THOMBS TAKES: Georgia baseball, basketball offseason updates

It’s an offseason Tuesday, and you know what that means… Thombs Takes! With the month of May and slower time in the Georgia sports schedule, we’re taking time to answer the questions that you all have got. Be sure to submit them, and I’ll be sure to answer in an upcoming edition.

This week, I’m tackling one from DawginaStream who asks: “Can we get the Cliff’s on both the basketball off-season and the baseball in-season?” Great question, and a timely one too as both have been in the news as of late.

Baseball: I’ll start with baseball because the Bulldogs are in season. Georgia just swept Vanderbilt over the weekend to wrap up a week that saw Wes Johnson’s team go 4-0. Leighton Finley earned SEC Pitcher of the Week with a strong 6.0 scoreless inning performance while Charlie Condon continued to take the country by storm with the way he’s been hitting.

In a way, it’s a perfect encapsulation of how things are going for the team as a whole. Johnson, known as a pitching mastermind, is getting his guys to figure things out, and we’re seeing the results of their development. April was an improvement from March, and it couldn’t come at a better time with so much important baseball to be played in May. Shoutouts go to Kolten Smith, Zach Harris and Chandler Marsh for the strides they’ve made to go along with the more consistent showings that there have been from Finley, Brian Zeldin and Josh Roberge throughout the season.

Meanwhile, the offense has always been there. Condon leads the nation in home runs individually while as a team, Georgia ranks third. Corey Collins is the NCAA-leader for on-base percentage and there’s not an easy out 1-9 in the lineup. Five different Dawgs (Condon – 33, Kolby Branch – 15, Collins – 14, Slate Alford – 13, Dylan Goldstein – 12) have hit double digits for home runs while six (Condon, Collins, Paul Toetz, Goldstein, Alford, Fernando Gonzalez) are hitting above .300 on the season. Those six plus Branch, Clayton Chadwick and Tre Phelps seem to make up Georgia’s best lineup with several capable contributors on the bench.

Playing their best baseball at the right time, this team has the makings of one that could go on a run in the postseason. Whether that baseball is being played in Athens or not will be determined over the next couple of weeks. Georgia currently has 13 SEC wins – likely enough to get them in the NCAA Tournament, especially with their RPI ranking of No. 5. My guess would be three more wins and the Bulldogs are hosting a Regional in Athens – a huge step in the right direction considering UGA missed the tournament completely last season. Get more than that and we’re talking about the Dawgs as a possible national seed and in line for a Super Regional at Foley Field too.

Basketball: Mike White and the basketball team wrapped up play just over a month ago with their run through the NIT. Since then, the roster has largely turned over with just three returnees – Silas Demary, Blue Cain, Dylan James. Getting those three freshmen back for a sophomore season was the biggest objective of the offseason if you ask me. Georgia already had five-star forward Asa Newell coming in, and after landing both Demary and Cain in the spring of 2023, they provided a foundation on which White and his staff could build.

And build they’ve done. On top of Newell, the Bulldogs added a second top-50 prospect in the country for the Class of 2024 with Somto Cyril out of the Overtime Elite program. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound big man was once headed to Kentucky. After John Calipari’s departure, he asked out of his National Letter of Intent and instead will suit up in red and black next season. He provides Georgia with a much needed interior presence.

In the transfer portal, Georgia has landed commitments from five players, all of whom have an interesting element to them. Mount St. Mary’s duo De’Shayne Montgomery and Dakota Leffew were the two top players on a team that wasn’t winning. However, both played well against the top competition and are looking to take a step up in the level of play they’ll see consistently. Same goes for Justin Abson, another interior presence coming to Athens from Appalachian State. Montgomery won MAAC Rookie of the Year, Leffew was a First-Team All-MAAC selection while Abson was the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year.

Making a move to Georgia from similar levels are RJ Godfrey (Clemson) and Tyrin Lawrence (Vanderbilt). Both are Peach State natives – also true for Leffew – and will have an opportunity to make an impact on their home-state school. If they can simply repeat what they did at their previous stops, their addition will be worthwhile.

Georgia still has three spots remaining on the roster. There’s also an assistant coach position that’s open. So, the story of the UGA offseason is still being written. However, up to this point, you have to consider it a success as it seems there have been upgrades made with the overall talent level on the team, hopefully allowing for Georgia to take another step from consistently competitive in the SEC this past season to an NCAA Tournament contender.

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