GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two falls ago, the Florida Gators came home from a trip to Portland, Ore., and three games at the prestigious PK80 Invitational, a Thanksgiving weekend tournament headlined by some of the top Nike programs in the country. While there,
Mike White's third UF team, ranked seventh, looked like one of the best squads in the entire country, destroying Stanford 108-87, staring down 17th-ranked and reigning NCAA runner-up Gonzaga 111-105 in a double-overtime thriller, then losing to top-ranked Duke, 87-84, in a game they led by 18 early in the second half and by 10 with just over four minutes left.
The Gators were still kicking themselves on the flight home, knowing a win over the Blue Devils and tournament title likely would have vaulted them to No. 1. They were also, though, patting themselves on the back and feeling pretty good about the state of the team and an offense ranked first in the country at nearly 100 points per game.
A lot of folks said a lot of good things about those Gators over the next week.
"And we did not handle that very well, as history shows," fourth-year power forward
Dontay Bassett said Tuesday.
Added fourth-year junior center
Gorjok Gak: "We were rolling, but we kind of got in over our heads and it affected us.
UF's next game was against unranked Florida State, which came to Exactech Arena/O'Connell and absolutely dismantled the Gators in an embarrassing 83-66 loss. Florida lost three of the next four — each defeat providing a further blueprint of how to best defend UF's wide-open, 3-point-shooting offense — and all the feel-good euphoria from Portland gave way to reality.
Bassett was a redshirt freshman on that team. Gak a sophomore. They are the only players on the current UF roster, one being hyped as top-five fodder heading into the 2019-20 season, who were around to experience that kick in the head to a team that returned six players from its Elite Eight rotation of the year before, and had a front-six lineup of players with three years or more experience, including senior point guard Chris Chiozza and grad-transfer Egor Koulechov. They were veteran enough to have known better.
Fast forward to 2019-20. Bassett nodded.
"Yeah, there's a target on our back," he said.
The college basketball season doesn't start for another five weeks, but a lot of love is going to come Florida's way in the run-up to the Nov. 5 opener against North Florida. That was overriding theme Tuesday afternoon when the Gators staged their preseason media day at the UF basketball complex. A makeover of the entire roster — five players transferred out since January and three graduated, replaced by nine new guys — will pair with a trio of returning sophomore starters, one of the best freshman classes in the country, along with one of the most accomplished and heralded graduate transfers ever to come available. When the preseason polls are unveiled next month, Florida almost certainly will be in the top 10, with way-too-early projections already placing the Gators as a fashionable pick to win the Southeastern Conference and earn a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.
These are expectations White has not had to deal with in his previous four season at Florida. Or at any time during time as a head coach. But he understands them. Better yet, he doesn't necessarily disagree with them, mainly because he's had some offseason practice time with point guard
Andrew Nembhard, Virginia Tech grad-transfer and All-Atlantic Coast Conference big man Kerry Blackshear, and the McDonald's All-America freshman duo of forward
Scottie Lewis and combo guard
Tre Mann. It's a ridiculously talented bunch.
"I don't blame whoever is out there saying we've got a chance to be pretty good," White, who has guided the program to four straight 20-win seasons and three consecutive NCAA tournaments, said during his news conference. "It is what it is. We've got a pretty good roster. It's a good problem to have. That said, we haven't even been through a [fall] practice yet. We have no idea who's going to start, who's going to score for us, who's going to be our best defensive player. All the ingredients that exist in really good teams remain to be seen with this team. Toughness. Maturity. Experience. Who's going to lead us. Consistency. Work ethic. I could go on and on and on."
But he left off with this.
"Do I like our roster? Yeah."
In time, he just may grow to love it.
Sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard doing a photo shoot during media day. (Photo: Nati Rodriguez/UAA Communications)
Heading into the summer, White knew he had Nembhard, fifth in the SEC in assists and a starter all 36 games last season, coming back alongside power forward
Keyontae Johnson, who had two double-doubles in the SEC Tournament, and off-guard
Noah Locke, who set the school record for freshman 3-pointers made with 81. White was bringing in Lewis, a top-10 national prospect with a 100-mph motor and flaming desire to defend, plus Mann, one of the most gifted all-around offensive players in his recruiting class, and lengthy "big"
Omar Payne, another top-50 prospect.
But then came Blackshear, a 6-foot-10, 232-pound do-everything guy who averaged 14 points, seven-plus rebounds and more than two assists — shoots 3s, too — and instantly became the best all-around low-post UF player since Al Horford. Blackshear left Virginia Tech after a coaching change and basically had his pick of any school in the country. The Orlando native narrowed his choices to Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida before opting to play his final season close to his hometown and family.
One of the reasons, he said at the time, was because of the UF roster; both what the Gators already had and and the new blood coming. He got here in July and got to see everyone in person.
"It was even better than I thought," said Blackshear (who goes by "KJ," as in Kerry Jr.). "We have guys in here that impress me every day. I was like, 'Wow!' Whether it be open gym or team workouts, it's been fun to be a part of; whether learning new guys' games, learning how to play with certain groups, learning how to score with them, or make plays out of a different system, it's been really, really fun."
A caveat, of course, is experience. With 103 career games at Tech, Blackshear has almost as many games on his college résumé as Nembhard, Locke and Johnson combined. Bassett and Gak, who sat out all last season rehabbing from knee surgery, have been role players in their previous UF seasons.
As the lone senior on the roster, Blackshear may be called on for wisdom and a settling touch when adversity comes — and it's coming.
"I think we have a group that understands what comes with all that," Blackshear said of the expectations. "We have some guys who have been in it before, which will help me lead the younger guys, sort to speak. I think we have a group that is locked into actually getting better, and not concerned with the outside noise. We haven't played a game yet. We haven't had [real] practice yet or even had a scrimmage yet, so we understand there's a long way to go. It's a group that is mature in that sense and understands, it's a process, meeting expectations, but also meeting our own expectations."
And, frankly, the internal ones are pretty much in line with the external.
"We think we're a Final Four-type team, yeah," Johnson said.
UF coach Mike White during Tuesday afternoon's media day news conference at the basketball complex. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
So much has to happen (most of it good, obviously) for that to become a reality. And there will be growing pains along the way, especially for freshmen who really don't have a clue what's about to come their way.
"They have to experience it for themselves. You can try to tell them, but they really have to see it all for themselves," Locke said. "That's how it was for me. I'm not saying I didn't listen or didn't prepare for my first college basketball season, but for me to truly understand it — how hard it was — I had to go through it."
It's coming, starting with Friday's first official practice. White and his returnees have warned the newbies. It'll be hard.
"Can't wait," Lewis said.
The mix of talented experience and scintillating newcomers has made for some high-level mini-practices and workouts the last couple months. This a far more athletic team, a much higher-energy team, and worlds-different communicative team than the last two versions. The '19-20 Gators potentially could be multiple in the way they attack on offense and positively elite in how they defend.
At least, those are the expectations.
If the target fits, right?
"With so many new guys, it'll be a process," Nembhard said. "If we trust that process and build our culture, we have a chance to be a really good team. Really good."
