Mike White has never had a player drafted but that will change at this summer’s NBA Draft as Tre Mann is certain to get his name called, likely in the first round.
Florida’s hometown hero from The Villages nearby brought the Gators a scoring punch they haven’t seen in a number of seasons. As soon as he crossed half court he was a threat to defenses who had to respect his range, and if they crowded him too much he was able to blow by them before getting into the paint for acrobatic finishes.
Finishing the season on a tear that saw him play his best basketball of the season down the stretch and in postseason play, Mann ended up avering 16 points, 3.5 assists, and 5.6 rebounds while hitting 40% of his threes. Those raw numbers are impressive, but they don’t tell the whole story. Here are what some advanced numbers have to say about Mann’s impact on Florida and what the Gators will be missing now that he’s gone.
For starters, let’s look at his impact in being on the floor. Overall, Mann was a +122 on the season. Looking at it, that number might not mean a lot. For context, Scottie Lewis was second in that category…at +51. Mann being so far ahead of any of his teammates in raw plus/minus speaks to just how big an impact he had when he was on the floor. You also see his impact with net rating.
Florida has a +8 net rating with Mann on the floor, and a -1 net rating with him off the floor. Not only was his +8 net rating the highest on the Gators, but the +9 on/off differential also led the team.
Mann also led the Gators in box plus minus (value over replacement player) at 7.0 and win shares with 3.3. Whatever your advanced number of choice is, Mann led the way.
As you would know from watching the Gators last year, they loved to use the pick and roll. In fact, they were one of the most pick and roll reliant teams in the country last season as just over one third of their shots were results of them running pick and rolls. This is the first area where the Gators are definitely going to miss Mann.
Between the threat of his pull up, the quick first step, and the ability to rapidly get in and out of dribble moves, Mann is perfectly built for operating in pick and rolls and this was an area he thrived in. Mann pick and rolls netted the Gators 1.1 points per possession last season, making Mann the tenth best pick and roll guard in the high major ranks, though he had over triple the amount of possessions of the names ahead of him. It was Mann’s excellence at these plays that resulted in Florida going to the pick and roll so often, and missing Mann could instantly force them to reevaluate their offense.
Mann’s most NBA-ready skill and the one that he will probably be remembered for in his time at Florida is his ability to shoot off the dribble. This is a premium skill that only a few guards in the college ranks can do at a high level and Mann is one of those players. He hit threes off the dribble at a 41% clip, one of the best marks in the country. The national average for threes off the dribble was 32% last season, so you can see just how much better Mann is from the average guard. Of course, thinking of Mann’s skill in this area will conjure up images of some huge step back threes from him this season, perhaps most notably the dagger he hit in the NCAA Tournament against Virginia Tech. Mann was always ready to bail the Gators out of a bad offensive possession with his pure shot making ability and now Florida will have to figure out who can next take on that role of big time shot maker.
Throughout his career Mann has been known as a scorer and that has made his defense actually go fairly underrated. At the start of the season the Gators thought someone like Scottie Lewis was going to be able to take on opposing teams’ best perimeter player, but by the middle of the season it was Mann who started to take on a lot of those assignments. Despite the fact that he was shouldering a huge part of the offensive load on the other end, Mann always ran back on defense, got down in a stance, and battled with some of the SEC’s best scorers.
Mann wasn’t just a willing defender–he was a productive one.
With Mann as the primary defender, opponents shot only 28.4% from the field (0.67 PPP). That number is incredibly impressive, and it’s made even more special when you think of the quality of competition and the high level scorers Mann was often guarding.
His length and athleticism allowed him to navigate screens with dexterity and he was tall enough to deter bigs from trying to challenge him on the block in switches. Overall, teams were at 28.6% from the field against Mann in pick and roll, making Mann one of the top pick and roll defensive guards in the country.
Mann also had impressive defensive numbers in isolation (25% FG), around the basket (28.9%), and in catch and shoot closeouts (29.3%) making him a productive defender all around the floor.
Sure, Mann’s offense might be the first thing you think of regarding Florida having to replace him, but his defense shouldn’t go overlooked. He had a size, length, and athleticism advantage over most players he went against and that advantage the Gators had will almost certainly be gone next season.
Lastly, the Gators will have to replace their second leading rebounder. Before the season Mike White implored his guards to help on the defensive glass and Mann did just that becoming the team’s second leading rebounder in terms of total rebounds and first in defensive rebounds. What made Mann’s rebounding so important was that whenever he took the ball off the rim the Gators had an opportunity to play fast. Florida was at a miraculous 1.4 points per possession when Mann ran fast breaks, so the Gators were lethal whenever he got a defensive rebound and could accelerate the pace. Will Florida have another guard who can do the same in 2021-22? Probably not.
Any time a team loses a first round pick they have a lot of work to do and that’s the situation Florida finds themselves in. Whether it was offense, defense, or rebounding Tre Mann had his fingerprints on just about everything and when he’s gone people might just realize just how special a player he was.