Forward [autotag]Efe Abogidi[/autotag] announced on Tuesday afternoon the Gators had made his list of finalists in the transfer portal.
After playing his first two years at Washington State, Abogidi announced his intentions to leave the basketball program in mid-April. The other finalists in his recruitment are the Arizona Wildcats and Maryland Terrapins.
In addition to the portal, Abogodi tested the NBA draft waters but decided to return to amateur competition for at least one more season.
Abogidi’s strengths are condensed in the frontcourt. He’s an athletic big man who has a knack for blocks. He can make an opposing defender pay severely under the net for undercommitting to him. Last season, he averaged 8.1 points per game with minimal shooting from the arc, supplemented by 1.8 blocks and 5.8 rebounds.
Efe Abogidi is good for a couple of WTF moments per game pic.twitter.com/9LeEWGm0cy
— Alessandro Cozzi (@AleCozz1) January 6, 2021
As Florida basketball expert Eric Fawcett points out in an article for Gator Country, Abogidi is a golden boy for the analytics that head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] is using to identify big men. Particularly with regards to offensive rebounding – an area Golden made no bones about prioritizing improvement in – Abogidi could be a great help to Florida’s roster.
How exactly Golden would integrate another long frontcourt player with more SEC potential than proven ability isn’t clear as daylight to me. [autotag]CJ Felder[/autotag] and [autotag]Alex Fudge[/autotag] also fit that bill and both have been described as having NBA potential. Odds are, however, that injury or underperformance will allow that question to answer itself.
Also notable is Abogidi has three years of eligibility remaining. That has been a theme among many of the transfers signed by Golden and his staff. Fudge still has three years left, as do guards [autotag]Will Richard[/autotag] and [autotag]Trey Bonham[/autotag].
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