Tag: Keyontae Johnson

2023 NBA Mock Draft 3.0: Projections for every pick post-March Madness

Rookie Wire took a look at where the next draft class stands following the NCAA Tournament.

The NBA pre-draft process is in full swing as prospects around the world prepare to transition to the next level.

Teams around the league will begin hosting private workouts in the coming weeks as they finalize their draft boards. There will be various pro days on the radar and, of course, the draft combine and G League Elite Camp next month in Chicago, Illinois.

Underclassmen have until April 23 to declare for the draft. Several notable players have already decided to return to school, including Kyle Filipowski, Harrison Ingram, Baylor Scheierman and Kel’el Ware. Others are still mulling over their decisions.

Related: Key dates for NBA draft, combine, lottery and deadlines

With players still in the process of making decisions, some prospects were excluded from this mock draft because they are projected to return to school next season. However, most players projected to be drafted have already announced their decisions.

Rookie Wire took a look at where the draft stands following the NCAA Tournament. It is important to note that team needs were not necessarily taken into account with each pick. The projections are rather a look at where each individual player stands at this point of the process.

Note: The order of the draft was pulled from Tankathon as of April 14. The draft will have only 58 picks this year because the Bulls and 76ers were stripped of their second-round picks by the NBA due to tampering violations.

Kansas State’s unlikely Elite 8 run means we get more Jerome Tang, who we can’t get enough of

More Jerome Tang is a good thing for college hoops.

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang has an infectious personality. Even without meeting him, you can feel it ooze through the screen during interviews and in behind the scenes footage of his team’s incredible March Madness run.

The Wildcats continued that run Thursday with an impressive overtime win over Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans, demonstrating just how good they truly are. If it wasn’t evident after a 26-9 regular season and top-15 AP finish, it certainly is now.

Markquis Nowell is an absolute star and Keyontae Johnson might hear his name called on NBA draft night. But not to be overlooked in Kansas State’s success is the first-year head coach.

The more Tang and the gang hang around, the more we’ll get moments from him like this.

“We had to celebrate a little bit. Hope y’all didn’t mind.”

Thursday’s game was the biggest in the careers of many of his players, and you wouldn’t have been able to tell by their demeanor on the court. They were loose, even in the most tense moments of a game that was tight throughout, and it’s hard to think that’s not a reflection of their coach.

Tang is even the main hype man during a pregame Lil Baby listening session K-State apparently has been doing since before the tournament.

That’s a 56-year-old man getting more hype off a Lil Baby song than his 20-year-old players who I can assure you are the intended audience. Sure, they might be a little embarrassed in the way a kid might be embarrassed by a parent doing too much at the sleepover, and Tang’s dance moves leave a little to be desired, but they love him anyway.

And it’s not hard to see why. He’s good for that program, and he’s good for college basketball.

Prior to this season, Kansas State hadn’t qualified for the NCAA tournament since the 2018-19 season. Not only did they make it back in Tang’s first year, they shattered all expectations.

In a Big 12 preseason poll, the Wildcats were picked to finish last in the conference. Instead, they were third. And now they’re the first and maybe only conference team to reach the Elite 8 (Texas plays Friday).

Whether or not Kansas State advances any further, the season is a success, and Tang has officially put himself on the map as not only a fun head coach, but a legitimately good head coach.

The more the Wildcats win, the more he’ll get to show both.

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Zach Edey, Trayce Jackson-Davis headline AP All-America first team

Edey and Jackson-Davis headlined the players named to the Associated Press All-America first team.

Purdue junior Zach Edey and Indiana senior Trayce Jackson-Davis headlined the players named to the Associated Press All-America first team on Tuesday.

Edey, the Big Ten Player of the Year, was the only player to appear on all 58 first-team ballots after averaging 22.3 points, 12.8 points, 2.1 blocks and 1.5 assists with the Boilermakers. He ranks sixth in the country in scoring, second in rebounding and first in double-doubles (26).

Jackson-Davis became the first Hoosier since Victor Oladipo in 2013 to earn first-team honors after averaging 20.8 points, 10.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.7 blocks. He ranks 16th nationally in scoring, 13th in rebounding and sixth in blocks (82).

Joining Edey and Jackson-Davis on the first team are Kansas forward Jalen Wilson, Houston guard Marcus Sasser and Alabama forward Brandon Miller, who was the only freshman to appear on the list.

AP named Jaime Jaquez Jr. (UCLA), Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Drew Timme (Gonzaga), Azuolas Tubelis (Arizona) and Jalen Pickett (Penn State) to the second team. On the third team were Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson (Kansas State), Tyler Kolek (Marquette), Kris Murray (Iowa) and Armando Bacot (North Carolina).

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PREVIEW: No. 10 Texas at No. 7 Kansas State

Texas will look to play much better than in its 116-103 loss to K-State in Austin.

Conference title ramifications are on the line in Manhattan, Kansas. The Texas Longhorns (7-2) and Kansas State Wildcats (6-3) enter the second half of the Big 12 title race.

A win for Kansas State would put the Wildcats in a tie with Texas for first place. Should the Longhorns emerge victorious, Rodney Terry’s team would distance itself from the field and maintain its spot atop the standings.

K-State suffered its third conference loss Tuesday night against Kansas, 90-78. Jerome Tang’s team became the victim of his own fast pace as the Jayhawks scored at will.

Texas had similar success offensively when they met Saturday’s foe in Austin earlier this year. The Longhorns defense did not fare as well in the 116-103 defeat.

Here’s a look at how the two teams stack up heading into the game.

Golden praises team for staying the course after upset win over Tennessee

Todd Golden always knew his team could play as well as it did on Wednesday against Tennessee, but now the rest of the country knows it too.

Florida head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] has said all year that his team is still figuring out how to play its best basketball, and on Wednesday night everything clicked during a 13-point upset victory over No. 2 Tennessee.

The Gators showed flashes of brilliance against lesser competitors earlier in the season, but the team hasn’t fared as well against Quadrant 1 and 2 opponents. Coming into the Tennessee game, Florida had just two wins against Q1 and Q2 opponents in 11 chances. Close losses to Auburn, Florida Atlantic and Texas A&M (twice) are resume killers, but now the team has finally made good on Golden’s word.

“Obviously, this team’s had a lot of ups and downs in terms of the results in games,” Golden said during his post-game press conference. “I felt pretty strongly, and I’ve talked to you guys about the fact that I feel like we’re better than our record indicated, even through some of those stretches. I’m just incredibly proud of our guys for putting an effort like that together for 40 minutes.”

It’s not lost on the first-year head coach how big of a win this is for his squad. After winning five out of six games in January, Florida’s loss to No. 5 Kansas State deflated the fan base. The win over Tennessee re-energized the fans and erased any memory of [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag] hanging on the rim.

The Volunteers had a strong argument for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but now Florida has put Alabama in the driver’s seat of the Southeastern Conference.

“They’re at the top of the game right now being No. 2,” he said. “Obviously, that part in the second half where they made a big run on us, I think they took a six-point lead. Just the grit that our guys showed and being able to bounce back from that was fantastic. Just a lot of great all-around efforts to beat a team like that by 13 points.”

As Golden alluded to, the victory was not a blowout win by any means. Florida started out with a 17-4 run, but Tennessee came back like a top-five team in the country should against an unranked opponent. Never deterred, Golden asked his squad to play with an “F-it” mentality and they delivered. The Gators simply proved that its defense was good enough to allow a run like that and still recover in time to win by double digits.

“Stay the course,” he said. “We had a tough little stretch there. Some things didn’t go our way. That was a great moment for us because, just in the past, we haven’t been able to finish at a level like that, and we did a wonderful job after (Santiago) Vescovi made those three free throws to put them up six of just getting that lead back and never relinquishing it down the stretch.”

Golden said he didn’t feel comfortable until there were about 30 seconds left in the game. After failing to finish off the win so many times before, it almost didn’t feel real that the team was finally doing it against the No. 2 team in the country.

“I think it’s affirmation that we can beat anybody when we play to our capabilities,” he said. “Obviously, we played very well tonight. It would be a high standard to hold us to on a nightly basis, but now we’ve shown the capacity to do it. And I think that belief comes from that understanding that it’s not a potential anymore. tonight, we’ve proven the capacity to beat a top team in the country.”

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Gators center among top 5 rim protectors, per The Athletic

A current Gator and a former Gator made The Athletic’s list of top-5 players in various categories.

The college basketball season is at its midway point — if you include the conference and NCAA tournaments as well — which makes it a good time to take a look around the nation at who has stood out so far in the 2022-23 campaign as well as those who have not. The Athletic’s Seth Davis undertook the task of providing his top five teams and players for a variety of categories.

Among those listed was Florida’s starting center Colin Castleton, who is third in the rim protector category, ranking third-best nationally in blocked shots with 3.19 per game and 17th in block percentage at 10.11%. The 6-foot-11-inch senior — who transferred from the Michigan Wolverines ahead of the 2020 season — also ranks first in the Southeastern Conference in blocks and sits at sixth with 7.6 rebounds per game; he also leads the Gators in points per game with 14.9 per.

Also mentioned was former Gators forward [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag], who Davis ranked first in the top transfers category. He lauded KJ’s recovery from a frightening heart scare on the court against the Florida State Seminoles two years ago, punctuated by his return to his previous SEC Preseason Player of the Year form with the Kansas State Wildcats, as one of the season’s most remarkable stories.

Johnson tied a game-high 13 points while leading both teams with 11 rebounds along with two steals and an assist against his former team in KSU’s 64-50 home win last Saturday.

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Florida falls in ESPN’s BPI following KSU blowout loss

The Gators slipped a bit in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index update.

Florida basketball saw its two-game winning streak come to an end inside Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas, in this year’s edition of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge with a loss to [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag] and the fifth-ranked Kansas State Wildcats, 64-50. The Gators never really had a chance in this one as KSU started strong while the visitors struggled to find their footing early on.

The loss dropped [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]’s team to 12-9 overall this season (5-3 SEC) and five spots in ESPN’s updated Basketball Power Index, sliding from No. 35 down to No. 40 following the defeat. Florida’s strength of schedule is now ranked No. 24 while the strength of record is down at not-so-nice No. 69.

Next up for Florida is a visit from the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, who are currently ranked No. 2 in the BPI, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, inside the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST and the game can be followed either on ESPN2 or the Gators IMG Sports Network.

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Florida basketball stays put in NET rankings following KSU loss

The Quad 1 loss had hardly any effect on the newest NET rankings.

The game was not nearly as close as the oddsmakers thought it would be as the fifth-ranked Kansas State Wildcats, along with former Gator [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag], scored an authoritative win over Florida Saturday night inside Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas, for this year’s edition of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]’s gang once again came out flat at the start of the game which doomed the team from the get-go in what has become a familiar trope this season.

The Orange and Blue entered the game ranked No. 50 in the NET rankings and left with the same ranking despite the Quadrant 1 loss. Florida now holds a 1-7 mark in Quad 1 games, 1-2 in Quad 2, and 5-0 in both Quad 3 and Quad 4 matchups for a 12-9 record overall and a 5-3 tally in Southeastern Conference play.

Next up for Florida is a visit from the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, who are currently ranked No. 2 in the NET, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, inside the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST and the game can be followed either on ESPN2 or the Gators IMG Sports Network.

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Instant reactions to Florida’s blowout loss at Kansas State Wildcats

Pat Dooley breaks down how the Gators broke down in Manhattan, Kansas, on Saturday night.

Florida had won five of its last six games entering the SEC/Big 12 Challenge and it was another chance to get an important win.

Instead, the Gators found out again what a really good team with eyes on a possible Final Four looks like.

Kansas State humbled the high-rising Gators (now 12-9), 64-50, and led by double figures for most of the game.

This wasn’t about [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag] once the game started. It was more about a Kansas State team (18-3) that is a complete team compared to a Florida team that inflated its record against some mediocre SEC teams.

Is that too harsh? Well, then, you didn’t watch the game.

Social media reacts to Keyontae Johnson facing his former team

Gator Nation had mixed reactions to seeing Keyontae Johnson play for Kansas State against his former club on Saturday night.

All eyes in Gator Nation were on [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag] Saturday night as the former Florida forward led his new team, the Kansas State Wildcats, to victory over his former club.

It wasn’t the best showing Johnson’s put together all year, but even an off night for the former SEC Preseason Player of the Year resulted in a double-double. The pain for Florida fans is two-fold. Seeing Florida get throttled is never pleasant, even in a rebuilding year, but it becomes that much worse when the man leading the charge against you is the one your doctors wouldn’t clear.

Everyone that’s followed Gators hoops over the past few years will forever be left asking what could have been had Johnson not collapsed in that game over two years ago. Would Mike White still be coaching at Florida? Would the Gators be ranked No. 5 in the country instead of Kansas State? Closure isn’t coming anytime soon, but there’s some relief knowing that Johnson is healthy enough to play at 100%, even if it does hurt UF.

Johnson finished the game with 13 points on 5-for-16 shooting from the field and 3-for-4 shooting from the line. He also brought in notched 11 rebounds, two steals and one assist while turning the ball over just twice.

Here’s what Twitter had to say about Johnson’s reunion with his former squad.