What Tre Mann Brought To The Gators As A Freshman

When it comes to projecting Florida’s 2020-21 season one of the swing points will be combo guard Tre Mann.

Early in last season Mann had the opportunity to start some games but after the combination with him and Andrew Nembhard in the backcourt in the dribble drive offense the team was trying to play didn’t work he was sent to the bench. A nasty concussion was another huge blow to his opportunity to compete to his best ability. Ques Glover appeared to have Coach White’s favor as backup point guard and that left Mann out of the regular mix.

Then, slowly but surely, Mann worked his way back into a regular role. More shots started to fall, he played more confidently with the ball in his hands, and his understanding of the defensive scheme started yielding positive results. Soon he was the first player called from the reserves to spell a starter and he started playing big minutes at the end of the season.

Mann is an early entrant to the NBA Draft but the consensus seems to be that he’ll be back for his sophomore year with the Gators. If that is the case, what can the Gators expect from the former 5-star? Let’s get into it.

Defense

Out of high school Mann was known as a scorer and in his first couple games in orange and blue there seemed to be some discomfort on the defensive end. However, he didn’t settle for below-average when it came to defense and from the Baylor game onward it seemed he was improving every single game.

Here’s a stat that might surprise you—Mann had the best defensive field goal percentage on the team, only allowing 31.6% and 0.75 points per possession when his man made an attempt to score.

Is there some luck involved in that stat? Probably. Does it also speak to the fact he played underrated and, dare I say, stellar defense for most of the season? I think so.

This started with the toughness he showed when getting around ball screens. In modern basketball playing a guard spot means that you need to be able to guard ball screens and while Mann was lost in those coverages early (something that was also a product of lackluster defense from Kerry Blackshear Jr. at time) he improved greatly. By the end of the season he was gliding around screens defensively, pressuring the ball in typical Mike White fashion and steering the ball handler towards help. Ultimately Mann gave up only 28% when guarding through a screen, a miraculous number that speaks to the effort he showed on these sets where a lot of players give up or shy away from contact.

Another underrated element of Mann’s game is his length, something that was put on display when it was time to close out to a shooter.

Florida’s defense is all about preventing threes and at the core of that style of defense is responsible, under control closeouts the hinder shooters but doesn’t allow the chance for a drive. Mann’s quick feet allowed him to execute quality closeouts and his length bothered offensive players. When Mann closed out to a shooter they shot only 19%, a number that might have a bit of fortune in Mann’s favor but also speaks to his length and fundamentally sound closeouts.

His ability to work around screens and demonstrate proper closeouts regularly was impressive but there was another element of his game that was actually the most impressive, and that was his proficiency as a help side defender.

Because Florida wants to eliminate as many three-point opportunities as possible there are going to be times they give up drives and when that happens they are reliant on help defenders to clean up the mess. In past seasons that was often Kevarrius Hayes sprinting back to the hoop to block a shot but without that presence any more the Gators were reliant on perimeter players to slide over from the weak side to meet drivers.

By the end of the season, Mann was doing this better than anyone.

This is impressive because for a defender it’s incredibly difficult to know exactly when to leave their check to sprint to the opposite side of the floor to protect the paint but Mann developed tremendous anticipation. Whether it be a big man rolling off a screen, a talented guard beating someone one-on-one, or an athletic wing catching the ball downhill off a curl Mann seemed to have the innate sense of when to rotate over to help. This allowed him to have some huge defensive stands when it seemed like the Gators were certain to give up a layup. It also was a chance for Mann to show his toughness and his willingness to sacrifice for the team as he took the second most charges on the roster behind Dontay Bassett.

On plays where Mann was the help defender rotating over to protect the rim opponents shot only 39.1%.

The national average on these shots is a shade over 51%, so it speaks to how effective of a help defender Mann was.

Offense

Over and over again in high school Mann showed his bucket-getting ability, but sadly it never fully seemed to translate into his freshman season at Florida. Even though he had some rough moments offensively there are some indicators he’s going to turn things around and that we’ll get to see the scoring prowess that made him such a highly rated recruit out of high school.

First off, let’s talk about his shooting. Hitting only 28% of his threes the jump shot was certainly a bit of a concern. In the past I had defended him by pointing out that in high school he was primarily playing with the ball in his hands and at Florida he was playing a catch and shoot role, but even though he was taken a bit out of his comfort zone you would have loved to have seen him hit more open jumpers.

When digging into his game a bit more I found out something rather interesting—he has a good side and a bad side of the floor when it comes to catch and shoot attempts. You see, when shooting straight on threes, he went 0%, only taking five threes from that area all year (that is of course where the point guard normally plays and that was normally Nembhard when Mann was on the floor).

From the right side of the floor Mann shot 20% from three. Not great.

However, from the left side of the floor, Mann shot 42% from three.

Most shooters have a side of the floor they prefer slightly but in Mann’s case the difference is massive. Many people were discouraged by Mann’s 28% three-point stroke but his 42% from the left side of the floor shows that he is more than capable of hitting shots, he just needs to bring that left side shot making to the entire three-point line.

Perhaps the biggest indicator that Mann is ready for an offensive leap is his shooting off the dribble. Shooting off the dribble has long been a stat used by NBA scouts to predict future success as it’s much more difficult to shoot off the dribble than off the catch and if a player can hit shots off the bounce it’s likely they’ll develop the shooting off the catch.

If you believe in that logic, you should be expecting Mann to really improve his shooting next season.

Mann shot 36.2% off the dribble last year putting him in the 74th percentile nationally, and it’s worth noting he had a lot more attempts than most of the names ahead of him. He was particularly deadly in the 12-17 foot midrange area where he hit 55% of his attempts making it a supremely efficient shot—something that isn’t normally the case with midrange shooting.

The ability to shoot off the bounce is a premium skill that requires a sound base and precise touch and Mann’s skill in that area suggests his overall shooting is going to get a lot better next season. He’s already well advanced in the difficult shots off the dribble and if he follows in the progression of most guards who can hit shots off the bounce, catch and shoot won’t be a problem for him next season.

Final Thoughts

What if all this time we were looking at Tre Mann all wrong?

That might be overly dramatic, but let me get to the point I want to make.

Out of high school Mann had the reputation of a scorer and for that reason his season was viewed through that lens, and because he didn’t always fill it up people seemed to be a bit down on his game.

However, what if we took preconceived notions completely out of the equation and just looked at his season—how he played, what he accomplished, and what the film can tell us.

Mann wasn’t a scorer…he was a defensive stopper.

Truthfully it seemed like Mann had a bit of a branding problem, and it seemed like fans as well as broadcasters wanted him to be a scorer and when he didn’t score they were disappointed, but unfortunately that disappointment made them miss the fact that he was a stout defender who positively impacted winning on that side of the floor. Whenever he was discussed on a broadcast the talk always seemed to be about his scoring woes and not the fact that he was coming off the bench, hounding his man, and then rotating over to take a key charge.

If you viewed Mann through the lens of a microwave scorer, then yeah, you were disappointed last year. But if you looked at him as a defensive stopper who occasionally shook off a defender with a nasty dribble combination before hitting a jumper, you’d be incredibly satisfied. Not to mention the fact that his defensive rebounding percentage was highest among Florida’s guards (yes, even higher than Scottie Lewis’) which points to how he contributed in ways that weren’t always easily apparent.

Even though I have praised Mann as a defender I know he aspires to be more than that and some of the offensive statistics point to a player that’s far more capable of scoring than what he showed. Looking through the film of his possessions this season there were glimpses of pure magic—him splitting pick and rolls with a behind the back dribble, using inside out dribbles make defenders stumble, falling away on a deep three to beat the clock…there is a lot to like about his offensive game.

I’m expecting a leap offensively, as I’m sure many of you are expecting too. That leap is likely to come, but while the focus on him as an offensive player continues, don’t let that take away from what he does on the defensive end.