Georgia basketball agrees to home-and-home series with North Carolina

“We jumped at the opportunity quickly, and we look forward to it,” said fourth-year Georgia coach Mike White, who led the Bulldogs to the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance last season.

“They actually approached us, just looking for a regional opponent, which kind of speaks to where we are as a program.”

White, a former SEC player himself at Ole Miss (1995-99), recognizes the exposure a nonconference game with North Carolina will bring.

“It’s a really cool thing to be able to play a home-and-home with somebody like North Carolina, a program with that big of a name and brand,” White said. “We start (the home-and-home) on the road, of course, which will be challenging, and it will be challenging when we get them here down the road.

“Those are the games you want to play as you continue to grow your program.”

North Carolina owns a 13-5 men’s basketball series lead over Georgia, but the programs haven’t met since the Tar Heels scored a 65-58 win over the Bulldogs in Chapel Hill on Nov. 18, 1998.

North Carolina won its most recent trip to Athens, too, prevailing 82-80 in overtime on Dec. 27, 1997.

The Bulldogs’ most recent win in the series ranks as, arguably, the program’s most significant win in history.

Georgia, then coached by Hugh Durham, beat a Michael Jordan-led North Carolina team 82-77 in the NCAA East Regional final.

Former Bulldog James Banks scored a team-high 20 points, and Gerald Crosby and Vern Fleming each scored 17 points in a victory that propelled East Region No. 4-seed UGA into the Final Four.

North Carolina State, the eventual national champion, beat the Bulldogs in the semifinals in Albuquerque, 67-60.