Probable Starters

GEORGIA LADY BULLDOGS		ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE
68.6	Scoring	80.4
66.6	Scoring	67.6
42.9%	FG%	39.4%
29.5%	3FG%	31.6%
40.3	Rebounds	40.0
15.9	Assists	12.5
6.5	Blocks	3.4
7.8	Steals	6.8
57.0	Scoring Def.	65.5
35.6%	FG% Def.	39.5%
29.9%	3FG% Def.	29.8%
+5.2	Reb. Margin	+1.2
+0.2	T/O Margin	-1.4
1.0	Ast-T/O Ratio	0.7

   

• Halftime entertainment - Teams of Tomorrow (a national and academic ball-handling program for pre-schoolers)
• Fan Appreciation Day - Fans receive prizes throughout the game; sign up at the Smith Street concourse
• Coaches will wear purple and the team will wear 'We Back Pat' warm-up shirts to honor the memory of Pat Summitt

   

• Georgia welcomes the Alabama Crimson Tide to Stegeman Coliseum on Sunday for a 2 p.m. ET tip on ESPNU. Eric Frede and Christy Thomaskutty will be on the call.
• Georgia senior forward Caliya Robinson was one of 15 players nationwide named to the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Midseason Watch List. The Marietta, Georgia native is the Southeastern Conference's active career blocked shots leader with 261 — a mark that is just 37 shy of setting the Georgia school record, which is currently held by Tawana McDonald (297 blocks from 1998-2002).
• As a team, Georgia leads the SEC in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 35.6 percent shooting from the field. The Lady Bulldogs are second in blocks, with 6.4 per game.
• Lady Bulldog redshirt junior point guard Taja Cole paces the SEC and is seventh nationally in both total assists (125) and assists per game (6.6 per game). She has 28 more dimes than the next closest SEC player (Jazzmun Holmes, Mississippi State - 97).
• Following Sunday's game against Alabama, three of the next four contests are on the road for the Lady Bulldogs. Georgia travels to Arkansas (Jan. 31), Auburn (Feb. 3) and South Carolina (Feb. 14) and hosts Florida (Feb. 10).

 
Overall: Georgia leads, 39-11
In Athens: Georgia leads, 18-3
In Tuscaloosa: Georgia leads, 15-6
Neutral Sites: Georgia leads, 6-2
 
Each of the last two games between Alabama and Georgia have gone into overtime, with the Lady Bulldogs winning both. Georgia won 71-65 in 2017 and 49-43 last season in Tuscaloosa. The Lady Bulldogs have won 26 of the last 28 meetings and have not lost to the Crimson Tide in Athens since Jan. 15, 1997 (68-64).
 
There are several Alabama connections on the Lady Bulldogs' coaching staff. Most notably, head coach Joni Taylor played for the Crimson Tide from 1998-2001 under coach Rick Moody. Assistant coach Robert Mosley is a native of Mobile, Alabama, was a high school coach at Ramsay High School in Birmingham from 2004-10 and was an assistant coach on the Alabama staff from 2010-12.

Director of Operations Meredith Mitchell and Director of Player Personnel and Women's Basketball Administration Katherine Graham are both from the Birmingham area.
 
The Lady Bulldogs enter Sunday's game as one of the best shot-blocking teams in the country. Georgia's post players have combined to swat a nation-leading 124 total shots this year. In blocked shots per game, Baylor leads the nation at 7.2, while Georgia is fourth at 6.5 per contest.
 
Georgia senior Caliya Robinson and redshirt-sophomore Jenna Staiti form one of the top frontcourt tandems in the SEC. Robinson and Staiti rank second and third in the league in blocked shots with Robinson's 43 and Staiti's 40.
 
Georgia freshman guard Donnetta Johnson was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Jan. 14 for her performances against Mississippi State and Tennessee. She scored five points in each game -- all coming at crucial moments.

Against Mississippi State, she scored five-straight in the third quarter to cut a seven-point deficit down to two, while her five points against Tennessee came off a 3-pointer and a layup that jump started a 13-4 Georgia run and allowed her team to climb back in the game.
 
With eight underclassmen and just four upperclassmen, the Lady Bulldogs are the youngest team in the Southeastern Conference. All eight of Georgia's freshmen and sophomores have seen valuable playing time as each has averaged over 10 minutes played per game. Sophomore Malury Bates, who was averaging 16.1 minutes played per contest, is out for the year with a torn ACL.
 
Georgia has used six players that had never started a game prior to this season in this year's starting lineup. Among those is sophomore guard Gabby Connally, who has started each of Georgia's 19 games. The Lady Bulldogs' three freshmen have each started at least one game this year, with Donnetta Johnson receiving the nod in seven of the last eight contests.
 
The initial signing period was a good one for the Lady Bulldogs as Georgia signed three players who are among some of the best in the nation. Currently, the Lady Bulldogs' 2019 class ranks 14th overall by ESPNW.

Mitchellville, Maryland native and five-star guard Chloe Chapman was the first to ink with Georgia. Chapman, a five-star prospect, is the No. 28 overall recruit and No. 7 point guard according to ESPNW. Later in the week, Georgia announced the signing of five-star forward Javyn Nicholson from Lawrenceville, Georgia. Nicholson is ranked No. 6 among the country's top power forwards. Another Georgia native, Jordan Isaacs from Alpharetta, rounds out Georgia's class. She is a five-star player according to Prospects Nation and No. 14 overall forward according to ESPNW.

Earlier this winter, Georgia inked Virginia Tech transfer Shaniya Jones, who was a four-star guard in the 2018 class. She is on campus and will be an eligible sophomore at the conclusion of the 2019 fall term.
 
Georgia continued its upward trend under head coach Joni Taylor last season. The Lady Bulldogs finished tied with South Carolina for second place in the final SEC standings after being picked eighth in the preseason poll. It's a trend that goes all the way back to Taylor's first year, when her squad was picked ninth and finished sixth. Then, in 2016-17, Georgia was picked 12th and finished eighth.
 
For the first time in the history of the Southeastern Conference, all 14 member universities have been designated as doctoral universities with the highest level of research activity by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, the SEC announced earlier this week.

This top designation, historically known as Research 1 or R1, recognizes the nation's most elite research universities. According to Carnegie Commission data, fewer than three percent of all U.S. educational institutions are included in the classification, and the SEC is one of only four NCAA conferences with all its members in the top category.
 
For more information on the Georgia Lady Bulldogs, follow the team on Twitter (@UGA_WBB), Instagram (@uga_wbb) and Facebook (Facebook.com/UGAWomensBasketball).