New outlook lifts Leslie’s game

ATHENS — Before the season, Georgia head coach Mark Fox talked about finding ways of marking improvement for his team that didn’t necessarily show up in the standings. If one of those measures was creating some much-needed buzz surrounding the beleaguered Bulldogs, he can offer Travis Leslie a big pat on the back for a mission accomplished.

Georgia has had a few big wins to celebrate this season, but at 9-10 overall and just 1-5 in the SEC, the turnaround from years of mediocrity is hardly complete. And yet, the Bulldogs have been fixtures this season on postgame highlight packages on the local news and national outlets like ESPN, and much of the excitement has surrounded Leslie, the Bulldogs’ master of the dunk.

“A lot of places I go, people notice me,” said Leslie, who will be starting for Georgia when it hosts Arkansas tonight at Stegeman Coliseum. “When I’m walking around campus, people say, ‘Good game or good dunk.’ I’m getting a lot of followers on Facebook and getting a lot of friend requests.”

There was a brilliant alley-oop against Georgia Tech. There was a stunning slam over DeMarcus Cousins against Kentucky. There was an impressive reverse jam against Tennessee. All were highlight worthy. All were YouTube sensations. And it’s all just the tip of the iceberg, Leslie said.

“I’ve got a lot up my sleeve,” he said.

Of course, the beauty of Leslie’s game this season hasn’t simply been his highlights. It has been his consistency.

Leslie ranks 16th in the SEC in scoring, averaging 14.2 points per game, and is seventh in the conference in field goal percentage, connecting on 50.5 percent of his shots. He’s chipping in on the boards to the tune of 6.6 rebounds per game, good for 13th in the SEC. He has 2.6 assists per game and connected on nearly 76 percent of his free throws, and after failing to score a point in the Bulldogs’ opening game, Leslie has scored in double figures in 17 of 18 games since.

“I know when we came, he had a reputation of being a great athlete,” Fox said. “We wanted him not to be a great athlete who played basketball. We wanted him to be a basketball player who was also a great athlete. So we’ve worked hard on his fundamentals, and he’s continued to improve on it. There’s still a lot of growth in him.”

That’s a big change for a player who struggled to find consistency — and maturity — in his first season with the Bulldogs.

Last year, Leslie was playing just 14 minutes a game and his productivity varied wildly. The talent was there, but it was unfinished. Leslie was filled with untapped potential.

“I guess I want it more this year,” Leslie said. “Last year, I knew I had seniors playing over me, so all I could do was bring whatever I had to do to the table. This year I knew I had to step up. During the offseason, I was working on my game, and I’m just playing for the moment.”

The new approach hasn’t been simply limited to the basketball court either.

Leslie’s freshman campaign last year was cut short because of academic difficulties, and he left the team late in the season to concentrate on his work in the classroom.

Being away from his teammates and watching the Bulldogs slump to a last-place finish was difficult, and he was helpless to do anything about it.

It wasn’t a feeling Leslie liked.

“It was a hard feeling, and I just don’t want to do that again,” he said. “School-wise, I’m doing much better at doing what I need to do so I won’t be in that position again. Basketball, I’ve just been working on my game a lot so I can do whatever I can to help the team out.”

Fox wasn’t around last season. It wasn’t his decision for Leslie to take the leave of absence, but it has been Fox’s goal to ensure Leslie is prepared for what life has in store going forward. And on that front, the highlights are hardly limited to a few impressive dunks.

“Travis has matured in a lot of ways. He’s a young guy who, like many of us at that age, had to do some maturing. He’s doing really well,” Fox said. “He knows he can get better and places he can improve, but he’s a young guy who’s playing with a lot of confidence right now, and that’s good.”

The scary part, Fox said, is that while the improvement has been dramatic, it’s just a fraction of how far Leslie could go. Just like with those highlight-reel dunks, there’s so much more still to come.

Oh, and about those dunks, there is one Leslie has been working on that he desperately wants to try out during a game. But in yet another sign of maturity, he’s been holding back, with a nod toward those lessons he learned the hard way.

“Between the legs,” Leslie said of his dream dunk. “It’s kind of easy, but if I miss, Coach might be upset.”