Georgia to Play Miami in Baha Mar Championship

In the latest addition to its challenging non-conference schedule, Georgia will play Miami in the opening round of the Baha Mar Hoops Championship.

In May, it was announced that Georgia would participate in the annual Baha Mar Hoops Championship in Nassau, Bahamas with an opening opponent to be announced at a later date. On Monday, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reported Georgia will play the Miami Hurricanes in its opening game of the annual preseason basketball tournament.  

The 2023 Baha Mar Hoops Championship, which will be held from Friday, Nov. 17 through Sunday, Nov. 19, will also feature Providence and Kansas State who will square off in the tournament's other first round game. The winners of each first round game will advance to the championship game, while the losers will face each other in a consolation game to close out the tournament. 

NEWS: Providence will play Kansas State and Miami will face Georgia in the first round of the 2023 Baha Mar Classic, according to multiple sources.https://t.co/cdVYBOK9PM

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) June 12, 2023

The matchup with Miami is the latest addition to what is shaping up to be a challenging non-conference schedule for Mike White's squad. The Hurricanes are coming off of Final Four run and return a significant chunk of their production from last season. Leading scorer and 2022-23 ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong has selected to enter the NBA draft, but Miami returns starters Nigel Pack (13.6 points/game) Wooga Poplar (8.4 points/game), and Norchad Omier (13.1 points/game). The Hurricanes also return a key reserve in Bensley Joseph (5.3 points/game) and added former 5-star guard Matthew Cleveland from Florida State via the transfer portal. Cleveland averaged 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game last season for the Seminoles as a lengthy 6-foot-7 guard. 

Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga cuts down the nets on March 26 after the Hurricanes punched their ticket to the Final Four in Houston

When speaking to reporters at the SEC spring meetings on May 30, White acknowledged actively seeking to put together a more challenging non-conference schedule in his second year at the helm of the Georgia program.

"We want it to be a little tougher. I think we're right there. I expect it to be a little bit tougher," White admitted.

"We'll have a few power 5 opponents and some opportunities for development and compute our numbers on whether or not we take advantage of them. They first year of the ACC-SEC Challenge, right? We'll be put on the road. Our schedule will be tougher, but that was be design."

In addition to the Baha Mar Hoops Championship, Georgia's 2023-24 non-conference slate also features games against Oregon in Las Vegas to open the season on Nov. 6, Wake Forest in Athens on Nov. 11, and the annual rivalry game against Georgia Tech. 2023-24 also marks the first year of the new ACC-SEC Challenge that replaces the ACC-Big 10 and SEC-Big XI Challenges. As White alluded to at the SEC spring meetings, the expectation is that Georgia will be a participant in the inaugural event between the two conferences and will likely play that game on the road.  

With five additions from the transfer portal and three top-100 signees from the high school ranks, Georgia has overhauled its roster heading into the 2023-24 season. The challenging non-conference schedule that White is in the process of assembling could be viewed as a sign that he believes his retooled roster will be vastly improved from the roster he had to work with in his initial campaign as the Georgia head coach.