MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla.—Mike White’s latest roster revamp for the 2024-2025 season still wasn’t complete as he arrived to the SEC spring meetings, but Georgia basketball fans hope it will pay off next March with the program ending a 10-year drought from making the NCAA Tournament.

Just don’t expect White and his players to talk much about that along the way.

White believes too much focus last season inside the Bulldogs’ program was on making the 68-team field and he told the Georgia athletic board last week that “backfired a little bit.”

He’s approaching the new season with a team that currently includes seven newcomers and just three scholarship holdovers by focusing on the process, not the end result.

At least one national analyst thinks the team that White and his staff have assembled is in the conversation to make the tournament. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports puts Georgia at No. 42 of his top 45 teams. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has nine SEC teams in his most recent NCAA Tournament projection but not Georgia.

“I think we’ve got a chance to be very good,” said White, whose second Georgia team finished 20-17 last season and reached the NIT semifinals.

Georgia has added five transfers led by guard Tyrin Lawrence from Vanderbilt.

The class is ranked No. 6 in the nation by On3, but No. 51 by EvanMiya.com.

Georgia has the No. 9 ranked recruiting class with just two signees, both in the top 50 overall: five-star power forward Asa Newell and four-star 6-10, 260-pound center Somto Cyril. It is expected to add a third Wednesday when three-star guard Jordyn Kee from Fort Lauderdale announces his commitment.

Newell, Cyril and Appalachian State 6-9 transfer Justin Abson will give Georgia a presence around the basket. Cyril “plays angry around the rim.”

“We’ll be able to clean up mistakes defensively that we make by having some rim protection and shot blocking,” White said. “We’ll be much better on the offensive glass overall rebounding, overall defensively. Scoring on the interior.”

Cyril signed with Georgia and also put his name in the NBA draft pool, but with the deadline to withdraw Wednesday, White said he expected the Overtime Elite product to play for the Bulldogs

“We expect him to be at Georgia but we’re going to support any decision that he makes,” White said Tuesday.

Lawrence and Mount St. Mary’s guard Dakota Leffew bring “veteran guards with ball skills that give us versatility in the backcourt.” Georgia also signed Clemson forward RJ Godfrey and another Mount St. Mary’s guard in De’Shayne Montgomery, but White said he never talked to either Montgomery or Leffew about coming along to Georgia with the other.

“We recruited Dakota for Dakota and De’Shayne for De’Shayne,” White said. “We looked at their situations as separate and we respected their own individual processes.”

White expects most of his roster for next season on campus by the end of this coming weekend.

"I think we’re all very excited with the additions from the portal, with the additions from high school kids," Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said. "I feel we have a very talented roster and now it’s just time to go to work and get ready for next year.”

White has flipped Georgia’s roster three years in a row now but thinks the Bulldogs may be “20 to 30 percent” less reliant on the transfer portal next offseason with the extra COVID eligibility year running out.

“Until we get Georgia consistently going to an NCAA Tournament, we’ll probably have more movement than we’d like to have,” White said. “That said though I think across the board the days of not losing guys in the spring are over.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Mike White offers his take on newcomers on Georgia basketball roster