Tag: Todd Golden

Florida basketball learns of SEC/Big 12 Challenge opponent

The Oklahoma loss sent Florida basketball into a funk last season. Here’s who the Gators will face in the 2022-23 season’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

Florida basketball will take on Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, on January 28 of the upcoming season as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

The matchup was announced on Thursday as were the rest of the matchups that make up the interconference challenge. The Gators have fared well since the series began going 6-3 against the Big 12 over the last decade. Florida knocked off Oklahoma State at home last season and beat No. 11 West Virginia on the road in 2020-21.

Things are different this year, though. [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] has taken over for [autotag]Mike White[/autotag], who is now the lead man in Athens, Georgia. Golden is relatively unproven and is looking to rebuild what once was a proud dynasty in Gainesville. The good news is Kansas State is also dealing with a first-year head coach, so both teams should have an equal amount of time to figure things out under the new regime before facing each other.

The two teams have only faced off twice, once in 2010 and again in 2012. In the first matchup, Florida took down then-ranked No. 6 Kansas State on neutral ground at the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise. The Wildcats returned the favor by upsetting 8th-ranked Florida two seasons later in Kansas City at the Sprint Center (now the T-Mobile Center).

Here are all of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge matchups:

Florida at Kansas State
Alabama at Oklahoma
Arkansas at Baylor
Auburn at West Virginia
Kansas at Kentucky
Texas Tech at LSU
Ole Miss at Oklahoma State
TCU at Mississippi State
Iowa State at Missouri
Texas at Tennessee

All games will air on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

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Florida basketball falls in ESPN’s latest bracketology update

Lundari had a change of heart about Florida basketball in his update.

There is still quite a bit of time between now and November when the college basketball season starts back up but there is no better time than the present to prognosticate upon the many possibilities that a fresh campaign brings. For the Florida Gators, the 2022-23 schedule represents a pivot away from the [autotag]Mike White[/autotag] era into the [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] age as the latter looks to restore the luster of the Orange and Blue.

In the last update from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi back in mid-May, the Gators sat in the No. 9 seed in the Midwest, which is centered in Kansas City. However, this time around Florida fell out of the main bracket back into the periphery in the First Four Out group — essentially where it was prior to the previous update. UF is joined by Wyoming, St. John’s and Notre Dame teetering on the edge of contention.

Lunardi’s current bracket features eight schools from the Big Ten, seven from both the SEC and Big 12, and six from the ACC and Big East, while the Pac-12 has four and the Mountain West, WCC, American and Atlantic 10 all have two teams in the mix.

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PHOTOS: A look back at Florida basketball’s 2021-22 roster

Take a quick look back at the men’s basketball roster last season.

Florida basketball’s 2021-22 campaign is well in the books — and speaking of books, the end of the season also brought the end of the [autotag]Mike White[/autotag] chapter of the program’s history. With former San Francisco Dons head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] now at the helm the Gators will be looking to rebuild in the coming seasons.

The roster that White put together in his final year in Gainesville, while very much a Frankenstein’s monster type of creation out of necessity was also loaded with experience and enough talent to spare. However, after an early honeymoon period in which it appeared that the team had coalesced around its seniority, things quickly fell apart and never quite found their footing afterward.

After a heart-breaking opening-round loss in overtime to the Texas A&M Aggies in the SEC Tournament, the Gators took their invite to the NIT sans White where they beat the Iona Gaels in the first round but then took a spanking at the hands of the Xavier Musketeers to end the season.

Take a look back below at the 2021-22 roster including [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag], who got in a ceremonial start despite being medically inactive while also serving as a de facto bench coach.

The Athletic breaks down three incoming transfers for Florida basketball

A look at three new Gators basketball transfers through the lens of The Athletic.

Florida basketball saw some significant turnover on its roster after the departure of former head coach [autotag]Mike White[/autotag], leaving new skipper [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] with a skeleton of a team to start his UF tenure. While the team got some great news when center [autotag]Colin Castelton[/autotag] pulled his name from the NBA draft and returned to Gainesville, the more important work has been done through the transfer portal.

The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie and CJ Moore recently undertook the task of composing a complete overview of the players who have passed through the portal so far, including new additions Kyle Lofton, Will Richard and Alex Fudge. The trio are expected to help the Gators bounce back from a disappointing season in 2021-22, but there is a lot of work to be done.

Below is a look at the three incoming transfers that The Athletic included in its survey of who moved through the portal this offseason, ordered by ranking while breaking down their scouting report as well as why they fit at Florida.

247Sports praises recent commitment as ‘first step’ to in-state dominance

The acquisition of the former Mississippi State commit was a major coup for a program looking to lock down the borders.

Monday afternoon, highly-rated guard [autotag]Riley Kugel[/autotag] announced his commitment to Florida basketball. The four-star recruit had initially given his pledge to the Mississippi State Bulldogs but decommitted in March. Now, [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]’s Gators own his allegiance and it’s easy to be positive about where this team is headed.

247Sports evidently shares that opinion. The recruiting experts employed there are higher than the national average rating him as the 49th prospect in the nation, compared to the composite’s less optimistic placement at 78th overall.

After praising the fine work Golden has done in the transfer portal, 247Sports’ Jacob Rudner asserted that Kugel’s commitment could be an even bigger victory. “It was Golden’s first win in his quest to dominate what he called the university’s “footprint,'” wrote Rudner.

Of course, this is a reference to Golden’s introductory press conference after being hired as the head coach of Florida’s men’s basketball team. “We’re going to try to build a fence around the state of Florida and make sure that we’re involved with every great student-athlete within this footprint,” said the newly appointed Golden.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Golden plucked up [autotag]Korey McCray[/autotag] — Mississippi State’s lead recruiter on Kugel — as soon as he became available during the Bulldog’s leadership change. A win is a win, though, and it’s impossible to be cross about it no matter how Golden pulled it off.

With the final scholarship currently available on the Gators’ men’s roster, the team has been chasing a big man to compliment [autotag]Colin Castleton[/autotag] in the transfer portal. Don’t expect another big in-state win this year, but keep your eyes peeled for highly-ranked homegrown players as the basketball staff builds out next year’s recruiting class. Golden is a man on a mission, and Kugel is a good first step.

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Florida basketball lands this top-50 prospect for its 2022 class

The Gators snagged this top-50 recruit from the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Florida basketball’s recruiting efforts were bleak this offseason after a pair of top prospects reneged on their commitments to find greener pastures elsewhere. The turnover from the [autotag]Mike White[/autotag] to the [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] era has not helped at all, but the former was not exactly setting the world on fire with his recruiting efforts either before the latter arrived.

Fortunately, Golden has managed to steady the ship as it traverses rough waters and his latest coup will certainly help the program set its course. On Monday, shooting guard Riley Kugel out of Dr. Phillips High in Orlando, Florida, committed to playing in the O’Connell Center for his collegiate career according to his post on Twitter.

According to On3, he picked the Gators “because (he) feel(s) like it will be the best place for me to develop myself and get to where I want to be in these next few years. And of course, it’s HOME.” With just an hour and a half separating Gainesville and Orlando, it is easy to see why he feels the way he does.

Jamie Shaw, On3’s national recruiting analyst, offered the following scouting report.

“At 6-5, Kugel has long arms and a physically developed frame. He is comfortable on the ball, showcasing great vision to set up his teammates and his jump shot extends well beyond the arc. His explosion has become a weapon as he gets past his man and is a threat to get on the rim when he touches the paint. Plays with a competitive fire. Good in the passing lanes. Three-level scorer.”

Kugel ranks No. 78 overall and No. 8 at his position nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite, while the On3 Consensus has him a Nos. 46 and 5, respectively. He joins high school teammate Denzel Aberdeen, who was the previous lone commit remaining, in the 2022 UF recruiting class.

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Gators in ‘regular contact’ with this transferring Kentucky forward

Todd Golden and his team are looking to add this former Kentucky Wildcat to the roster.

According to a Friday morning report, the Gators are among an ocean of schools who are in “regular contact” with transferring forward Keion Brooks Jr. As a former top-25 prospect from La Lumiere in Indiana, he has been productive during his college career but has fallen short of first-round expectations so far.

Having spent the first three years of his college career with the Kentucky Wildcats, Brooks is exploring his options for the upcoming year. He has closed off virtually nothing at this point in his re-recruitment, with the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, and Big East included in conferences represented. Brooks is also publicly mulling a return to Kentucky or a stab at the NBA.

Brooks has been in the portal since late April, riding a season’s performance that closely mirrors what he did in 2020-21 on the stat sheet but in twice the number of games. He’s a scorer first and foremost, notching 10.8 points per game, but it’s all on the inside. His production at the arc, or lack thereof, came on less than one shot attempt per game.

For a player with Brooks’ physicality, you’d generally expect more rebounds than what he’s provided. In this case, I’m willing to issue a get-out-of-jail-free card. Friend or foe, it’s tremendously difficult to make an impact on the glass with Oscar Tshibwe on the court. Getting out from under his former running mate’s shadow will make a difference and his rebounding figures should blossom.

An area where I’d like to see him make improvements is how often he gets to the free-throw line. Drawing fouls is a skill and he has the build to put those skills to work. With a 6-foot-7-inch frame that has carried a lot of lean muscle since the day he stepped onto a college campus, Brooks needs to be willing to do some of the team’s dirty work.

With two scholarships open and a portal packed full of useful players, there’s no reason not to expect reports of this nature to trickle out for the Gators. They’ve already added four players from other programs and Golden has shown no sign of taking his foot off the gas. Don’t get too disheartened if Brooks goes a different direction — he’s a talented and useful player but Todd Golden seems to know what he’s doing.

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Gators named a finalist for this transferring forward

Washington State transfer target Efe Abogidi would fit in nicely with Todd Golden’s analytical approach.

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.

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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Florida basketball moves up in latest ESPN bracketology update

Joe Lunardi thinks the Gators are a good bet to make the NCAA Tournament right now.

There are still many months between now and the start of Florida basketball’s 2022-23 campaign but the prognosticators are already looking ahead, not just to the beginning of the season, but how they believe the schedule will ultimately shake out. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is among those in the media who are constantly gazing into their crystal ball to provide the fans with a glimpse of what could possibly be the future.

Lunardi’s latest update to his bracketology projections saw the Gators take a big step forward from their previous position perilously perched on the edge of contention. Despite the loss of a pair of 2022 commits, as well as a few players to the transfer portal and one to the draft, new head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] has made some additions that appear to be enough to earn Lunardi’s bump up to the No. 9 seed in the Midwest, which is centered in Kansas City.

According to the bracket, Florida would face No. 8-seed Iowa in the first round held in Birmingham, Alabama, and would earn the right to try and take down No. 1-seeded Baylor in the following game — if the bears can get past the winner between Jackson State and Sacred Heart in the play-in game.

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Gators hoops hosts this Buffalo transfer on campus

After missing out on Johni Broome, can Todd Golden land elite rebounder Josh Mballa from the transfer portal?

There are still two open scholarship spots on Florida’s men’s basketball roster, and [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] is combing through those available in the transfer portal to find the best fit. Former Buffalo forward [autotag]Josh Mballa[/autotag] was one of the players in Gainesville on Friday to meet with the team, according to 247Sports.

In his third season with the Bulls, Mballa averaged 13.0 points, 8.6 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game. He’s a monster on the offensive boards too, posting the 39th-best offensive rebound percentage among D-I players. He made the All-MAC second team and entered to portal following the season to seek brighter horizons.

In 2020-21, Mballa posted even better numbers. He averaged a double-double (15.3 points and 10.8 rebounds) and was named MAC Defensive Player of the Year.

This will be Mballa’s second transfer after moving on from Texas Tech following his freshman year, and he fits the needs of first-year head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]. The Gators lack size and rebounding ability past [autotag]Colin Castleton[/autotag]. [autotag]Jason Jitoboh[/autotag] and [autotag]CJ Felder[/autotag] are returning and [autotag]Alex Fudge[/autotag] came in through the transfer portal, but UF still needs one piece down low to complete the frontcourt.

That’s where Mballa fits in. It’s unknown how well the meeting on Friday went, but Golden has hand-selected the guys he wants to go after and landed most of them so far aside from power forward Johni Broome who chose Auburn.

Ole Miss also hosted him recently, so there’s likely to be some more SEC competition for him down the road.

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