As the Florida Gators continue to fill out the last spots on their men’s basketball roster, most of their additions could be seen from a mile away. That wasn’t the case for guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who announced on Monday afternoon his decision to play for the Gators next season. Florida wasn’t believed to be on his initial list of finalists, but made a last-second push and ended up landing the commitment.
An unranked recruit who committed to play ball at Charleston Southern a full two years before his enrollment, it would be hard to fault even the most dedicated Gators fan for not knowing Fleming Jr. He’s had a successful run with the Buccaneers, finding immediate success with the team and becoming the beating heart of their offense in his junior year.
Despite his relatively incognito status on the national scene, let’s get one thing straight – Fleming Jr. was a wrecking ball in the Big South last season.
He played on a horrendous 3-18 team that finished 11th in the conference, but there was rarely a game in which he wasn’t the standout. Averaging over 20 points and seven rebounds per game, his final game with Charleston Southern put a triumphant 35 point, 11 rebound exclamation point on his three-year career with the school.
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Those big numbers were produced by the combination of his immense usage by the Bucs coaching staff and the level of competition he was surrounded by in the Big South. By the time his last season rolled around, he was taking over a third of the team’s shots in the minutes that he played. There’s also not a lot that defenses in the conference he was playing in could do about a do-it-all guard who loved to take his 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound body into the paint.
Examining his efficiency numbers, it’s not immediately clear what head coach Mike White intends to do with Fleming Jr. He has two years of eligibility remaining and there are several other shooting guards on the roster, so it’s not as if he’s papering over a glaring need. He is best shooting spot ups, but he’s not going to fill the Noah Locke role, as his range is somewhat lacking.
One possibility is that he serves as some additional padding for the roster to prevent Kowacie Reeves Jr. from being forced into a baptism by fire at the SEC level. It’s not like he’s going to magically take a leap in efficiency at 23 years old while facing the toughest competition of his life, but White doesn’t need him to be a star. Fleming Jr. just needs to be good enough to give the team options.
Another possibility is that he can fill the quasi-small forward role in White’s preferred three-guard lineup. The Gators’ existing backcourt is on the small side, especially with Tyree Appleby being the de facto lead guard. Fleming Jr.’s size will be a real boon to the team’s flexibility as they fit together a roster with quite a lot of change from last season.
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