Despite finishing fourth in the SEC in scoring in averaging 18.2 points per game last season, Georgia big man Yante Maten flew under the radar on the national level.
That won’t happen during the 2017-18 season. Maten has officially withdrawn his name from the NBA draft and will return to Athens for his senior year.
And if last season was any sign of what’s to come, he’ll be on everyone’s radar as an SEC Player of the Year candidate that could be in line for even larger honors on the national scale.
Of course, no one is more thrilled about Maten’s return than Georgia head coach Mark Fox.
The Bulldogs had already lost the SEC’s third-leading scorer – do-it-all point guard JJ Frazier – to graduation, and had Maten stayed in the draft, it would’ve meant that Georgia was losing 37 of its 72 points per game from a season ago.
And then there’s the thing regarding Fox’s job security. It’s something that will be talked about throughout the upcoming season, as some believe that this is a make-or-break year for Fox as he enters his ninth season on the job.
Having Maten back in the fold certainly provides a big boost to a Georgia team filled with promising, but not yet fully developed talents like Juwan Parker and Derek Ogbeide.
It’s no secret that the offense will go through Maten this season. However, the supporting cast will have to help ease the defensive pressure that Maten is going to face. If players like Parker, Ogbeide, and highly-touted recruit Rayshaun Hammonds, can all be a force in their own way, that’ll allow Maten to thrive.
Something we saw Maten do last season that we hadn’t seen before was shoot the three with consistency. He knocked down 21 three-pointers on the season on 43 attempts, which definitely isn’t a bad number for a big man trying to expand his game.
And that’s what Maten will need to do to succeed at the next level. If he continues to evolve as a jump shooter and can force opponents to have to come out and guard him on the perimeter, he’s going to be hard to stop.
He was hard to stop last season, but this season could be an entirely different story.
Not having Frazier to distribute is a concern. Few people in college basketball had the type of on-court awareness and overall playmaking ability that Frazier had during his time with the Bulldogs.
But as long as someone can get the ball to Maten every time down the floor, Georgia is going to have an opportunity to be in NCAA Tournament contention once again.
Things didn’t fall in the Bulldogs’ favor last season.
However, with Maten back and Fox potentially needing a big year to continue marching on as the team’s head coach, this could be a team with a chip on its shoulder.
And no one will be underestimating Maten this time around.
This story is a part of the “100 Reasons to Watch SEC Hoops in ’17-18” series.