Category: Men’s Basketball

Boozer twins will visit Florida basketball in November

The twin sons of Carlos Boozer will return to Gainesville for an official visit in November.

A pair of highly sought-after 2025 prospects announced they’ll visit the University of Florida this fall.

The Boozer twins, Cameron and Cayden, will follow up on an unofficial visit from last season and be on campus the weekend of Nov. 4 and plan to attend the matchup with the Gators and Arkansas Razorbacks on Jan. 13.

Cayden Boozer is especially excited to revisit Gainesville.

“I loved the fans, I loved the atmosphere, the team, and the coaching,” Boozer said. “It was a good experience for us.”

Landing both recruits would be a big get for head coach Todd Golden and the Florida basketball squad, but the prospects stated before they are willing to go their separate ways in college.

“We definitely could be a package deal, we also could go somewhere different,” Cameron Boozer said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to go somewhere that’s best for us.”

“It would be awesome if we could go to the same school at the same time, but one school might be the best situation for him and it might not be for me.”

The Boozer twins are the sons of former NBA star Carlos Boozer, who played in the league for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls.

According to 247Sports, Cameron Boozer is the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation with a five-star rating and receives comparisons to Orlando Magic forward and NBA first-round pick Paolo Banchero.

Cayden Boozer, however, is a four-star recruit and nationally ranked No. 17 and is the No. 3 overall point guard.

Cameron Boozer says his twin brother is the best point guard in the nation.

“(Cayden) is a very underrated player and gets overlooked a lot because I am his brother,” Cameron said. “The way he pushes the tempo and controls the pace of the game, the way he attacks the rim and finishes, how crafty he is, his skill and feel for the game is rare and I feel like he should be talked about way more.”

The Florida Gators basketball season is still a couple of months away. The first tipoff against Loyola is set for Nov. 6.

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Florida Gators release SEC schedule for men’s basketball

The conference schedule for Florida Gators basketball has arrived and second-year head coach Todd Golden’s plate is piling up.

Florida men’s basketball season is coming in hot and the SEC released the schedule for all teams.

The Florida Gators are looking to flip the switch after a mediocre 16-17 finish with early exits in the SEC tournament (thanks to an overtime loss to Miss State) and National Invitational Tournament (thanks to a beatdown from the UCF Knights).

The season tips off at the O’Connell Center on Nov. 6 with a contest against Loyola, but the SEC slate begins when the arch-nemesis Kentucky Wildcats invade the Swamp on Jan. 6. It will be the first time for  Kentucky and Florida to face off in the conference opener since 1998.

Florida takes a road to Lexington at the end of the month (Jan. 31) to end the season series with the Wildcats.

Check out the social media post with members of the Florida Gators revealing their schedule.

Marquee weekend matchups at the O’Dome include a bout with the Arkansas Razorbacks on Jan. 13, and the Georgia Bulldogs will visit Gainesville on Jan. 27. The following month’s opponents include a visit from the Auburn Tigers on Feb. 10 and the Vanderbilt Commodores will invade Gainesville on Feb. 24.

The Gators will cram a two-game series with both Vanderbilt and Alabama within the final three weeks of the season, including the home finale with the Crimson Tide and the season finale with the Commodores.

The SEC tournament begins on March 13 in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Florida basketball loses sophomore forward to foot injury

A tough loss for the Gators’ basketball team with a couple of months remaining before the season’s tipoff.

Florida’s men’s basketball team suffered a tough loss on Tuesday when sophomore forward [autotag]Aleks Szymczyk[/autotag] went down with a foot injury during team practice. After being evaluated, it turns out that the 6-foot-10-inch, 250-pound frontcourt player will miss 10 to 12 weeks and will require surgery, Florida Gators senior writer Chris Harry reports.

Somewhat ironically, Szymczyk appeared in a majority of his freshman games after center Colin Castleton went down with an injury last season. He averaged 2.1 points per game on 39.3% shooting along with 1.3 rebounds over 14 appearances.

The native of Germany logged eight points in 20 minutes along with six rebounds and four steals — all collegiate career highs — on Feb. 18 against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Szymczyk also drained 2 of 5 three-point attempts, which were also highwater marks for the young forward.

Florida’s 2023-24 campaign tips off on Monday, Nov. 6, inside the O’Connell Center against the Loyaola Maryland Greyhounds, with a start time still to be determined.

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LSU men’s basketball adds Tam Davis to staff

Tam Davis previously spent 15 years working for LSU’s football program.

LSU’s men’s basketball team has added Tam Davis, who will assist in operations as the men’s basketball coordinator, to the staff.

According to a release, Davis’ duties will include overseeing daily operations of the department and coaching staff, which will include making travel arrangments, putting together coach Matt McMahon’s schedule and assisting with recruiting. She will also serve as a liaison with fans for the LSU Tipoff Club and Tiger Athletic Foundation.

Davis replaces Brittany Carvalhido, who left the athletics department.

A 2002 graduate of Southen University, spent the last year-plus working for the Ballengee Group, a Dallas-based marketing and management firm. Prior to that, she spent 15 years with the LSU football program, beginning as an intern and ultimately becoming the director of player relations.

https://x.com/lsubasketball/status/1694794379444003319?s=46&t=hxe7_4LWfBXIIkZJrQK30Q

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LSU basketball a winner from the transfer portal

The Tigers added a big-time haul of players in the portal this offseason.

There’s no sugarcoating how disappointing coach Matt McMahon’s first season in Baton Rouge was.

The LSU men’s basketball team went just 2-16 in SEC play, losing 14 in a row at one point. With the best player from that group in [autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag] moving on and several contributors opting to enter the transfer portal, the Tigers had to be aggressive in landing several portal acquisitions of their own.

With a major haul of players, LSU will enter the 2023-24 team with a very different roster as McMahon hopes to get things going in the right direction. The Tigers were named a winner in the transfer portal by On3.

C Will Baker (Nevada), C Daimion Collins (Kentucky), PG Jalen Cook (Tulane), C Hunter Dean (George Washington), G Carlos Stewart (Santa Clara), SF Jordan Wright (Vanderbilt)

The skinny: LSU needed to rehaul its roster after last season. In year two of the Matt McMahon era, the Tigers brought in talent. An interesting piece; a lot of the guys they brought in from the portal are homegrown. Jalen Cook, Carlos Stewart, Hunter Dean, and Jordan Wright are all originally from Louisiana. Cook, who started at LSU under Will Wade, finished top five in the AAC in points, assists, and steals last season. He was first-team All-AAC. Stewart, a Baton Rouge native, was first-team All-WCC last season after averaging 15.2 points and shooting 40.3 percent from three. A third incoming perimeter player, and former high school teammate of Stewart, Wright scored over 1,100 career points at Vanderbilt. Will Baker is a former top-40 recruit, and Daimion Collins is a former top-20 recruit. This LSU roster brought in an influx of talent.

Remaking your roster through the portal is always a gamble, but we’ve seen several programs achieve a lot of recent success doing just that. LSU will hope it’s the latest in Year 2 under McMahon.

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Ducks get commitment from former Stetson center Mahamadou Diawara

Ducks get commitment from former Stetson center Mahamadou Diawara

Dana Altman filled out his final roster spot on Wednesday afternoon, picking up a big man to bolster the depth in the frontcourt.

The Oregon Ducks got a commitment from former Stetson center Mahamadou Diawara, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound transfer who averaged 4.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in 30 games with five starts at Stetson last season.

Diawara is entering his fifth-year senior season. He shot an impressive 53.9% from the field, but struggled from the free throw line, shooting just  58.7%. His most impressive game of the year came in the College Basketball Invitational, where he put up 18 points and 20 rebounds in a loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The Ducks have added a number of transfers this offseason, but most of them came in the shooting guard variety as Altman looks to better his team’s three-point proficiency. Adding someone like Diawara offers great depth at the center position, behind both N’Faly Dante and Nate Bittle going into the year.

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Todd Golden adds former Washington State assistant to coaching staff

Todd Golden is bringing in another West Coast analytics guy onto his staff now that basketball teams can have up to five assistants.

Todd Golden is bringing [autotag]John Andrzejek[/autotag] onto his coaching staff, according to a report from Jeff Goodman.

Andrzejek is coming off a three-year stint as an assistant at Washington State, where he specialized in analytics. It’s no secret that Golden likes to dig into the numbers, and the new NCAA rules allow him to increase his staff from three to five assistants.

Before WSU, Andrzejek was an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Dartmouth for a year. His first coaching position came as an assistant at Johns Hopkins in 2017-18. He also served as a recruiting coordinator for the Blue Jays.

Andrzejek got his start in basketball as a team manager for Columbia as he completed his undergraduate degree. He was hired as the director of basketball operations after graduating and then assumed the same position with the University of San Francisco two years later.

Golden and Andrzejek crossed paths at Columbia, but both were at the beginning of their coaching careers. Now the two will reunite in Gainesville as they look to turn the Florida program around.

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3-star point guard includes LSU in final six

The Tigers made the cut for Elijah Crawford.

LSU’s men’s basketball team is still in search of the first commitment in the 2024, but it made the cut for yet another prospect in three-star point guard [autotag]Elijah Crawford[/autotag].

The Augusta, Georgia, native trimmed his list down to six schools: LSU, Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Stanford and UCF. He also announced that he will be transferring to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, for his senior season, per On3.

Crawford has his first official visit set with Stanford from Oct. 6-8. He also plans to officially visit Georgia, South Carolina and UCF, and he’s taken unofficial visits with the Tigers and Gamecocks.

“What I like about LSU is the beautiful campus! When I went on my visit I fell in love with the campus,” Crawford said. “Coach Mac also lets his guards GO which is also a great thing. I feel like I’d have the opportunity to go in there and help impact.”

Stanford is the favorite for the top-200 prospect according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, followed by South Carolina and then LSU. But coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] will hope to make up some ground as he searches for a 2024 pledge.

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Gators set official visit date for coveted 5-star wing recruit

VJ Edgecombe will be in Gainesville mid-September for the weekend to see what Golden’s gang has to offer.

The recruiting news has focused heavily on the football team of late but Todd Golden and Co. are busy working in the background in a similar vein to Napier and his staff. Both have focused heavily on acquiring top prep prospects to help rebuild their respective programs, for which those efforts are beginning to bear fruit.

A big date on the recruiting schedule for Florida basketball is set for Sept. 15, when five-star swingman [autotag]VJ Edgecombe[/autotag] out of Glen Head (New York) Long Island Lutheran will be in Gainesville for the weekend on an official visit. It will be the first time the 6-foot-5-inch, 180-pound high school senior has visited Florida’s campus.

Also included on Edgecombe’s itinerary are the Baylor Bears, Michigan Wolverines, Duke Blue Devils, Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida State Seminoles. Those schools, along with Florida, were all listed among his top 10 destinations announcement back on July 30.

As far as what the five-star talent has to bring to the table, Gator Country’s Eric Fawcett simply says, “It’s all about scoring.”

Edgecombe has one of the most polished offensive games in the 2024 class, leading to an offer list that’s about as good as anyone in the country… He is extremely talented with the ball with a lot of dribble moves to break down opponents whether in the half court or in transition and it makes him an impossible cover for just about anyone who draws the assignment of having to try and stay in front of him.

Edgecombe is ranked No. 17 overall and No. 5 at small forward nationally according to the 247Sports composite while the On3 industry ranking has him at No. 14 overall and No. 4 at shooting guard nationally. On3’s Recruiting Prediction machine has Michigan in the lead (20.8%) for his commitment followed by Duke (18.2%), Alabama (15.6%) and FSU (13.0%).

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Gator great promoted to Florida basketball’s on-court coaching staff

Taurean Green’s promotion puts him back on the O’Dome parquet where he belongs.

Former Florida men’s basketball guard [autotag]Taurean Green[/autotag], who helped the Gators earn a pair of national championship titles back in the middle aughts, was promoted to development assistant on Tuesday according to reports.

Green returned to his alma mater to serve as UF’s director of player development in 2022-23, in which he assisted with on-court coaching duties while other assistants were away. As a result of the NCAA expanding coaching staff sizes by two spots — both in men’s and women’s basketball — Golden had room for a full-time on-court role with the program this coming season.

The 36-year-old coach was a member of the memorable “Oh Fours” that made school history with their back-to-back titles. After his successful collegiate career, he was taken in the second round (52nd overall) of the 2007 NBA draft by the Portland Trailblazers but was traded six months later to the Denver Nuggets.

In all, he played 74 total minutes over 17 games between the two teams in one NBA season, scoring 27 points while grabbing 10 rebounds, dishing out 11 assists and snagging a pair of steals. He spent the rest of his career playing overseas in Europe, with a stint in The Basketball Tournament in 2017.

Green returned to basketball states-side after retiring in 2021 with the Chicago Bulls, where he worked alongside former coach Billy Donovan and father Sidney Green with the franchise. Now that his globetrotting days are over, he is back in Gainesville where it all began and could not be happier.

“It feels great. Everything comes full circle,” Green told Gators Online last June. “I’m just appreciative Coach Golden giving me an opportunity to be part of the staff, to come back to the University of Florida. It’s a great opportunity with a young, energetic staff that really knows basketball.”

He is joined by former Washington State assistant John Andrzejek who is the second addition to Golden’s staff per the NCAA’s edict. Together, they will help Florida get ready for its season opener on Nov. 6 against Loyola Maryland in Gainesville.

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