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Georgia Men's Basketball Adds Some "Big Time" Rebounding With Transfer Russel Tchewa

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Basketball

Russel Tchewa, a 7-0, 280-pound center who was one of the top rebounders and most efficient interior scorers in the American Athletic Conference for South Florida last season, has signed a letter-of-intent to play for the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2023-24 season, head coach Mike White announced.

Tchewa (pronounced chee-wuh) started 27 of 29 games played for the Bulls last season and was USF's leading rebounder (8.6 rpg) and second-leading scorer (11.1 ppg). Tchewa ranked No. 2 in the AAC and No. 54 nationally rebounding, as well as No. 4 among conference leaders in field goal percentage (.606). He notched 19 double-figure scoring outputs, including a trio of 20-point performances, 11 double-digit rebounding tallies and six double-doubles.

Tchewa played at South Florida for three seasons after attending Texas Tech as a freshman. All told, he has averaged 6.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in 104 career outings, with 59 starts. For the Bulls, Tchewa averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds as a junior, more than doubling his sophomore season efforts of 3.3 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. In Lubbock, he averaged 1.7 points and 0.1 rebounds in 23 games played during the 2019-20 campaign.

A native of Douala, Cameron, Tchewa spent the 2018-19 season at Putnam Science Academy in Putnam, Conn., where he was teammates with nine other future Division I players. He also played for three seasons at Grissin bon Reggio Emilia, a prep school in Italy. Tchewa helped A.S. Stella Azzura, a club team from Rome, to a runner-up finish in the 2018 U18 EuroLeague Adidas Next Generation Tournament. Over eight games in a qualifying tourney and the finals site, Tchewa averaged 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Tchewa is the sixth signee overall – and third transfer – set to join the Bulldogs next season.

Previously, White announced the addition of transfers RJ Melendez, ESPN.com's No. 56 recruit in the Class of 2021 who played at Illinois the last two seasons, and Jalen DeLoach, an All-Atlantic 10 performer at VCU in 2022-23 who is originally from Savannah, Ga.

In addition, Georgia signed three top-100 prep prospects who comprise the nation's No. 19 recruiting class according to 247Sports.com. Silas Demary Jr., a guard from Raleigh, N.C. ranked as high as No. 41 nationally, inked papers with the Bulldogs last week. Last November, Georgia signed Lamariyon "Mari" Jordan, a small forward from Norcross High School, and Dylan James, a power forward from Winter Haven (Fla.) High School. Nationally, Jordan and James are ranked as the No. 83 and No. 90 recruits, respectively, by ESPN.com.

Georgia wrapped up 2022-23 with a 16-16 record in White's first campaign in Athens. The Bulldogs improved their win total by from the previous season by 10 victories, the second-largest regular-season increase among all Power 5 programs.