Georgia basketball coach Mike White: Revved-up Stegeman home fans 'puts us in the game'

When Connor Nolte went to his first Georgia basketball game of the season last week, he hit up his former Bulldog teammate Matt Bucklin via text to let him know how different the scene was inside Stegeman Coliseum.

He also was messaging and sending photos to former players Jeremy Price and Chris Barnes, who were also at the win over LSU, about the number of students he saw in the stands and how many sections they filled up.

“To me, that’s what college athletics are about,” said Nolte, a walk-on who started four games during his three seasons at Georgia including a team that made the NCAA tournament in 2011. “A lot has changed since I played, but to me it just really was exciting to see students coming out supporting the team and just how energized that community seems to be around the basketball program.”

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Georgia athletics moving the students closer to the court has been in effect for 12 home games so far.

The verdict: It’s a rousing success in amping up the energy level inside a building that’s hosted basketball games since 1964.

“If we want Georgia basketball to get going, the ‘Steg’ better be rocking to give us a chance,” coach Mike White said. “It puts us in the game.”

Georgia (14-6, 4-3 SEC) gets another prime opportunity to improve its postseason resume Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. with No. 22 and SEC first-place team Alabama (14-6, 6-1) visiting.

While average home attendance is 7,432—down from 8,144 after the same number of home games last season—the vibe seems different. Georgia is 11-1 this season at home.

“It’s been a game changer for the program,” said superfan Jesse Kenney, known as “Sweaterman,” who does jumping jacks in the stands during Bulldog games.

Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks sat on the opposite side of the students, in the lower section behind the team benches for last week’s narrow win over LSU.

“I can tell you from where I sit, I can hear it and feel it a lot different,” he told the athletic board’s facility and development committee last week. “Those students do a phenomenal job when we’re on defense of making noise and making it a tough place to play.”

Parker Duncan, athletic board student representative, said his father, former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, has sent him tweets about the student section’s impact. He said that says something because his father “cares about Georgia Tech baseball,” as a graduate of the Bulldogs’ rival.

The students’ energy has drawn the attention of broadcasters, but Georgia still didn’t crack the top-five toughest places to play in the league by SEC Network analyst Ron Slay who listed Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina and Alabama as the elite.

In the seven home games when school in session, Georgia is averaging 1,840 students. For the three SEC home games, it’s 2,721. That’s beyond the actual 2,065 student capacity, but UGA used unsold reserved seats for any student that showed up for those SEC games, according to assistant athletic director of marketing John Bateman.

Before the LSU game, Georgia’s public address announcer, Devin Thompson, got the students ready to roar by urging them to bring the noise during the game. Kenney said he also tries to get the students pumped up prior to tipoff.

“The SEC is tough, and with them behind us I feel like we have a really really good chance every night,” senior guard Jabri Abdur-Rahim said.

White said the crowd made a big difference in the second half against LSU when his team clamped down on LSU defensively.

“The fans that show up and scream and jump on the refs, we’re just appreciative,” White said. “It wasn’t like that last year. It wasn’t that loud last year.”

White suggested the offseason move of the students moving closer to the floor. Georgia seated them court-level in sections T, U and V.

White said Georgia “has a proud fan base, a hungry fan base,” but the move “puts us on par,” with rabid fan bases in the SEC.

“Some of our fans had to move seats and not everyone was super excited on the front end,” White said. “Hopefully as we build this thing and we do our part, that one day all of our fans will look back and say, boy, that was good and I’m excited about it regardless of where I used to sit and where I’m sitting now.”

Kenney owned six midcourt seats behind the TV broadcasters for more than 20 years, but lost them during the re-seating but he was good with that. He does have permission to mix in with the students to do his thing during games.

Brooks said in an interview that most season ticket holders understood the re-seating even if they didn’t like it. He said they can see now the difference it makes.

“We needed to have those kids down there,” said Kenney, a season-ticket holder since 1983. “You’re seeing it. (Against LSU), it was just electric in there….To have those kids screaming and yelling and carrying on down there, not only does it affect the other team, it has a big effect on our guys. You can see our players interact with those students during the game.”

It’s not that Georgia hasn’t had its moments with the crowd bringing the boom to Stegeman.

The Bulldogs upset a No. 10 Kentucky team in 2011 when Nolte was on the team that Kenney remembered as one of the best crowds.

“When I was playing we had a few flashes where we had some awesome crowds, but it was never to the level to what I’ve seen this year,” Nolte, who lives in Atlanta and works in marketing for the PGA Superstore, said.

That includes the students standing the whole game, he said.

Kenney said the 85-79 loss to No. 5 Tennessee on Jan. 13 this season was probably in his top-three loudest crowds ever he’s seen for a Georgia game. The 1990 win over LSU and Chris Jackson (later Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) and Shaquille O’Neal topped them all.

Brooks, who has worked at Georgia for most of the last 16 years, said he thinks Stegeman now is louder from tip-off to final buzzer than it’s been during his time at the school.

“The deal about Georgia basketball for all the years I’ve been over there, if you win, they’ll come,” Kenney said. “But you’ve got to win. …You get all those kids in there and put them right smack dab in the middle of the action and you win and are competitive, that’s a mix for some really great times coming in the Steg. I think it’s just going to get better.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Stegeman Coliseum re-seating gives Georgia basketball more energy