MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Mike White already had the look of someone who had enjoyed some beach time when he arrived at this vacation resort late Tuesday morning for the SEC spring meetings.

The Georgia basketball coach enjoyed some family time on the east Florida coast around the holiday weekend.

“We’ve been neck deep in the portal for a couple of months,” White said. “I just spent a few days recuperating with my family. It’s been a long haul.”

Consider it some rest and relaxation after he overhauled the Georgia basketball roster heading into his second Bulldog season. Just like he did before his first year.

“We had a little bit more to sell,” White, speaking to a small group of reporters at the Hilton Sandestin Beach resort, said of the second time around. “Just the fact that we laid a foundation and we went 16-16 as opposed to the sell the previous year. We got our feet wet. The new staff, a new era had started. Not that we had an unbelievable year by any stretch, right, but the foundation was laid. More familiarity with the people we were recruiting. It was less of a leap of faith for both the high school kids and the portal kids.”

Coming off a 6-26 season, Georgia stood at 13-4 and 3-1 in the SEC at one point but ended the season on a six-game losing streak and a 6-12 SEC record.

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“What impressed me most about Mike is his attitude, and when the season ended, we spoke immediately and he was ready to get after it,” athletic director Josh Brooks said. “He said ‘We’re going to get this thing fixed. We’re going to get it right.’ It was never a moment of negativity, it was all positivity, how it was going to move forward. I think that translated into an active recruiting approach for both high school and transfers and I think that positive energy he displayed and the can-do-itness, it paid off.”

Said White: “We want to build a championship-level culture, and of course we didn't have that Year 1. But I stand by it: we're going to fix it. We're going to have a championship-level culture. We're going to be a little bit more consistent and take steps in that regard to where we know what we're getting night in and night out, day in and day out.”

Georgia will have nine newcomers — five transfers and four high school signees — to go along with four returnees: Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Justin Hill, Frank Anselem and Matthew Alexander-Moncrieffe.

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Illinois forward RJ Melendez at No. 71, Niagara shooting guard Noah Thomasson at No. 112, and VCU power forward Jalen DeLoach at No. 119 are the highest-rated Georgia transfers in 247Sports portal transfer rankings.

Russel Tchewa, a South Florida transfer is the only other Georgia player in the 276 players listed. He’s listed at 7-feet tall on a new Georgia roster put out Tuesday, but White went further.

“He’s 7-1, 280, can move and he will be one of the best defensive front court guys in our league from Day 1,” White said. “He was one of the best bigs in the American last year, an improving scorer throughout his career, but just a physical presence. We were dominated on the glass last year multiple times, of course. We’ve got to work at it, we’ve got to bring toughness and we’ve got to see which guys rise to the top with that, but I anticipate him being part of that equation being a much better rebounding team.”

Georgia had to recruit this spring while Stegeman Coliseum was closed for major repairs to the roof. “The last two were not able to get in the building,” White said. “They were able to hear the construction as we walked around a little bit.”

Three of four Georgia’s high school signees are guards — 6-3 Blue Cain from Knoxville, 6-5 Silas Demary from Raleigh and 6-6 Mari Jordan from Norcross High. Forward Dylan James, a 6-9 product of Winter Haven, Fla., is the other freshman signee.

"I think we'll be significantly more athletic and have more success in transition offense,” White said. “We'll be able to pressure the ball a little bit more, alter shots more. We didn't protect the rim very well at all. I think we'll be a better rebounding team. Not only our athleticism but our depth of athleticism. I think we've got a number of guys now that are SEC-level athletes. We're going to figure out the best way to play offensively of course, and, again, we're going to be relying upon freshmen. But they've got talent, and we'll figure some of those things out. We've got to figure out the best way to utilize our guys to play to their strengths defensively, but I'm excited to get after it."

Georgia will embark on a summer tour of Italy from July 20-29 that will include three games in Rome and time in Florence and the Amalfi Coast.

The biggest benefit, White said, is the 10 extra days of practices that Georgia will get with all of those newcomers before the trip.

The newcomers report to campus on Saturday.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to get ahead a little bit,” White said. “Opportunity for guys to spend time with each other. Really everybody in our program to fast track some relationships, especially in today’s day and age in the portal and having nine new players. Excited about it. A great opportunity for us.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: UGA basketball coach Mike White has 9 newcomers, time for them to jell