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The college basketball season draws near, awakening from a long slumber after the postseason was canceled last March due to the emerging coronavirus outbreak. Despite the lost games and the limitations placed on the schools in the offseason to combat COVID-19, it looks like at least the major programs are ready to take the court.
Among those teams starting up week is Florida, who faces the University of Massachusetts at Lowell next Wednesday in the Basketball Hall of Fame Bubbleville tournament in Uncasville, Conn. The Gators enter this season with much lower expectations than last but bring a roster chocked full of talent, including SEC Preseason Player of the Year junior Keyontae Johnson and sophomore swingman Scottie Lewis.
The latter was mentioned by The Athletic recently in an article ranking the 20 top wing players in the nation heading into the season. Staff writer Eammon Brennan ranked Lewis third in the nation, behind Sam Hauser of Virginia and Corey Kispert of Gonzaga, respectively.
Here is what he had to say about the talented sophomore swingman.
Scottie Lewis was on this list last year, before he had played a minute of college basketball. It’s a decision we stand by. Florida was disappointing as a unit last season — the Gators went from massive preseason hype to just gradually pulling themselves up off the bubble by early March — and Lewis had his fair share of growing pains along the way, enough to prevent him from making a much-anticipated leap straight to the NBA after one season. But Lewis showed enough to make the inclusion make sense, and make you think he’s only just getting started.
To wit, Lewis’s best offensive games all came down the stretch last season, when he averaged 13 points per game and finished the year shooting 19-of-34 from the floor. It took him a while to find his place in Florida’s half-court offense, where he often looked cramped and unsure of what to do from which positions. Mike White (whose La. Tech teams always got up and down, but has still yet to codify a real style at Florida) has professed a desire to play much faster this season, and a more open floor would absolutely suit Lewis’s strengths as an attacker in space. Still, despite the struggles, Lewis finished with a 110.1 offensive rating and a 56.2 true shooting percentage. He also, as a 6-foot-5 wing, simultaneously led his team in blocks and steals. If he makes anything like the standard sophomore leap, he could be one of the best players in the SEC, if not the country.
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