* Fourth in a series looking at the UF men's basketball spring/summer additions.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — So, let's just to cut to the chase by going back and reading the title of this post.
How Kerry Blackshear Jr. fits in
The quick answer: Perfectly.
UF coach Mike White will have a shiny, new 6-foot-11 toy to play with this season.
Let's go a step further. When Blackshear, the 6-foot-11, 240-pound center and second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection at Virginia Tech,
announced via social media Wednesday night he would play his final season at Florida and officially signed with the program Friday, the Gators acquired arguably the most talented player to hit the graduate-transfer market since the NCAA passed the rule in 2013 allowing student-athletes with degrees in hand to move to other programs with immediate eligibility.
Blackshear, once a standout at Orlando Evans High, is not just a highly productive post player — both in the box score and out of it — but comes armed with a tremendous IQ and feel for the game. His statistics speak (make that shout) for themselves: 14.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game during the 2018-19 season, while shooting nearly 51 percent from the floor, 33 from the 3-point arc and 74 from the free-throw line. Those numbers, of course, were compiled while playing in the best basketball league in the country and on back-to-back NCAA Tournament teams, with some of his best games coming against the ACC's biggest powerhouses.
Offensively, Blackshear has a complete low-post game, adept at straight, back-to-the-basket post-ups, duck-ins, soft hands to finish lobs, and mobility for pick-and-rolls. He can also catch it on the elbow or in the high post and be a triple threat; skills as a shooter who can draw out his defender on the perimeter, as a passer who can hit cutters, or as a handler who can put the ball on the deck and drive it.
Beyond stuffing stat lines, Blackshear is a terrific communicator and traffic cop on both ends of the floor, with the ability to facilitate on offense as a true play-through big and do all the things (switching, downing, corralling, boxing out, helping the helper) needed on the defensive end. This past season, he averaged 30 minutes per game, a testament to his ability to stay out of foul trouble.
Kerry Blackshear averaged 14.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists on his way to second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors during the 2018-19 season.
So, White and the Gators didn't merely add a big man Wednesday night, they likely got the program's best all-around post player since Joakim Noah — though Blackshear probably more closely favors a poor man's version of Al Horford.
Yeah, that'll work.
On a team that's been crying for a bona fide threat at the "5" spot since Patric Young roamed the paint during his Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year season of 2014, the arrival of Blackshear is a godsend.
Some anecdotal digits:
* In Virginia Tech's heartbreaking, season-ending loss to Duke in the NCAA Tournament round of 16, Blackshear went for 18 points and 16 rebounds in 34 minutes of banging against the likes of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish, three players taken in the NBA lottery last week. A month earlier, in their regular-season meeting at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Blackshear had 22 and 10 while playing the entire 40 minutes of a 77-72 upset win.
* How 'bout 23 and 10 in another 40-minute effort against eventual national-champion Virginia?
* The Hokies were beaten handily at North Carolina in February, but Blackshear tallied 19 points, 17 rebounds and five assists in 37 minutes.
* He logged 42 minutes in an overtime loss to Florida State (a team with some size, by the way) in the ACC Tournament. He had a career-high 29 points against Pittsburgh, a career-best eight assists against Georgia Tech, went 11-for-12 from the free-throw line in a non-conference win over Saint Louis and attempted 19 shots in a NCAA win over Liberty.
Though mobile, Blackshear is not going to wow with explosive athleticism. In fact, it's what "KBJ" (his nickname) is missing on that front that likely cooled the NBA folks — he was a last-minute exit from the underclassmen draft pool — and helped send him back to college for one more year. He'll have his share of power dunks, but most of his work is done below the rim. That's OK.
And then there are the intangibles.
Blackshear will be the lone senior on the '19-20 roster and instantly give the locker room and team huddles a second voice to accompany the take-charge persona that blossomed from point guard
Andrew Nembhard, now a sophomore, late in the '18-19 season. It'll be a voice that already has 103 games of experience playing (and winning) at places like Durham, Chapel Hill and Charlottesville.
Think about the names that have cycled through the post for the Gators while they've searched the last five years for a viable both-ends, true presence inside. Jon Horford. Chris Walker.
John Egbunu.
Kevarrius Hayes. Schuyler Rimmer.
Gorjok Gak.
Dontay Bassett.
Isaiah Stokes.
The best of that bunch, given Egbunu's injuries, was Hayes, who despite being undersized at 6-9 and 227 pounds was an absolute soldier on the effort and energy front — during games
and practices — as well as an excellent defensive player, especially with his weak side help. Hayes played his best basketball over the final month of his career, while taking his leadership to another level.
Now for some context: Over four seasons and 140 games, Hayes had 19 games where he reached double-figure points and four games with double-figure rebounds. He
totaled 53 assists for his career.
Blackshear had eight double-doubles as a redshirt junior for the Hokes last season, plus 83 assists.
Kerry Blackshear
Given the lack of production inside, the case can be made (and has been often) the Gators have been playing something akin to 4-on-5 on the offensive end the last two seasons, what with all the maladies and deficiencies that have cropped up with their "bigs." Now, throw Blackshear into a mix. Opponents will have to honor his three-level skills, thus opening the floor for UF shooters and drivers, a mix that includes three hardened sophomores — Nembhard, 2-guard
Noah Locke and forward
Keyontae Johnson — plus the instant-impact additions of two freshmen of McDonald's All-America pedigree in forward
Scottie Lewis and combo guard
Tre Mann. Florida in 2019-20, it would appear, has few if any holes, not to mentions all sorts of options relative to style of play.
Add a front-court second line of improving
Dontay Bassett, 6-11
Gorjok Gak, who is now 100 percent recovered from knee surgery that forced him to sit out last season, slimmed-down and skilled
Isaiah Stokes, along with incoming freshman and top-40 prospect
Omar Payne. UF also signed 6-11, 300-pound
Jason Jitoboh, but now he's clear for a developmental redshirt season, if circumstances allow.
The team that White guided to the Elite Eight in 2017 was really good, deep and stocked with solid upperclassmen. This team will be younger, but more talented across the board, and now with one of the best and most battle-tested centers in the country.
Look for the Gators to get some love on the SEC preseason projection front and beyond. They already have, actually. As news of Blackshear's decision made the rounds Wednesday night, national college basketball writers began readjusting their early rankings. Florida rocketed into most Top 10s.
Blackshear's addition is not only a game-changer and season-changer, but an expectation-changer, as well as an in-house chemistry changer. White hasn't had to deal with the latter two issues very much over his four UF seasons; certainly not to the extent he'll face heading into '19-20 as far as managing minutes and egos.
But those are issues coaches don't mind having.
* Part 1: How Jason Jitoboh Fits In
* Part 2: How Ques Glover Fits In
* Part 3: How Anthony Duruji Fits In
