Georgia basketball: what went wrong?
Georgia’s Yante Maten lead the SEC in scoring and finished second in rebounds, and so the league coaches named Grant Williams SEC Player of the Year. That’s where Georgia basketball is.
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On Tuesday, SEC coaches named Grant Williams, who ranks 11 in scoring and 18 in rebounding in the conference, SEC Player of the Year over Georgia basketball power forward Yante Maten. Maten led the league in scoring and ranked second in rebounds. In two one-on-one match ups, he outscored and out rebounded Williams, twice fouling Williams out.
Just win
The AP did its part to correct the injustice, naming Maten the SEC Player of the Year later in the day. But the message is clear. Winning counts, that’s all that really counts, and Georgia just didn’t win enough for league coaches to name the conference’s most dominant player the SEC Player of the Year.
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Why did the Dawgs fail to win despite the best player in the SEC suiting up in red and black? Georgia’s guards simply performed poorly in every measurable way.
That Georgia stayed in the NCAA Tourney hunt until the last week of the regular season is a testament to the Bulldog’s toughness and to Georgia head coach Mark Fox’s ability to squeeze every bit of production possible out of backcourt match-ups and defense.
Assist
Georgia placed one player in the top 30 of the SEC in assists, Will Jackson. Tennessee and Ole Miss placed four guards in the top 30 in assists, Arkansas and Alabama placed three, every other team aside from South Carolina placed two. Georgia’s second and third leader’s in assists were forwards Yante Maten and Rayshaun Hammonds.
Three-point woes
Georgia’s most accurate three-point shooter was Juwan Parker. Parker ranked only 27 in the SEC in three-point percentage with a 36.2 percent rate a of success. Tennessee placed four ahead of Parker in three-point shooting percentage. Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, and Missouri placed three ahead of Parker. LSU, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt placed two. Only Ole Miss failed to place a shooter ahead of Parker in three-point percentage.
Despite being the best Bulldog three-point shooter, Parker’s 69 three-point attempt season total was outside the SEC top 45. Tyree Crump was the next Bulldog ranked in percentage, and shot 35.1 percent to rank 33 in the SEC.
Ball managing issues
Seven SEC teams ranked nationally in the top 100 in assist-to-turn over ratio, nine in the top 200. Eleven SEC teams ranked higher than Georgia’s number 229 rank.
More damaging was the Georgia guard’s inability to penetrate on offense and prevent penetration on defense. Once the Dawgs began SEC play, opponents consistently took advantage of this Georgia weakness.
Mistaken by most for the cause, the symptoms leading to the 2018 Georgia basketball demise were apparent in January. No Bulldog guard combination played well enough to claim consistent playing time. In the shot clock era of college basketball, no one wins without consistent guard play.
Next: What does Georgia do with an honest coach?
The autopsy report for Georgia’s season is short – poor guard play brought on by inability to recruit elite backcourt talent. It was too much for Yante Maten and his talented front court mates to overcome.