From bad to worse: Georgia basketball losses Yante Maten
Yante Maten, the leading scorer of the Georgia basketball team, sprained his right knee just minutes into Saturday’s game with the Kentucky Wildcats.
Related Story: Georgia recruiting update
As if the 2016-17 Georgia basketball season couldn’t get any worse, the best player on the team and one of the best in the nation, Yante Maten, gets injured and will likely miss the rest of the season.
Maten is third in the SEC with 18.7 points per game, and ninth in rebounds per game with 6.9. He is the most productive player on the roster, now someone has to step up to fill that void.
If someone does not adequately step into Maten’s shoes, the Bulldogs will have a long two weeks. Georgia’s next game is at Alabama, the team who gave the Bulldogs their most lopsided loss of the year. Defensively, Alabama one of the best in the conference so without Maten on the court, Georgia will definitely need a ton of points from everyone else.
More from Dawn of the Dawg
- Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
- Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
- Nick Chubb is America’s running back, and he will return
- Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
- Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina
The Bulldogs should probably still beat LSU and Auburn but those games will both be much tougher now.
Georgia ends the year against Arkansas, a team who will likely be in the NCAA Tournament. As seen with the Bulldogs performance against Kentucky without Maten, they will still have a shot at beating the Razorbacks, but it’ll be an uphill battle without Maten.
The hopes of making the NCAA Tournament were already pretty much gone before losing Maten and the game to Kentucky. Now it looks unlikely that they’ll win 20 games for a fourth-straight season.
That’s not to say Georgia can’t win-out and then pick up some post season victories to eclipse 20 wins. But without Maten’s imposing presence and his consistency as a scorer and rebounder, the odds are not in Georgia’s favor these last two weeks of the regular season.