Transfer guard Phlandous Fleming (center) scored more than 1,500 points and averaged 20.1 points and 7.4 four rebounds as a senior last season at Charleston Southern.
Getting Older, Getting Familiar
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Early last month, Florida basketball coach Mike White, cell phone to his ear, was walking through an empty gymnasium in the team's practice facility when he ran into a visitor. When the call ended, White put the phone in his pocket.
"The Gators got better today," White announced. "Four 21-, 22-year-olds walked through the door this morning."
Bam. Just like that, Florida went from one of the youngest teams in the Southeastern Conference to a roster that included two grad-transfers, five seniors and two juniors. The four incoming transfers White referenced — Brandon McKissic (Missouri-Kansas City), Phlandrous Fleming Jr. (Charleston Southern), Myreon Jones (Penn State) and CJ Felder (Boston College) — average 84 games for their careers, including 64 starts, plus nearly 1,000 career points and 340 rebounds each. Again, those are averages.
As far as White's proclamation, time will tell if the Gators "got better," and how much so, but they definitely got older and more experienced the day that foursome showed up. Remember, this was a program that in 2020-21 ranked 244th nationally in experience, according toKenPom.com metrics, which was 10th in the SEC. In 2019-20, UF checked in at 347th in the same category (out of 353), last in the league.
And now?
Four Florida players will turn 23 before the first game of the season.
So, yes, '21-22 is going to be different. Actually, it's already different. The new blood flushed into the building the first week in June was joined last week by four of the seven scholarship returnees for strength/conditioning workouts and NCAA-allowed offseason practices.
"These guys are mature. They're upperclassmen. They know the ropes," fifth-year senior forward Anthony Duruji said. "They came here to compete at a higher level."
On Tuesday, second-team All-SEC forward Colin Castleton was back in the basketball complex after spending the last several months working out and getting feedback in the NBA's underclassmen process. Castleton, the 6-foot-11 post man who averaged 12.4 points and 6.4 rebounds, announced Saturday night via social media his plans to return to UF for his senior season.
Add another 68 games of high-major experience/production to the mix.
The rest of the scholarship roster: Sophomore guard Niels Lane, who remained in town throughout the offseason and been an absolute workout warrior on the floor and in the weight room; junior center Jason Jitoboh, who also stuck around for both summer sessions to train; sophomore wing Samson Ruzhentsev, who currently is in his native Russia looking to return soon; freshman guard Kowacie Reeves, a 6-5, 180-pounder from Macon, Ga., who represents the lone collegiate rookie on the squad, but is also getting up 1,000 shots daily; and, of course, senior forward Keyontae Johnson, who is around every day but still prohibited from working out in the aftermath of his on-court collapse last Dec. 11, four games into the season. An announcement regarding his playing status will come from Johnson and his family.
Junior Alex Klatsky and sophomore Jack May, a pair of walk-on guards, round out the squad.
"I'm excited to see what it's all going to look like when we all get here," senior point guard Tyree Appleby said. "We're going to be an older team, but still kind of like a newer team, you know?"
So far, the on-court stuff has been mostly drilling, with some basic install of offensive and defensive concepts. Of equal if not greater significance is the team bonding and chemistry going on both on the floor and away from it. This is altogether new terrain, what with four full-grown, live athletic bodies parachuting in from elsewhere to beef up a program that has reached the last four NCAA tournaments (the only team in the SEC to do so), but also returns two starters off a club that finished 15-10 and was ousted from second-round NCAA play by an upset loss from 15th-seeded Oral Roberts. The Gators are remaking on the fly.
"I think this is the new normal," UF associate head coach Al Pinkins said. "Year in and year out, I think most teams in college basketball are going to have four or five new players on their team each season. So you're probably going to have to try and keep things really simple with the turnover of players year to year, and find out what you want to do and what you're about and get your players to learn it, buy into it and do what you're trying to do really, really well."
That's fine, but here's the rub. There's a reason players transfer. Granted, there were, oh, 1,600 or so in the portal this offseason, but every player that looks to go elsewhere has a reason for doing so, be it a coaching change, playing time, style of play, internal issues, personal issues, whatever.
The Gators are bringing in four guys who are used to playing significant minutes; an average of 27.1 per player. McKissic and Fleming, who were first-team all-conference in their respective leagues, plus defensive players of the year, each played 34 minutes per game. Factoring in incumbent rotational regulars Appleby, Castleton and Duruji, some of these guys (new and old) better get used to the idea of playing fewer minutes than they're accustomed.
Does that scenario align with their goals?
"I get the question, but it's understood. When you come to a place like this — and come from the kind of place I came from — it's about doing anything and everything you need to do to win," said McKissic, who averaged 17.2 points (on nearly 51-percent shooting from the floor and 43 from 3-point range), 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists at UMKC last season. "I think that's what everyone wants to do. We want to do some special things here, so we have to be willing to make sacrifices."
Graduate-transfer guard Brandon McKissic (left), who tallied nearly 1,200 points in four seasons at Missouri-Kansas City, greets UF associate head coach Al Pinkins during a recent workout.
Fleming (who goes by "Phlan") was a 1,500-point scorer during his four seasons at CSU. He basically echoed his new veteran teammate's remarks. Though Fleming may have put up good numbers, he had one winning season during his four with the Buccaneers. In fact, the four transfers combined for just three winning seasons during their 13 respective seasons elsewhere and no NCAA berths.
"It's a different feel, with everybody being old instead of having a bunch of freshmen," said Fleming, a sturdy 6-4, 210-pounder who averaged 20.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and twice was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Big South Conference. "Because that's what it is, we're all mature. We all know what it takes. We had our individual experiences at our different places, but we know we have to come together and band together as a team."
Added Lane, who played sparingly last season (5.7 minutes over 14 game appearances on his way to just 15 points): "I'm embracing these guys as my teammates. They're good players and they're going to help us win. At the same time, it's good to be challenged. These guys are going to challenge me, and I'm definitely going to challenge them."
Or as Duruji put it, "Iron sharpens iron. We're in this together, but we're going to compete against one another."
So it goes.
The offseason, just like the regular season, is about process. Bonding and chemistry are paramount, but these circumstances are so out of the so-called norm. No one knows how it'll all shake out come November (and beyond). Then again, no one needs to know, right now.
Ask around, however, and things seem to be off to a copacetic start. That's encouraging, considering so much of the roster that figures so prominently this season has no Gator skin in the game. Not yet, anyway.
"We're mixing better than I thought we would, actually. These are good guys," said Jitoboh, the 6-11, 300-pounder. "Everyone knows what everyone is here to do. The guys that transferred in came from places that weren't very successful. They want to change that. They're here to win. We all are."
