University of Georgia Athletics
Big Holes To Fill In The Paint
October 27, 2015 | Men's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Among the biggest challenges facing the Georgia men's basketball team this season is replacing the Bulldogs' production in the paint from last season. Gone is the prolific pairing of Marcus Thornton and Nemanja Djurisic, whose leadership as the squad's seniors was as valuable as their combined 23.3 points and 12.5 rebounds a game.
Either Thornton or Djurisic led the Bulldogs in scoring last season in 17 of 33 games, and one of the two was the leading rebounder 22 times.
"Losing Marcus and 'Neme,' it hurts," said 6-foot-8 redshirt junior forward Houston Kessler, one of the players expected to have a much bigger role this season. "The team last year had a determination and toughness about it and I do think we're going to have that again this year."
Thornton and Djurisic brought a lot of that toughness to the lineup during the Dogs' 21-12 run last season. Coach Mark Fox said "those guys led us to victories," both with their play and leadership. New leaders, starting with senior guards Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines, will have to emerge, and so far Fox has liked what he's seen.
Leadership is an all-the-time thing, whether it's in practice, study halls or anywhere else Bulldogs are together. Finding two new starters and some quality backups at the forward positions, that happens in practice.
Fox has said a couple of times during the preseason that 6-8 sophomore Yante Maten and Kessler are ahead of everyone else.
"Obviously with their experience, things are easier for them now than the new guys up front," Fox said during Georgia's media day last week. "But the message has been, really, just keep getting better every day. If they'll do that then I think, through the group, hopefully we can replace that scoring and rebounding."
Maten played in 32 games last season, starting two. For the season he averaged 5.0 points and 4.3 rebounds a game, playing an average of 18.2 minutes a contest, and his 45 blocked shots was 10 more than any other Bulldog and the seventh-best total in the SEC.
Maten showed multiple flashes last season of the impactful player he can be. Consider just his two games against Kentucky, which went through the regular season undefeated: in two very competitive games against the Wildcats, Maten had a combined 21 points and 16 rebounds.
Fox said he thinks Maten "is ready to take the next step in terms of his production and that's going to be important to us." Maten's numbers should go up merely by playing a much bigger role, but there's more than that. Maten has worked hard to get fitter and stronger since last season, as well as worked on his game, so he should be a better player playing more minutes for the Dogs.
"We had good posts last year, we had good guard play and we had good chemistry last year," Maten said. "I think that's definitely re-doable. ... If we all come to play, I think we'll be perfectly fine.
Kessler averaged 6.2 minutes a game in 29 appearances last season. Nine of his 26 field-attempts last season were 3-pointers and he said he's worked hard to improve his outside shot.
"I've just continued to work on the things that I do well, like shooting from the perimeter," he said. "I'm going to crash the glass as best I can and do my defensive assignments as best I can."
Eight of the 14 players on Georgia's roster are listed as forwards. Four of those eight are freshmen. "I definitely think we're going to have some good depth in the post," Kessler said. Well if nothing else, this season's squad will have a lot of bodies to choose from.
Among those bodies is a big one, 6-8 freshman Derek Ogbeide, who is listed at 250 pounds. The young man fills out a uniform, and a sweatsuit and anything else you put on him. Thanks to Georgia's strength program, Ogbeide — born in Nigeria and a former resident up multiple countries on multiple continents — has put on at least 10 pounds of muscle since the start of summer workouts.
"When I got here I was actually around 240 or 245, then during summertime I escalated to about 260 and then I declined back, once we started back going full-time on the court, to about 250," Ogbeide said. "That's a good weight for me because I can move and I still have some good strength."
From a physical standpoint Fox likes what he sees in his forwards: "We're bigger and more athletic up front — we're just younger." The challenge in the days and weeks ahead, as the season opener against Chattanooga on Nov. 13 approaches, is developing the largely young and inexperienced group.
"It's like a wild colt, you've got to get them trained," Fox said. "And right now they're making mistakes out of aggressiveness, which is OK. They're going to make mistakes and we're trying to create lots of possessions and lots of experiences right now in practice so they can make some of those errors."
Before the Bulldogs open their season against the Mocs, they will play an exhibition game against Armstrong Atlantic on Nov. 6.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: http://www.georgiadogs.com/ot/frierson-files.html. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
