Three Georgia upperclassmen will play their final regular-season home game Wednesday night, and all three could well play a role in just how many more games the Bulldogs will play this season.
Two seniors – Yante Maten and Pape Diatta – and one graduate student – Juwan Parker, the only men’s basketball player in Division I with a master’s degree – will be honored before the 8:30 p.m. SEC tip against Texas A&M, and it’s likely to be quite an poignant occasion.
“In this endeavor, these guys come in as young teenagers and they leave as grown men, and to walk that journey with somebody is an incredible journey, so there’s a lot of emotion involved,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “They’ve been terrific young people and big parts of our team. Each had to deal with their share of adversity, and we’ll have some emotions across the table … because they’ve been really good kids.”
With that being said, there’s still a lot on the table for the Bulldogs in this must-win situation, so packing those emotions away at game time will be critical.
“Every kid reacts differently,” Fox said. “Some guys are so emotional on senior day they can’t play well and you have to lean on the underclassmen to get things done. We’ll see how these guys react. But everyone’s going to be somewhat emotional because there’s a lot of love within our team for these guys, and so we have to manage that and it will be important to manage it appropriately.”
Maten and Parker have been mainstays throughout the season and are the only two Bulldogs to have been on an NCAA tournament team (in 2015). Both assented there have been some long days in the process – especially for Parker, who has come back from two Achilles surgeries – but the years themselves have moved rather rapidly.
“It went by really fast,” said Maten, who leads the SEC in scoring with 19.5 points per game. “Just me being here at this point is unbelievable to me because it felt like Nemi (Djurisic) and Marcus (Thornton) were just teaching me how to conduct myself on and off the court. And I’m trying to do the same thing for these young guys – just trying to pass the torch along.”
“It’s hard to believe, man,” said Parker, averaging 8.8 points per game. “I was talking to somebody about freshman year, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Hanging out with J.J. (Frazier) and Marcus and Nemi. It’s hard to believe they’ve been gone three years. ... It flies by, it definitely flies by.”
Although Diatta – a native of Senegal who came to Athens two years ago via the College of Southern Idaho -- has played only sparingly this season because of injury, he did record a 12-point night against Mississippi State earlier this season and had seen time in the Bulldogs’ past six games before not playing in Saturday’s victory over LSU.
He concurs with his colleagues that the time has passed too quickly.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “These two years have flown by super-fast.”
The Bulldogs (16-12, 7-9 SEC) are in the same situation as the Aggies (18-11, 7-9) in that they have to keep winning to have any shot at a postseason berth. Texas A&M began conference play with five consecutive losses, but won four in a row in February (including back-to-back upsets of Kentucky and Auburn) and are coming off a 89-81 victory Saturday at Auburn.
The Aggies are one of the few conference teams that may display more size than Georgia, with 6-foot-10 Robert Williams (10.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg) and 6-10 Tyler Davis (14.6 ppg, 8.8 rpg) leading the SEC in rebounding. Throw in 6-9 forward D.J. Hogg (11.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and a backcourt of Admon Gilder and T.J. Starks, who combine for 22 points and six rebounds per game, and a long night could be in store.
“Their size is tremendous,” Fox said. “Even Hogg at small forward is 6-9. So their front line is terrific. They have been a group that has had some spectacular plays on film, and so that matchup is going to be critical. (Williams and Davis are) the two best rebounders in the league, so we’ve got to find a way to keep those two guys off the backboards. Our front line is going to need to play well, for sure.”
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