Georgia's Yante Maten taking leadership role in just his second season

ATHENS -- Yante Maten has gone from pupil to mentor.

As a freshman a year ago, Maten was learning the college game under big men Nemanja Djurisic and Marcus Thornton, who have since graduated. With Georgia's leadership in the post gone, Maten has had to quickly step into that void.

Maten did see plenty of time on the court a year ago at 18.2 minutes per game. Those minutes will certainly rise as a sophomore, with Maten asserting himself as Georgia's go-to player down low.

"It's a role I try to reciprocate," Maten said. "Nemi and Marcus did a good job helping me along last year, telling me key things. I'm trying to do the same with all those little nuggets they gave me."

Maten averaged 5.0 points per game and shot 41.6 percent from the floor as a freshman. During preseason practices, Maten has been one of Georgia's top scorers. His potential first showed at a secret scrimmage a year ago against N.C. State in Charlotte, when Maten hit three free throws to win in overtime.

But Maten has had to mature faster than most sophomores, head coach Mark Fox said. A year ago, there was a learning curve for the former 2014 Gatorade Player of the Year in Michigan. Now, Maten essentially has had to transition from newcomer to veteran.

"I think Yante was probably much more mature than most freshmen, just in the way he approaches life," Fox said. "He's obviously in a better place than most sophomores would be."

Maten's taken it upon himself to speed up the development of freshman post players Derek Ogbeide and Mike Edwards.

Ogbeide said the on-court chemistry between the two was apparent quite early, with Maten helping smooth the transition from high school to college ball.

"He definitely taught me a lot of the ropes," Ogbeide said. "We don't have any senior bigs. He's the only one who came directly before me, and he's a grade above me. He's seen it all before -- he's seen it in live action, and he's seen it in practice. He definitely helped me get through a lot of things that were not in favor at times."

Assisting Maten as a post-player leader is junior Houston Kessler, who started Georgia's exhibition game against Armstrong Atlantic. Kessler said the productivity Maten was able to provide a year ago off the bench helped give him the needed experience for this year's new role.

"He got a lot of minutes last year too," Kessler said. "He probably grew up a lot quicker than most players do. I think this year he's really taken a whole other level of leadership."

Maten has had to teach others and work on his own game simultaneously this preseason. Last year's focus was on adjusting to the college game, and now he's had to balance improving his own performance with the added leadership role. Of course, there were some areas Maten knew he needed to work on, which he addressed this offseason.

"I think I polished up a lot of things, mostly my hook shots and how to finish over people," Maten said. "Last year, I often tried to get past people, and you can't really do that in the SEC."

Fox commended Maten's maturation process and said it's a product of the environment he grew up in. When Fox recruited Maten 765 miles away from Athens, he quickly realized he was getting a well-rounded player with the kind of approach suited for his program.

"Stability is important," Fox said. "Someone who can function on this campus within our team and also have the talent to win -- you have to check all those boxes. That's why the transfer rate is so high. That's something we evaluate. Yante comes from a great home. He's a lot further along than most sophomores would be."

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Georgia's Yante Maten taking leadership role in just his second season ."