BASKETBALL
The 2012-13 schedule for the Georgia Lady Dawgs features a dozen contests versus teams that competed in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Coach Andy Landers, who enters his 34th season at UGA just five victories shy of his 800th win with the Lady Dawgs, announced the schedule on Friday.
Georgia will open the campaign with a matchup against perennial national power Rutgers at Stegeman Coliseum on Sunday, November 11th at 2 p.m. The game will pit Landers against C. Vivian Stringer. Stringer and Landers rank No. 1 and No. 3 in career victories among active Division I women’s basketball coaches with 885 and 877 wins, respectively.
Following four additional home dates, the Lady Dawgs will travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the University of New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament. Georgia will face Saint Bonaventure in the opening round on November 23rd. The Lady Dawgs’ remaining non-conference slate includes trips to three BCS opponents – Georgia Tech of the ACC on Sunday, December 2nd, TCU of the Big 12 on Wednesday, December 19th and Illinois of the Big Ten on Friday, December 28th.
Just as the Georgia football team will this fall, the Lady Dawgs open league competition in the expanded 14-member Southeastern Conference by facing Missouri in its first-ever conference outing. The Tigers will visit Stegeman Coliseum on Thursday, January 3rd, in the SEC opener for both teams.
All told, Georgia will have 10 league dates versus 2012 NCAA Tournament participants, including home-and-home matchups with Arkansas and Florida. The Lady Dawgs travel to Tennessee on January 6th, host South Carolina on January 13th, face Arkansas in Fayetteville on January 17th and host the Razorbacks on February 21st, host Texas A&M on January 20th, host Florida on January 27th and trek to Gainesville on February 17th, visit Kentucky on February 3rd, travel to LSU on February 10th and host Vanderbilt on March 3rd in the regular-season finale.
Game times for all SEC contests will be announced once the league’s television package is set.
The 2013 SEC Tournament will be contested at the Arena at Gwinnett in Duluth, Georgia, from March 6th-10th. Georgia will look to extend its streak of 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances when “March Madness” tips off on the weekend of March 23rd at 16 sites nationwide. The Lady Dawgs’ tally of 29 NCAA bids ranks second nationally.
Landers, the first and still only full-time women’s basketball head coach in UGA history, begins his 34th season in Athens just five victories shy of his 800th win at Georgia and 23 victories away from his 900th win as a collegiate head coach.
The Lady Dawgs have been a top-10 pick in early projections for the 2012-13 campaign. Georgia returns four starters – seniors Anne Marie Armstrong, Jasmine Hassell and Jasmine James and junior Khaalidah Miller – and five additional letter winners from last year’s team, which finished 22-9 overall and ranked No. 20 in the final editions of the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls. In addition, Landers will welcome five freshmen to the 2012-13 roster.