Georgia basketball will be without their leading scorer for the remaining four regular season games, as well as the SEC Tournament and any post-season tournament the Bulldogs play in.
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Without Yante Maten on the court for Georgia basketball someone needs to step up to fill the opening. This is particularly challenging for the Bulldogs whose biggest issue all year was the lack of a third player to compliment Maten and J.J. Frazier each night.
This is a new challenge for Georgia basketball and an urgent one at that. But if the players respond well to this challenge then they will benefit greatly going into the 2017-18 season. Because many of Georgia’s biggest contributors besides Maten and Frazier have all been underclassmen besides Juwan Parker.
Forcing players Parker, Derek Ogbeide, MIke Edwards, Pape Diatta, “Turtle” Jackson, Jordan Harris and Tyree Crump to play without Maten will make them all grow up fast. They’ll still have Frazier’s shooting and driving, but Maten can’t bail them out with put-backs and being an easy target in the low post to pass too.
Derek Ogbeide
Ogbeide is already blossoming into a dominant player on defense. Now he’ll need to use his physicality on offense. He can develop the rest of his game at a quicker pace because of the urgency Maten’s injury places on the team, especially around the basket.
In my opinion, Ogbeide is the most underrated player in the SEC, and definetely the most underrated sophomore in the nation. At times he’s been unbeatable around the basket on defense. And when he’s been asked, he’s delivered on offense.
He just hasn’t been asked all that much. But the Bulldogs will be asking for more out of him on offense now that Maten is out.
Mike Edwards
Edwards might benefit the most however, as the back-up power forward, he’ll likely become the starter. He’s shown the talent and the ability to be a great forward in the SEC in the years to come. However, he has not always done that.
Maybe because he sees himself as being in Maten’s shadow. But for a while against Kentucky, Edwards could do no wrong. At one point he scored seven-straight points for the Bulldogs. For the rest of this year he’ll be away from Maten’s shadow. It may be cliché, but now is Edward’s time to shine for the Bulldogs.
Juwan Parker
Parker was the player everyone expected to be the third-man on the Bulldogs squad behind Maten and Frazier and he was in late December to early January. There was a stretch of games where he got he was averaging over 10 points per game.
But since the first loss to South Carolina, those performances by Parker have grown scarce. Now the junior not only has to deal with trying to be the no. 3 player, he might have to step up and be the no. 2 man.
Most of Parker’s game is equipped for that, but he is an inconsistent shooter. There are nights where he drains a few three pointers and has a few good layups. Then there are games where he’ll be silent.
But Georgia can no longer afford the latter out of Parker. The urgency might force Parker to step up, take better shots, get to the basket and become the scorer that Georgia needs.
Pape Diatta and Turtle Jackson
Both are consistent players but neither really stand out. Diatta’s a junior that will be one of three players who will be getting a lot of playing time as a senior next season. The other’s being Maten and Parker.
Jackson is a junior who has started a few games this year and often times runs the point for the Bulldogs.
Urgency is the keyword of this story and urgency, if they respond to it well, will help both Diatta and Jackson develop into players who Georgia can rely on to do more than just fill a spot on the court while a starter is resting. Jackson can be a leader among Georgia’s big-men, while Jackson might begin to lock up Georgia’s starting point guard position for next year.
Jordan Harris and Tyree Crump
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Besides Edwards, the two freshmen will probably benefit the most. Georgia’s lack of other consistent scorers this year have forced them to rely on Frazier and Maten too much.
But with no Maten on the court to feed anywhere on the court, the yellow and red lights Coach Mark Fox has on the two freshmen might turn green from here on out.
But kids are really good shooters, but the rest of their game hasn’t matured yet. Harris isn’t a great ball handler or distributor. He makes a lot of mistakes that become turnovers. Crump isn’t as accident prone, but he definitely looks like a freshmen.
Because of this, they haven’t gotten to play as much as many fans want. But if no one else can provide points for the Bulldogs, Fox is going to have to turn the freshmen loose. We might finally get to see what the freshmen are made of.