When the Georgia Lady Bulldogs take on the Richmond Spiders Friday night, it will be a double celebration of sorts.  Besides marking the beginning of regular season play, former associate head coach Michael Shafer will be making his homecoming to UGA since departing in 2005 to coach the Richmond Spiders.  Those attending the UGA game will be treated to a true double header as the UGA men will follow the Lady Bulldogs as they take on the South Carolina Gamecocks later tonight.

For the Lady Bulldogs, it will be all business on the court.  In their last outing, they took a beating from the Premiere Players in an Exhibition game.  Georgia shot 41.9% from the field and 27.3% from three-point range.  "It was embarrassing, there's not a whole lot more you can say. The score tells it all. It was a 20-point thumping to a pick-up team," head coach Andy Landers said after the game.

In both it's pre-season/exhibition games, the Lady Bulldogs turned over the ball a total of 46 times (23 TO's each game to be exact). Senior forward, Tasha Humphrey needs to step up her game from last year's poor performance.  But it won't be on her shoulders alone, the supporting cast of players need to show up as well.  In addition to starting Humphrey tonight, Landers is expected to put sophomore Angel Robinson alongside her.  Robinson averaged 8 points and 5.4 rebounds coming off the bench in her first year at UGA.  Also returning to the starting role will be Ashley Houts who won SEC freshmen of the year honors last year.  Expect to see sophomore Chirsty Marshall, SEC's co-sixth man of the year last year on the wing and senior Megan Darrah  will give it her best for outside shooting.  Darrah has played out of position at the power forward most of her career, so this will be a tranisition period, which hopefully won't take long to grasp.  Enter Lindsey Moss (UT transfer) as another option for outside shooting and Landers may utilizer her as well in the starting lineup.

On the spider side, make no mistake about it, Mike Shafer is excited about his homecoming to Athens. Shafer held a 273-85 (.762) record with the Lady Bulldogs and has led Richmond to a 26-34 record in his first two seasons. Richmond lost to Georgia last season, 72-41 in Richmond, Va.

Just the facts...Georgia Lady Bulldogs