Def Pen’s 2019 college basketball preview continues. Our team voted Florida to the #10 spot in our preseason rankings and for good reason. Mike White has been turning Florida basketball into his own program after taking over for Billy Donovan when the former Gators coach took off for Oklahoma City and the NBA. The Gators finished poorly in the SEC last season, but this season there is a ton of hype around college hoops in Gainesville. They took in the 8th ranked recruiting class for the 2019 recruiting cycle and bring back enough veteran players to get excited about.

The biggest question for Mike White in his fifth season at the helm of the Florida Gators hoops program has to be, will he breakthrough and start to show consistency not only in SEC regular-season play but in postseason play as well, or will this be a season that stands out as an outlier that Coach White won’t be able to recreate? I think it is more likely the former than the latter, but let’s break this Gators team down.

Key Returners

• Noah Locke
• Keyontae Johnson
• Andrew Nembhard

The Florida Gators are returning their second-leading scorer from last season in Noah Locke. A season ago the guard averaged 9.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per contest while shooting 37.9% from deep. Having a sure scoring threat coming back to the roster this season has to be comforting to the Florida coaching staff. They also return forward Keyontae Johnson who is coming off a season where he put up 8.1 points, 6.4 rebounds (team-leading), and 1.1 steals while shooting 36.5% from three. There is no reason why Johnson shouldn’t be just as productive this season and should be expected to anchor this Gators team down low with a special addition that Florida added this offseason.

Andrew Nembhard is a guard that is tough-nosed and willing to do whatever he needs to in order to get a win for his team. This is the “glue guy” for me when I look at this Florida roster. Averages of 8.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists (team-leading), 1.2 steals, and the best field goal percentage of any guard from last season’s roster of 41.4% show that he is ready for whatever the game throws at him. Not only is he prepared to hustle on defense, rebounds, finding the open man, but he is productive doing so. He only averaged 2.1 turnovers last season while being a primary ball-handler, and played the most minutes per game of any Gator last season, 32.9 minutes. The leadership he is going to be able to bring to this team and the guidance he is going to be able to bestow on some of the newcomers is invaluable to Florida’s success this year.

Key Losses

• • KeVaughn Allen
  • Jalen Hudson
  • Kevarrius Hayes

Florida did not finish the season with a great record overall, 20-16 (9-9), but managed to win a game in the NCAA Tournament. They lost a lot of talent and production from last season’s team and if they had just one of these guys back, they would be considered a top-5 team in the preseason. KeVaughn Allen was the leading scorer a year ago, he’s gone. Jalen Hudson was the third-leading scorer on the team and played 22.5 minutes per contest last season. Kevarrius Hayes averaged 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds while making 67.3% of his shots from the field. The big man’s production will more than likely be replaced with Keyontae Johnson’s increased role, plus the big-time transfer they landed over the summer, which we’ll talk about next. Overall, you wish you could have kept one of these guys, preferably Allen or Hudson, but you don’t really need them to be a great team.

Key Newcomers

• Scottie Lewis
• Tre Mann
• Kerry Blackshear Jr.

This trio is going to shake the SEC up this season. Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann are incoming freshmen, the stars of the 8th ranked recruiting class for Florida. Lewis is expected to be a one-and-done talent who will more than make up for the loss of Allen and Hudson, and Mann makes up for the other guard no longer with the team. There is an excitement around Lewis that is almost unprecedented in Florida basketball history, with the exception of Bradley Beal. He is going to be a first or second-team All-SEC candidate and is a type of player that changes the game for a team. While Mann is not as hyped, he is still a top-21 freshman and will be a huge help this season.

Now, let’s get into the big fish that Mike White was able to pull in. Big man Kerry Blackshear Jr., comes to Florida after graduating from Virginia Tech last year. He turned down Kentucky and his old coach at Tech, Buzz Williams at his new gig at Texas A&M among other teams. At 6’10”, 241lbs., Blackshear is a big body who knows how to score and produce for his team. He averaged 14.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists all while playing in the ACC. After leading the Hokies to a Sweet 16 appearance, Blackshear Jr. is ready to make a much deeper run into the tournament before pursuing his NBA dreams. For those who may not understand how important Blackshear Jr. is for Florida, he’s an SEC Player of the Year type player, and will make teams frustrated they didn’t get a commitment from him this summer.

Mike White believes Kerry Blackshear Jr. will have a major impact on Florida this season.@MikeWhiteUF joins @TheAndyKatz on the March Madness 365 podcast to talk all things @GatorsMBK!
? https://t.co/oaKr2rNhdh pic.twitter.com/awxYRb1DAR

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) July 2, 2019

Projected Starting Lineup

1. Scottie Lewis
2. Tre Mann
3. Andrew Nembhard
4. Keyontae Johnson
5. Kerry Blackshear Jr.

Season Outlook

Record Prediction: 27-4 (14-4)

Florida is going to be a completely different team this season. After falling flat last year, bringing in a great crop of freshmen, and getting Blackshear Jr. to come to Gainesville, they will blow last season’s performance out of the water. They really shouldn’t struggle too much in the out of conference portion of the schedule, but they do play Utah State on a neutral floor and play Baylor as part of the Big12/SEC Challenge. Overall, I think they go undefeated before conference play starts, and the tough SEC schedule will hand them a few losses here and there. The Gators play LSU twice, Kentucky twice, at Tennessee, and against Auburn. They also play against Anthony Edwards and Georgia twice this season, which won’t necessarily be easy games. Florida will be knocked around a little bit, but not too much as they head into the post-season vying to make the first Final Four of Mike White’s career and their first Final Four as a program since 2014.

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