GAINESVILLE, Fla. —
Mike White was with his 4-year-old son, Dillon, when the Florida basketball coach's cell phone rang the morning of April 16. The two were sitting in a chairlift headed up a mountain in Vail, Colo. Assistant coach
Jordan Mincy was on the other end with some news.
"He's in the portal, Coach," MIncy said.
He, of course, was Virginia Tech center
Kerry Blackshear Jr., a 6-foot-10, 250-pound answer to all the Gators' low-post questions, and arguably the most coveted graduate transfer to come available since the NCAA implemented the rule in 2013 that allows student-athletes with degree in hand and eligibility remaining to play elsewhere right away. Reports that Blackshear, the second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection, was looking to transfer had been bubbling even before Buzz Williams, the coach who recruited him to Tech, bolted for Texas A&M shortly after the 2018-19 season.
The events of the next 10 weeks would be chaotic for the Blackshear family and a handful of anxious coaches, not to mention comedic at times on social media. In the end, Blackshear's decision to sign with the Gators altered the 2019-20 preseason college basketball landscape in the Southeastern Conference and beyond.
For UF, the pursuit began with White making a key decision once he reached the top of that Colorado mountain.
"I bought Dillon a cookie and a bag of chips," White said. "I needed to preoccupy him for a little while."
Within minutes, White had spoken to Blackshear's parents, Kerry Sr. and Lamilia, but it was days before he spoke directly to Kerry Jr. (aka "KJ"). White was told it would be a coach's version of an eternity (weeks, maybe a couple months) before anything about the young man's future had been settled. Not only was Blackshear in the NCAA transfer portal, but he also put his name into the NBA underclassmen draft process.
"Things were about to get very complicated," White said.
First came the waiting game. For everyone. Blackshear went about his business with the pros, bouncing to a few team workouts, but was not among the 100 players invited to either the NBA or G League combines and eventually removed his name from the underclassmen pool at the May 29 deadline. By that time, the family had heard from nearly 30 schools expressing interest in the player who averaged 14.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in helping guide the Hokies to the NCAA Tournament's round of 16 in March.
A free-for-all was set to commence.
With Blackshear's return to college official, the family readied for another bite at the recruiting apple. No big deal. Both parents played basketball at Stetson, where Dad remains the program's all-time scoring leader; KJ had close to 40 Division-I offers coming out of Orlando Evans in 2015; his younger brother signed last fall with Florida Atlantic; his younger sister will be a junior in high school and high-major prospect this fall. The Blackshears not only understood what was coming, they'd dealt with it before. All of them.
Only this time, KJ wasn't a three-star prospect ranked 112th nationally.
"We were basically going after the No. 1 player in the country," Mincy said.
The Blackshear family (from left) after a Virginia Tech game last season: Kerry Sr., Kayla, Kerry Jr., Lamilia and Keenan.
The Blackshears, close-knit and with basketball in their blood, were ready for the process.
"We were telling him, 'Hey, this list can't get too long.' We needed to narrow it down," Kerry Sr. said this week. "Whatever he was looking for — location, style of play, talent around him — he wanted to go somewhere he could be comfortable and showcase the skill set he showed over his last three months at Virginia Tech. Either way, it was going to be his decision."
Meanwhile, back at UF, it was decided that White would be the point man in the pursuit. Make no mistake, this was a team effort on the part of everyone in the program, from assistants to the strength coach to the training staff and down the line. White, though, had to be the main voice because a prospect as high profile as Blackshear needed to hear directly (and constantly) from the head coach.
The payout could be a game-changer.
"Usually, grad transfers can represent the missing piece to your team," said UF assistant
Darris Nichols, citing what the additions of Canyon Barry (from College of Charleston in 2016) and Egor Koulechov (Rice in '17) did for recent Gators teams. "With high school kids, you don't always know what you're going to get. We knew we lacked the kind of experience we could potentially get with a player like Kerry."
Initial media speculation named Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Gonzaga and possibly Kansas as the teams to beat. That's exactly what it was, also: speculation.
"We're a pretty private family, so we didn't get too many others involved," Kerry Sr. said. "It was between KJ, my wife and myself, and we tried to deal with it as low key as possible."
So the Blackshears went dark.
Social media did not.
For internet sites, bloggers, social media and fans following Blackshear's plight, the ensuing month became an amateur-hour guessing game rooted mostly in nothing but rumors and, well, fake news.
On June 5, Florida got the first visit, albeit an unofficial one. KJ and his parents did the up-and-back, same-day trip from Orlando. Everything went great. The family enjoyed the visit and got answers to a multitude of questions while Kerry, the player, was polite, engaged and (best of all) interested.
The UF pitch was easy, starting with the need — going on more than two years now— for a low-post offensive presence. Blackshear was shown video of the Florida offense and visualized how his triple-threat skills in the high post would translate into the UF system. Associate head coach
Al Pinkins, who works with frontcourt players, had broken down every miss and make of Blackshear's season with the Hokies, and provided critiques on ways he could improve.
"There were some things with his footwork he could work on. And, sometimes, he had a tendency to rush his shot around the basket," Pinkins said. "His mom and dad agreed."
The Gators, with three sophomore starters returning and one of the nation's best incoming freshman classes on the way, were going to be good, the family was told, but also young; not a senior among them. Not only did they need scoring in the post, they needed a leader. The coaches referenced the smooth transitions for Barry and Koulechov in their grad-transfer experiences at UF. Barry was 2017 SEC Sixth Man of the Year on an Elite Eight team, while Koulechov was the Gators' No. 2 scorer and leading rebounder.
And, of course, Florida had one more thing that no one else that got in the mix could offer: proximity. Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center was just an hour and 20 minutes from the Blackshear home.
"We felt good about how it went," Nichols said of the visit. "We also knew we had a long way to go."
Did they ever.
Florida got Kerry Blackshear's first recruiting visit, then came a plethora of internet and social media rumors about where the Virginia Tech grad transfer would ultimately land.
Over the ensuing weeks:
* Memphis, already with the top-ranked incoming freshman class in the country, reportedly joined the mix … but not really.
* On June 11, Blackshear took an official visit to Arkansas, with plenty of buzz about new coach Eric Musselman and his success with transfers at Nevada.
* The family went to Tennessee for an official visit the weekend of June 14. Three days later,
Blue Ribbon Handbook reported via Twitter that Blackshear had narrowed his choices to Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas A&M.
Back in Gainesville, the Gators knew that was not the case.
"We loved it," Mincy said.
* On June 18-19, Blackshear took his official visit to Kentucky, amid reports/rumors he would commit to the Wildcats before UK coach John Calipari boarded his flight to New York for the NBA Draft on his second day there. Big Blue Nation was beside itself when the commitment did not come, with its wildly popular message board, Rupp's Rafters, lit with misinformation and rumor-mongering. A highlight: Blackshear played pickup on his visit and didn't like that he wasn't a focal point or what Calipari told him about his role. Pickup? Seriously?
* The day after going to Lexington, Blackshear reportedly was headed to A&M for a visit with Williams, his former coach. That never happened.
* Over the weekend of June 21, Virginia Tech was rumored to be back in play, with Blackshear apparently struggling to make a decision where to go, thus opting for the easy decision and leaning toward staying with the Hokies. Again, not the case.
* That same weekend, Florida message boards buzzed that Blackshear was seen on the UF campus that same weekend. False.
* Then came a report from
Rivals on June 24 that Tennessee had emerged as the front-runner over Kentucky. Also false.
Through all the nonsense, White stayed in contact with the Blackshear camp. The family had been honest and up front with him from the start.
"We never thought we were out of it," White said.
Early last week, Blackshear reached out to a couple UF players, sophomore point guard
Andrew Nembhard and incoming freshman
Scottie Lewis, neither of whom were on campus for his unofficial stop the previous month. He wanted their takes.
"I just told him the situation was perfect for him because we already had a good team and he was exactly what we needed to take that next step," Nembhard said.
Added Lewis, the McDonald's All-American and likely one-and-done prospect: "He asked me what my expectations were for myself and the team this season. I told him, 'It's simple, I want to win. That's my main focus. We can all play together and win together, and also win individually.' He needed some clarity on it, really, with it being pretty much a business decision for him. He wants to play at the next level, I want to play at the next level and so do other guys on this team. I told him we're going to have a lot of NBA scouts at our practices and games this season and that it was going to be a great year."
Late in the afternoon of June 26, speculation began hitting social media that Blackshear was ready to make his decision. The UF coaches still believed they were in a good place, but weren't overconfident by any stretch. Anything could happen.
That night, White was with the Space Coast Gator Club in Melbourne, Fla., to speak to his final Gator Gathering of the summer. Blackshear's name had come up at each stop, but the coach declined comment, citing NCAA rules. Around 7:45 p.m., while signing autographs, White's cell phone rang. He saw the name that flashed on the screen.
UF coach Mike White getting the call June 26 (left) and afterward.
"Excuse me, I need to take this," he said.
Yes, he did.
In the corner of the room, with his back to the crowd, phone to one ear and finger the other, White entered a conversation that began as cruelly as it ended gloriously.
"Coach, I've got some bad news for you."
"Uh no, KJ! C'mon, man. Where you going?"
"Sorry, but ... I'm going to … the University of Florida."
Had White been back on that mountain in Vail, he could have sprinted up it.
"We have a chance to be really good," White said this week. "But we have a long way to go."
And a lot of hard work in front of them. Like the pursuit of Kerry Blackshear, it'll have to be a team effort.
Only this time, it'll be
with Kerry Blackshear.
