Tag: anthony edwards uga

Former Georgia star Anthony Edwards named Western Conference Rookie of the Month

Former Georgia basketball star Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2020 NBA Draft, has earned rookie honors.

Former Georgia guard Anthony Edwards, the No.1 pick of the 2020. NBA Draft, was a man on a mission during the month of March.

After leading all rookies with 24.2 points per game in March to go along with 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals over 13 games, the Minnesota Timberwolves rising star was named the Western Conference’s Player of the Month.

Edwards’ 24.2 points per game in March rank third all-time in a calendar month by a player under 20 in NBA history. He trailed only Carmelo Anthony (27.1) and LeBron James (26.3) (min. 10 games).

He was also the only rookie to average over 20 points last month. Additionally, he led all rookies in total points (314), made field goals (116), total three-pointers (34) and minutes per game (35.1).

Edwards has recorded a steal in every game since February 24, putting him at 16 consecutive games with at least one tally in the stat column. That’s the longest active streak in the league.

Anthony Edwards scores career-high 34 points, has message for doubters

Former Georgia basketball star Anthony Edwards put on a career-high performance, scoring 34 points in a Minnesota Timberwolves victory.

Former Georgia basketball superstar Anthony Edwards set another career-high in points this Sunday night, dropping his new best of 34 in a Minnesota Timberwolves 114 – 112 win over the Portland Trailblazers.

The game stayed close for its entirety, the biggest lead for either team in the first three quarters being just six points.  In the fourth quarter Edwards had a collision with Trailblazers center Enes Kanter which caused him to miss some time.  He then checked in and went off, going for 13 points in the fourth including an explosive dunk to give Minnesota a 10-point lead.

Watch:

Edwards has now scored at least 19 points in his last seven games, beginning to silence the doubters who believe the T-wolves should’ve taken LaMelo Ball with the first pick.

“To talk about who they should have took No. 1, they took me. It’s over. It’s nothing to talk about. On to the next. We’re trying to win basketball games at this point. Whoever is still talking about that, they can just kick rocks, I guess.”

This is what last year’s No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft had to say when talking to reporters about the comparisons to him and Ball.

The Timberwolves are now 2-6 under new coach Chris Finch and have won two of their past three games.  The grass is starting to turn greener in Minnesota, and it all starts with the spark that is Anthony Edwards.

Anthony Edwards throws down poster dunk

The Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Anthony Edwards (University of Georgia) dunked on Yuta Watanabe in an incredible highlight.

The Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Anthony Edwards is off to a great start to his basketball career. Edwards, who is the No. 1 pick out of the University of Georgia, has looked explosive and is improving each and every game.

Edwards dropped some jaws with an incredible dunk last night. He deserves an invitation to the slam dunk contest as a part of the NBA All-Star weekend.

Anthony Edwards threw down the best dunk of his young NBA career against Yuta Watanabe and the Toronto Raptors. Here’s the poster dunk that could end up as the top dunk of the NBA season:

What a highlight for Anthony Edwards. The Raptors went on to defeat the Timberwolves 86-81 in one of the lower scoring games of the NBA season.

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Every Georgia Bulldog in the NBA

There are currently three former Georgia Bulldog basketball standouts in the NBA

There are currently three former Georgia Bulldog standouts in the NBA. This past November, Anthony Edwards became the first Georgia Bulldog to be selected No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft.

Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope won an NBA Championship in 2020. Caldwell-Pope has begun his 2020-2021 campaign with some silky smooth shooting. Look for him in the Lakers to return to the championship picture once again this season.

Nicolas Claxton has a great opportunity this season with the Brooklyn Nets, who could use a center. Claxton may be able to step in and fill the void for the Nets later in the season.

Twitter reacts as Timberwolves pick UGA’s Anthony Edwards first

Social media reacted as the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Georgia Bulldogs star Anthony Edwards number one overall in the 2020 NBA Draft.

The Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Georgia Bulldogs standout basketball player Anthony Edwards number one overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. Edwards is the first Georgia basketball prospect to be selected with the top pick.

Edwards is considered one of the top NBA prospects to ever come out of the University of Georgia. In fact, Edwards is the highest selected played in UGA basketball history. NBA legend Dominique Wilkins was the previous record. Wilkins was picked third overall in the 1982 NBA Draft.

Here’s how social media reacted to the selection of Georgia Bulldogs star Anthony Edwards:

It is a memorable day for Anthony Edwards, who honored members of his family:

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UGA basketball left out of SEC/Big 12 Challenge

The Georgia Bulldogs basketball team will no be participating in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge this season.

The Georgia Bulldogs basketball team will no be participating in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge this season. The Dawgs are one of four unlucky SEC basketball programs who won’t participate.

The SEC has 14 basketball teams while the Big 12 has only ten. This means that four SEC teams have to sit out each season. The SEC/Big 12 Challenge is expected to take place on Jan. 30, 2021.

The most interesting games in the series will be Texas at Kentucky, Auburn at Baylor, and Kansas at Tennessee. Last season’s college basketball season ended too soon. Hopefully this season will go smoother.

Here are the SEC’s ten match-ups with the Big 12:

Instead of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, the Dawgs will face off against the Memphis Tigers. UGA upset Memphis last season in what was the high point of the season for the Bulldogs. Georgia loses an elite player in Anthony Edwards to the NBA Draft this offseason.

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NBA Draft: Will Georgia’s Anthony Edwards go No. 1 to the Timberwolves?

Last night the Minnesota Timeberwolves received the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Will they take Anthony Edwards?

Thursday night the Minnesota Timberwolves were given the No. 1 pick of the 2020 NBA Draft during the annual NBA Draft Lottery, which is a random drawing of the top draft spots for the league’s upcoming draft.

The draft order is especially important to guys like Georgia basketball’s Anthony Edwards, a potential No. 1 pick.

DawgNation may have wanted to see the Atlanta Hawks in the No. 1 spot, but with Atlanta receiving the No. 6 pick – Edwards will most likely be off the board by the time the Hawks pick, barring a sizable trade.

Many mock drafts have Edwards and LaMelo Ball currently a top their big boards.

Melo took a more untraditional route to the draft than Edwards, electing to play in the AAU circuit in the States before going overseas for the past year to meet the NBA’s one-year out of high school draft requirement.

While Ball played well overseas, Edwards dominated the SEC as a freshman in 2019.

Edwards finished 2019 with 19.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game and was named the 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year – the first Bulldog to win the award.

We will have to wait until the October NBA Draft to see what the Timberwolves do with the No. 1 pick, but it may come down to who Minnesota thinks will be the best fit for their team in the long run.

Ball is a skilled point guard for sure, but with the Timberwolves adding star point guard D’Angelo Russel last season, they may elect to take Edwards at shooting guard, who is a more plug and play prospect with his explosiveness on both ends of the floor.

 

 

 

 

Watch: Georgia basketball’s Anthony Edwards talks NBA Draft, possibility of playing for Hawks

Anthony Edwards sits down with Bleacher Report to discuss the NBA Draft and how he should be the No. 1 overall pick.

The NBA will be holding its annual Draft Lottery this Thursday, August 20 at 8:30 pm and we will be watching to find out which teams will have a shot at drafting Georgia basketball star Anthony Edwards as he tries to become UGA’s first-ever No. 1 NBA draft pick.

Edwards was a one-and-done for the Bulldogs, but his dominant play was something DawgNation will be able to look back on with pride.

He led the Bulldogs in 2019 with 19.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game and was named the 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year – the first Bulldog to win the award.

Here’s Edwards as he sits down with Bleacher Reports Taylor Rooks to talk about the upcoming draft and how he would feel about possibly staying home in Georgia to play for the Hawks.

Watch the interview here.

Georgia men’s basketball announces new season attendance record

For the second consecutive year, Georgia’s men’s basketball has surpassed Stegeman Coliseum’s annual attendance record.

For the second consecutive year, Georgia’s men’s basketball has surpassed Stegeman Coliseum’s annual attendance record.

Attendance spiked following Tom Crean’s 2018 appointment as the Bulldogs’ head coach. When Crean managed to secure the commitment of 2019’s top high school prospect Anthony Edwards, excitement built further for Georgia basketball fans.

So, an average season with an above-average NBA prospect ended on a sour note against rival Florida. Georgia fans have every right to feel dejected.

Win or lose, however, Georgia faithful kept buying tickets to hoot and holler for the Dawgs. The Steg was packed and, oh my, was it loud.

A sure sign of an impassioned fanbase, the majority of the home crowd stayed until each game’s final whistle all year.

Mind you, that’s not just because of the fans’ recognition of the inevitably horrific post-game traffic splitting from Carlton Street toward either Lumpkin Street or East Campus Road.

The 2019-2020 Bulldogs’ hopes aren’t dead. There’s still an entire conference tourney left to be played.

Crean’s squad, which entered the campaign with high hopes, needs to win next week’s SEC Tournament to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Unless conference tournament results prove otherwise, the Dawgs are considered a bubble team for the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

In that case, a conference quarterfinal or semifinal would ostensibly improve Crean and company’s chances, but after such an up-and-down season, nothing can be guaranteed (always the case in the sports) or even predicted (always the case in Georgia sports).

Should the Bulldogs receive an NIT invite, they have the opportunity of hosting another game in Athens, potentially adding to the season’s attendance record.

Opinion: No, Georgia basketball did not waste its only season with Anthony Edwards

After Anthony Edwards committed to UGA in February of 2019, many Georgia fans quickly deemed him the Dawgs’ deliverer from mediocrity.

Anthony Edwards arrived in Athens, Georgia to much fanfare.

Depending on which recruiting service you asked, Edwards was either the first- or second-ranked high school basketball prospect of the 2019 recruiting cycle.

After the senior out of Atlanta’s Holy Spirit Prep announced his commitment to Tom Crean’s Bulldogs in February of 2019, many Georgia fans quickly deemed him the Dawgs’ deliverer from mediocrity.

Reminder: this was over three months before Edwards had even graduated high school and over eight months before he would play in his first collegiate competition.

What is almost certainly the Dawgs’ only regular season featuring Anthony Edwards ends with an even 15-15 record. Unless the 2020 Bulldogs can replicate the results of 2008’s unlikely winners in next week’s SEC tournament, Georgia may not qualify for any further postseason play.

Crean’s squad, which entered the campaign with high hopes, needs to win the conference tourney to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Unless tournament results prove otherwise, the Dawgs are considered a bubble team for the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

A quarterfinal or semifinal appearance in the conference tourney would likely earn them a spot, anything less would likely leave them out. But Georgia basketball fans probably don’t want to think of any more what-ifs.

Though plagued with blown leads and those pesky what-ifs, the Bulldogs’ 2019-2020 campaign was highlighted by several miraculous finishes, wins over Georgia Tech and Auburn, and a slew of NBA-worthy clips from Edwards.

All of that sounds bad. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not great. But here’s the thing: Edwards is still projected as the top NBA draft pick by more than one draft analyst.

This isn’t a moral victory thing. Anyone who watched Georgia’s men’s basketball team all season saw the team fold and surrender late leads on multiple occasions.

To me, a recovering pessimist constantly checking my peripheral vision for any sort of bright side, such results don’t blind me from what I’ve learned to see truth of the matter:

If a star player like Anthony Edwards can come into Georgia’s historically average basketball program and maintain his projected draft position while packing Stegeman Coliseum to the brim, it shows young local talent that they can do the same and receive that fanfare and adoration similar to Edwards’.

That is, before they go get a fat paycheck in the NBA.

Though not assuredly, this could prove vital for a program currently struggling to tread water alongside a strong and balanced Southeastern Conference no longer run just by traditionally powerful Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee (each of which can usually predict its two annual division games against Georgia as wins).

The Atlanta area is one of the highest-concentrated NBA breeding grounds in the United States. Georgia often lands local four-star recruits but very seldom secures commitments from upper echelon five-stars. The last was current Los Angeles Laker Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2011.

Examples: 2018’s Ashton Hagans and E.J. Montgomery enrolled at Kentucky. Wendell Carter enrolled at Duke in 2017. Kobi Simmons enrolled at Arizona in 2016.

So, yeah, in the short term, this isn’t ideal. Especially knowing that .500 winning percentage could’ve been a .533 or a possibly a .567, or heck, maybe even .600!

But since I’m speaking in hypotheticals, Georgia could very well have lost some of their eventual dramatic victories, namely against SMU, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas.

Given what Edwards’ success could mean for the future of Georgia men’s basketball recruiting in the future, I choose to see this year’s 15-15 record as a glass half full.

Even in the short term, the Bulldogs’ hopes aren’t dead. There’s still an entire conference tournament to be played.