Georgia Basketball: The Last Stand of Yante Maten

Georgia Basketball is desperately trying to make the tournament after a disappointing start to SEC play and Yanta Maten is doing his best to carry the team in his final season.

A common trait of great players is performing at an elite level in less than ideal circumstances. Yante Maten is a great player. He has stepped up for this UGA basketball team and been one of the main reasons that the Dawgs have now knocked off their 2 biggest rivals, Tennessee and Florida, in back to back games. Both were absolute must wins and if Georgia Basketball does rally and win out these 2 wins will be crucial to their tournament resume’.

Georgia now sits at 15-11 for the year. After yesterday’s impressive 73-62 win over the 18th ranked Tennessee Volunteers, they sit at 6-8 in the conference. While it is still a long shot for this team to make the NCAA tournament, these last 2 performances by Maten and the Dawgs have kept them alive and shown they still have some fight left in a season that has been filled with uncertainty. The status of head coach Mark Fox after this season is still up in the air.

That uncertainty has not caused this team to quit though. They’re playing with an edge and finally coming together as a team. Maten’s play is not a surprise to anyone in the nation. He’s great. He’s one of the best to ever play for UGA. His stat line yesterday was 19 points and 5 rebounds. He has 10 double-doubles on the season, so this type of performance is simply what he does. What has been surprising lately is the way the rest of this team has come together. There were times in some of the Dawgs bad losses this season where it seemed as if Georgia was a one-man team with Maten. The rest of the players have stepped up as of late and helped him out in a big way.

Saturday showed what this team is capable of when they all play well. 5 players were in double figures in scoring. Maten, Tyree Crump, Juwan Parker, Turtle Jackson, and Derek Ogbeide all had at least 10 points each and Ogbeide had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. It’s fun to watch this team when they’re motivated and clicking. It’s also really cool to see Stegeman Coliseum packed out (Saturday’s game was a sellout).

They’ll have to keep up this level of play if they want to have a chance at an NCAA tournament bid. It won’t be easy. Road trips to South Carolina (who scored a big win over the top team in the SEC, Auburn, yesterday) and another meeting with Tennessee at their place remain.

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Regardless of how the rest of this season plays out, this team has shown that they’re not quitting. They will continue to fight. Maten will continue to fight. This is the last stand of Yante Maten, and it’s going to be interesting, to say the least.