Tag: Brandon McKissic

Here’s a first look at incoming Florida basketball transfers at summer workouts

Head coach Mike White brought in four experienced transfers to boost the Gators’ changes in the SEC during the 2021 season.

The Florida Gators, like many teams in college basketball, are experiencing a staggering amount of roster turnover this offseason. The increased activity around the league is due in large part to the NCAA’s ruling to make all transfers eligible to play immediately upon arriving with their new team in 2021. This is a big opportunity for players who are dissatisfied with the role they hold on their current team or simply think they can play for a better one.

Under the leadership of head coach Mike White, the Gators have been unafraid to plunder the transfer portal to buttress the team. Unsurprisingly, then, they were big players in the portal this offseason. They brought on a quartet of high-performing players looking for greener pastures.

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Friday, we got our first look at the new guys in Gators gear via the team Twitter account. The tweet highlights guard Brandon McKissic, guard Myreon Jones, forward CJ Felder, and guard/forward Phlandrous Fleming Jr., respectively.

All four seem to be in line to receive some real playing time in the upcoming season. McKissic and Fleming are both fifth-year seniors who came to Florida with one year of eligibility remaining but aren’t considered NBA prospects. Odds are that White convinced them playing time would be available for them because there probably isn’t a whole lot of basketball in their post-college future.

Jones is probably going to be the most impactful on the court next season. He was a high producer in the Big Ten, and while Fleming and McKissic were impressive in their respective leagues as well, Jones did it against tougher competition and with better efficiency.

The Gators are entering next season as a much more experienced group than when they began the last. In large part, that’s thanks to the upperclassmen they’re bringing to Gainesville via the transfer portal.

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Gators add a big-time scorer via transfer portal in Brandon McKissic

Brandon McKissic joins the Gators as a graduate transfer after a stellar final season at Missouri-Kansas City.

Name: Brandon McKissic

Number: TBA

Position: Guard

Class: Graduate

Height: 6’3″

Weight: 195 lbs

Hometown: Ferguson, Mo.

High School: St. Louis University

Previous School: Missouri-Kansas City

2020-21 statistics:

GP MIN FG% 3P% FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
18 34 50.8 42.9 66.7 3.7 3.3 0.1 1.5 2.8 3 17.2

Overview:

A Ferguson, Mo., native, McKissic wasn’t a highly recruited player despite being a standout at St. Louis University High School. He was unranked on the 247Sports Composite, and he decided to stay relatively close to home and play college basketball at Missouri-Kansas City.

His freshman season with the Roos, he started 20 games and appeared in 31, averaging 7.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists. The rebound and assist numbers stayed relatively similar in his sophomore year, but he started 28 games and boost his scoring average to 10.5 points as he started 28 games.

McKissic only started 21 of 28 games his junior year, but he still managed to lead the team in scoring averaging 11 points per game. His best season by far, though, came his senior year.

He averaged 17.2 points per game while still managing to shoot above 50% for the second year in a row. Additionally, he managed career-high averages in rebounding (3.7), assists (3.3) and steals (1.5). With all players being granted an additional year of eligibility due to COVID-19, McKissic decided to try his hand at big-time college basketball and announced he would be transferring as a graduate. He officially committed to Florida on April 2.

UF has to replace a lot of production next season, but additions like McKissic should help. He will likely be a Day 1 starter at guard.

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Meet Florida basketball’s five incoming players for next season

The Gators lost over a third of the 2020 roster but they’ve been active in the transfer market and reeled in a quintet of impactful players.

In the weeks following the Gators’ early exit from the NCAA tournament, six of the team’s players departed the program. In response, head coach Mike White has been hot on the recruiting path, quickly pulling in four transfers to add to a single 2021 recruit in an effort to patch up this leaky roster.

Florida’s approach so far this season has been consistent with previous years, mostly targeting older, high-performing players from weaker conferences looking for a new challenge in the SEC. One of the advantages of this approach is adding experience to a team filled with a lot of younger players whose youth sometimes got the better of them last season.

All in all, the Gators’ basketball program will be taking on a very different look next season, so let’s examine the players who White has already gotten to sign on with the team next season.

Big transfer portal target nabbed by Florida basketball as team looks to rebuild

Florida basketball is in dire need of some depth at the guard position. Thursday afternoon they landed a priority transfer filling that need

The Gators have added their first major player of the offseason, landing a commitment from UMKC combo guard Brandon McKissic off the transfer market on Friday afternoon.

It was an open secret that head coach Mike White was pushing hard to get McKissic to sign on in Gainesville as the team tries to make up for losing Tre Mann, Noah Locke, and others. He was a chief component of the Kangaroos’ squad on both end of the floor, scoring a whopping 17 points per game and shutting down enemy pick and rolls on defense.

McKissic fits into Florida’s offensive design as if he was custom-made for it. He was deadly in catch and shoot situations, scoring in the 99th percentile of all college basketball players in unguarded opportunities. He was more average on guarded shots, but his contributions will help make up for Locke’s departure.

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Similarly, he’s a force in the pick and roll, where White likes to play his guards the most regardless of whether they’re effective. At over a point per possession, he was a 95th percentile scorer as a pick-and-roll ballhandler. That’s the area where Tre Mann was most productive, so one would assume that McKissic’s production will make losing Mann a little easier.

Of course, none of that is to say that McKissic is a saving grace for Florida. The Summit League is a far inferior league to the SEC and he stands to face much stiffer defenses as a member of the Gators than ever before. There’s every reason to believe he’ll be a dependable player for the team, given his huge numbers, four years of experience, and defensive skillset. Just don’t expect him to play at an all-conference level.

Taking a longer view, getting McKissic to transfer to Florida was just a play for time on White’s part. He is a short-term fix to a long-term problem for the team. He’s a grad transfer, meaning he’ll only be around for the 2021-2022 season. Florida’s dearth of guards who can be expected to provide meaningful contributions will be a problem for longer than just next season.

Nonetheless, McKissic should be a good add for the Gators. His excitement to play in Gainesville can practically be felt through the page when reading his interview with 247Sports. His immediate productivity will be a godsend for next year’s squad as they try to patch up the roster.

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Florida basketball among teams to reach out to this Furman transfer

UF basketball has reached out to this former Furman forward in the transfer portal hoping to land a player for their depleted frontcourt.

Mike White and his staff at Florida now have the tough task of retooling their roster for the upcoming 2021-22 college basketball season. Shortly after the Gators fell short against No. 15 Oral Roberts, the program saw two players declare for the NBA draft and four more transfer.

While Colin Castleton will likely and potentially one of the transfer portal players as well, the Gators still need to fill out their roster. And they could do so through that transfer portal.

Florida has already been connected to Brandon McKissic, a high-profile transfer that is receiving a lot of attention. But earlier this week, they also reached out to another player.

Per Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers, the Gators are one of the teams that have reached out to Furman transfer Noah Gurley:

The 6-foot-8-inch forward is among the top transfers on the market, averaging 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season. In addition to Florida, he’s heard from numerous programs such as Georgia, Arkansas, Indiana, Marquette, Auburn, Virginia Tech and Illinois among others.

Gurley would be a fit to come in and make up some of the production lost in the frontcourt but it’s clear the Gators are going to have their work cut out for them with some tough competition.

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Florida basketball makes top 6 for this graduate transfer

The Florida Gators basketball program made the top 6 for this graduate transfer as an announcement is expected soon.

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The offseason is still just a week old for the Florida Gators basketball program but it’s been an active one already for Mike White and his staff.

This past week, the Gators have lost Tre Mann to the NBA Draft and three more players announcing they are heading to the transfer portal. With four spots to fill, White and his staff are going to have to look at that transfer portal for potential options.

On Saturday, the program received some good news regarding one target as he announced he is focusing on six teams. UMKC graduate transfer Brandon McKissic talked to Eric Bossi of 247Sports to break down the latest in his adventure in the transfer portal and announced he’s down to Florida, Kansas, Oregon State, Saint Louis, Missouri and Kansas State.

McKissic also told Bossi that he’s had Zoom calls with the six programs separately as he continues to go through the recruitment. Here is what he said about the Florida program:

Coach (Mike) White. Coach White really stood out. Coach White called me and he said “B Mac, coach White of Florida,” and it shocked me because I was like Florida, I didn’t expect that. He told me that I was one of his favorite guys in the transfer portal and he offered me on the spot, just like that. The conviction in the voice and how he told me he wanted me in his program really stood out.

We talked for like 30 minutes while I was in the car driving home to St. Louis to see my mom and he’s a real good dude, I mean real good dude. I enjoyed talking to him. He was asking me questions and picking my brain and it was a good conversation. The fact that it was just him because usually in recruiting you get the assistant and then the head coach. You don’t just get head coaches calling you right off the bat. That he took the initiative, it stood out.

With McKissic being down to six, the senior guard is set to make his decision soon and one is likely coming this week.

McKissic is coming off an impressive campaign this past season, averaging 17 points per game and winning the Summit League’s Defensive Player of the Year. He will be a huge addition to whatever team he picks and hopefully, it’s the Gators.

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