WICHITA, Kan. — Gonzaga players believe they have a built-in advantage over Georgia in the teams’ opening round matchup in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Thursday.

“We’ve been here before,” Zags’ redshirt senior Graham Ike said on Wednesday, previewing the teams’ 4:35 p.m. Thursday match up (TV: TBS).

“So we have the experience, we’re kind of used to these kind of games and environments. I think it does help us.”

Coach Mike White’s UGA program is making its first NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament appearance in 10 years when it tips off against a tradition-rich Gonzaga program that has the longest active streak of Sweet 16 appearances in the nation (nine).

White, who has a string of four-straight NCAA tournament opening round wins carrying over from his time as head coach at Florida (2015-22), said it could take his UGA players a few minutes to get the feel of the so-called “Big Dance” environment.

“Until you actually play in it, I’m not sure that your guys will fully feel it, right?” White said, asked by AJC-DawgNation at his Wednesday press session in INTRUST Bank Arena about UGA’s lack of NCAA tournament experience.

“I think the first media timeout they will have felt it, and we will have to respond to some positives and to some negatives throughout the game, but this group has done that,” White said. “Now it’s time to do it on the biggest stage.”

Georgia won three do-or-die postseason games in the NIT last season, besting basketball schools Xavier and Wake Forest before taking down Big Ten power Ohio State on the road.

But the NIT is different, White knows, in terms of the level of competition and the bright lights shining down on the court.

The Gonzaga players know and understand the value of the school name on their chest, too, and the values for success that have carried over under the sixth-winningest head coach in college basketball, Mark Few.

“I think our culture just starts with who we are as a program, the tradition in the Gonzaga program,” said NCAA assists leader and Zags’ single-season record-holder Ryan Nembhard, who transferred to the Spokane, Wash., school from Creighton before the 2023-24 season.

“I think the culture here is second to none, you know, that’s built through years of different teams, camaraderie, and especially the way Coach Few is just so consistent every year and eery day on what he brings to the table,” he said. “So I think the culture is in us.”

Georgia is trying to build a successful basketball culture and change the narrative around a program that has little tradition.

The Bulldogs have not won an NCAA tournament game since 2002 — later vacated due to NCAA sanctions — and have won just one SEC regular season title and two SEC tournament titles in school history.

Georgia lost to Michigan State, another traditional basketball powerhouse, in its most recent NCAA tourney appearance by a 70-63 count on March 20, 2015, in Charlotte, N.C.

Arriving for NCAA tourney pregame festivities in Wichita was, no doubt, different for the Bulldogs from other venues.

The open locker room and elevated stage media press conferences were unique to the NCAA tournament, as was having fans surrounding the basketball court during the Bulldogs’ Wednesday shoot-around session.

Gonzaga shooting guard Nolan Hickman, a first-team All-West Coast Conference selection, shared how casual it feels for himself and his NCAA tourney-tested teammates.

“With us being here already, I think this is something that’s usual, and it’s easy for us,” Hickman said. “We understand how this thing goes, so I think that’s pretty much the difference between newcomers and us seniors that have been in it for a while.”

Ike agreed.

“I think for newcomers, like when you get in, I feel something that can be new for them is maybe the highs and lows of March Madness,” Ike said. “Not getting too high, not getting loo low, but just trying to stay in the middle with it …. "

Few, one of the most-respected and well-liked coaches in collegiate basketball history, doesn’t get too carried away with the value of the tradition he has built.

“It’s always nice to have experience,” Few said, “but it’s going to come down to that 40 minutes of basketball, and who’s making plays and getting stops, and who isn’t.”

Indeed, Nembhard stressed the ultimate difference in who wins the Georgia-Gonzaga game on Thursday could come down to hunger.

“If you’re not desperate at this time of year, you’re going on,” Nembhard said. “Win or go home at this point, and your season is done, so you have to be desperate.

“The least desperate team is probably going to be going home and chilling on the couch.”