. And now when it comes to games, we’re comfortable with it because that’s all we’ve known since June.”

Depth is also a critical piece of the equation. Wilkinson and his teammates can afford to go full throttle because substitutions are quick and White’s rotation is extensive. “I don’t know how you press as often as we are and play at the tempo we’re playing at offensively and only play six or seven guys,” White says. Eleven of Georgia’s players are currently logging at least 10 minutes per game, and no one on the roster is averaging more than 27 minutes. The Bulldogs are well-balanced and have an incredibly productive bench. In one of their first games of the season, a 120-81 victory over Morehead State, seven players scored in double figures — a feat that the program hasn’t accomplished since a 99-72 win over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 29, 1994. UGA is getting at least 11 points per game from Wilkinson, Cain, Millender and Catchings. Cyril has been a dominant force down low, ranking sixth in the country in blocks (2.7) and fourth in total dunks (per Bart Torvik). 

Overall, Georgia has gone all-in on White’s system, taking on a similar identity to Alabama under Nate Oats and Texas A&M under Bucky McMillan. In fact, the Bulldogs have a shorter average offensive possession length (15.0) than the Tide (15.2) this season, according to KenPom. During White’s first three years at the helm, the program reached the 90-point mark nine times and the 100-point mark just twice. Through 23 games in 2025-26, Georgia has surpassed 90 in 12 outings and 100 in a school-record seven contests. 

Still, White sees a lot of room for improvement. There have been some major letdowns over the past month, including a 20-point loss at Texas in which Georgia allowed the Longhorns to shoot 69 percent from the field in the second half. A couple of setbacks were to be expected given that everyone is new to the system, which is packed with complex defensive schemes and puts a lot of trust in the players to make the correct reads on offense. “It’s not like we’ve got eight SEC returners and we’re running the same five sets we ran last year and playing conventional halfcourt man-to-man defense with no switching,” White says. “We’re throwing a lot at our guys. And we’re confident that, especially with the character of our guys, it will continue to improve.” 

Regardless of what happens over the next few months, White plans to stick with the style he’s brought to Athens — this season and beyond. Gone are the days of sluggish Georgia teams that hardly launched threes and struggled to put the ball in the basket (in the four years under Tom Crean before White was hired, UGA ranked 260th, 115th, 253rd, and 261st in three-point attempts). The showtime Bulldogs are here to stay.

“We’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s something we look forward to continuing to recruit to,” says White. “We’re at a place where we love the way we’re playing.”