Friday’s teleconference on the Georgia basketball team’s ride to Columbia featured a “guest reporter,” and he had a question for Bulldog standout Yante Maten.

“Hi, this is J.J. Frazier,” the Bulldog point guard said. “How does it feel to be on the national finalists (list) for centers?”

After a few laughs – Maten – who Friday was named one of the 10 finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which goes to the nation’s top center, finally had a response.

“I just try to play my game every day,” Maten said. “God’s just been blessing me … Thanks, J.J.”

While Maten certainly figures to be in the running for any number of post-season awards, the fact that he doesn’t play center certainly raised a few eyebrows.

“I consider myself a basketball player, let’s just put it like that,” said Maten, who averages 19.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. “Wherever they want to try to [slot] my game in, that’s really up to them. I just play basketball how I played basketball.”

Maten and the Bulldogs take on the Gamecocks Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN2) before returning home against Florida on Tuesday.

Other finalists for the Abdul-Jabbar Award include Ethan Happ of Wisconsin, Pryzemek Karnowski of Gonzaga, Eric Mike of Brigham Young, Taco Fall of Central Florida, Justin Patton of Creighton, Tim Kempton of Lehigh, Jock Landale of Saint Mary’s, Thomas Welch of UCLA and Josh Hawkinson of Washington State.

Maten still feels he has plenty of improving to do.

“I’m trying to get better like every basketball player,” Maten said. “Dribbling, shooting, being more efficient from the field, getting more rebounds, my main focus right now is playing better defense. I’m just trying to get better overall.”