Georgia basketball player Yante Maten suffered a concussion when he was struck by a car Sunday night and will be out indefinitely, coach Mark Fox said.
The 6-foot-8 freshman forward was using a pedestrian cross walk on Carlton Street near Aderhold Hall when he was hit. According to Fox, Maten would have been much more seriously injured had he not jumped seconds before impact. As it was, he was thrown up into the air into the car’s windshield and suffered minor facial lacerations. Fox said Maten also has some bruising and soreness in his legs, but otherwise escaped serious injury.
“We’re just thankful that it’s not worse,” Fox said. “He was able to jump before the car hit him, so instead of having broken legs and run over, he went up and shattered the windshield. He’s got an obvious injury, an abrasion, on his head. So we’re thankful he’s OK.”
The driver was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, according to UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson, but Yaten declined to pursue any other charges. Both parties were treated at the scene by emergenecy medical technicians but refused to be taken to the hospital.
Fox said Maten’s return will be determined by UGA’s medical staff using concussion protocol. At the very least, he will miss Wednesday’s game at Vanderbilt (11-4, 1-1 SEC). Maten, a reserve forward from Pontiac, Mich., has played in all 14 games this season, averaging 4.9 points and 3.6 rebounds, with a team-high 26 blocks. He played a season-high 28 minutes Saturday at LSU.
The Bulldogs (9-5, 0-2) head to Nashville with three other players injured at least one definitely out for the game. Sophomore forward Kenny Paul Geno is out for several weeks with a fractured wrist. Meanwhile, a game-time decision will be made on starting wing Juwan Parker, who left the LSU game this past Saturday with an Achilles tendon injury. Parker has not practiced the past two days. Freshman Brandon Young, who has not played in game this season, had to be taken to the hospital on Monday after suffering a gash above the eye but is available if needed.
With his roster depleted, Fox has had to utilize assistant coaches Jonas Hayes and Yasir Rosemond in practice. He said he talked to football coach Mark Richt about possibly activating a couple of his players — tight ends Joseph Ledbetter and Jay Rome both have played college ball — but was unable to get them certified in time.
“Our concern is having enough guys to practice and play five-on-five and having guys in proper positions and that kind of thing,” Fox said. “We tried to get a student manager certified, which we were unable to do. I talked to Coach Richt about using a couple of his guys. We’ve just had a quick blast of injuries and it came at an unfortunate time.”
