ATHENS — Georgia basketball will open the SEC portion of its schedule against Texas A&M on Wednesday, Jan. 4, before playing four of its next five games on the road.

The SEC office released the league schedule on Thursday afternoon, revealing the challenging start the reloaded Bulldogs will have on their conference ledger.

Georgia does, however, have the friendly prospect of four straight Saturday home games in February, with Auburn (Feb. 5), South Carolina (Feb. 12), Ole Miss (Feb. 19) and Florida (Feb. 26) lined up for weekend tipoffs in Stegeman Coliseum.

Just like every season, getting our conference schedule raises my level of excitement because it means we’re getting much closer to actually playing games,” Tom Crean said in the school release. “That’s even more true today because we anticipate being able to not only play but do so with a full house at Stegeman Coliseum.

“The Bulldog Nation came out in record numbers in our first two seasons at UGA, breaking our all-time total attendance record twice,” Crean continued. “While we were thankful to be able to compete last winter during the pandemic, I would be lying if I didn’t say it wasn’t very different with the limited capacity in attendance.

“We need our fans to be there in force from first game against FIU in November to the last one against Tennessee in March and give us the boost we saw they were capable of two and three seasons ago.”

The SEC Tournament takes place March 9-13 in Tampa, Fla., and the NCAA Tournament runs from March 15-April 4.

Georgia plays five of the eight SEC teams projected to play in the NCAA tournament (via ESPN’s Bracketology) at home in Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia men's basketball schedule 2021-22. (UGA Sport/Dawgnation)