Georgia’s Yante Maten entered his name into the NBA Draft last spring before making a deadline decision to return to Athens for his senior season. Despite appearing in only one NCAA Tournament game during his under-appreciated career, the fact that he was likely to become a second round pick was not the only reason he came back. He also wanted another trip to the Big Dance, and has made it clear in the half-year since that his decision was the best one for him. Based upon the early returns at the quarter pole of this season, his desire to return to the biggest stage in college basketball is realistic. The Bulldogs are off to a 7-1 start that already includes resume-enhancing wins over St. Mary’s (in the Wooden Legacy) and at Marquette. If they can build on a very successful start – the remainder of the pre-conference schedule sets up well to get to 10-1 – head coach Mark Fox should be in position for a return to the Tournament for only the third time in his nine seasons at the school.
Yante Maten will have to continue to carry Georgia for the Bulldogs to have success (espn.com).
Still, despite the somewhat unexpected good start, the Bulldogs have a lot of work ahead before they can think about punching their ticket. Aside from the pair of quality wins and a loss to San Diego State, the rest of the schedule has been against teams they should beat. Given the SEC’s overall improvement, finding wins during league play will be a much more difficult task this season. For his part, Maten has been everything Fox could have wanted, picking up where he left off at the end of last year. He leads the team with averages of 18.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game; he is knocking down a robust 88.5 percent of his free throws (important because he gets to the line more than six times per game); and, he’s even hitting 42.1 percent of his three-pointers (on 19 attempts). Maten’s efforts have been necessary this season as the young Bulldogs did not return much production — including zero (other than Maten) who averaged double-figures in scoring last year. Other than the addition of four-star freshman forward Rayshaun Hammonds, one of the highest-rated recruits Fox has signed at Georgia, there was little else to get excited about here. Even with a solid start, the Bulldogs will need more from veterans like Juwan Parker and Tyree Crump.
Moving forward, Georgia must play better on the offensive end if it wants to see meaningful games in March. Thus far, the Bulldogs have turned the ball over on a startlingly-high and SEC-worst 21 percent of their possessions, and that will become an even bigger problem as competition improves. The Bulldogs do not shoot the ball particularly well, either, especially on the perimeter where they are knocking down only 33.8 percent of their attempts from behind the arc. But if the offense can make strides and catch up with what has been an effective start on the defensive end (29.5% 3FG defense) and on the glass (35.8% OReb), Georgia has a realistic chance to improve into a top-tier SEC team. Maten has been the most important part of his team’s success to date, but for his team to reach the lofty goals that are worthy of his fantastic career, he will need to continue to lead the way.