New guys: Freshman center Alex Condon and junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. chat during a recent summer workout.
Harry Fodder: Getting to Know You
Friday, June 23, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Walter Clayton Jr., one of a bevy of new guys to take up locker room residency in the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Complex this summer, had a little more advance knowledge of the Florida Gators than most of his fellow incoming transfers and freshmen.
The 6-foot-2 junior guard came to UF from Iona, but grew up in Lake Wales, Fla., and has always followed the Gators. Clayton knew the ups and downs of UF's first season under Todd Golden. He knew junior wing Will Richard could shoot and play defense. He'd watched highlights of some of the other transfers, but admitted the tape could only provide limited intel.
Clayton, though, knew all about guard Riley Kugel, the sophomore guard who bypassed the NBA underclassmen evaluation process during the spring to return and build on his Southeastern Conference All-Freshman season. Clayton, in fact, had been well aware of Kugel's athleticism, shooting and shot-making for some time now.
"We played their team when we were in high school, but I was hurt and couldn't play," Clayton said this week, recalling the matchup between his Bartow Class 6A squad and Kugel's Class 7A Orlando Dr. Phillips team, both of which won state championships in 2021. "They won by 10."
Clayton had one more thought on that game that he wasn't about to keep to himself.
"We would've won if I'd played," he added, with a smile. "I remind him of that every day. He and Zell."
That would be "Zell," as in sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen, who ran point on that Dr. Phillips club and also is one of Clayton's new UF teammates. As it turns out, Kugel, Aberdeen, Richard and sophomore forward Aleks Szymczyk are the lone Gator leftovers from Golden's debut squad that went 16-17 and lost in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament. Coach Todd Golden
In the months that followed the program's first losing campaign since 2015, Golden and his staff commenced a rebuild that has brought seven new faces into the gym, with another one due in Sunday and yet another later in the summer. The new Gators began trickling into the facility in May and early June and now are in the second full-blown week of NCAA-allotted offseason workouts, with rules permitting four hours of team practices and individual drills per week, in addition to weight-room and conditioning under strength coach Victor Lopez.
"We knew we had issues that we needed to address," Golden said Thursday. "I think we've done a decent job addressing those issues, plain and simple."
In this new (but becoming normalized) college basketball world of multiple transfers and annual mega-roster turnover (when everyone shows up, Florida will have six transfers and three freshmen) practices and pick-up games during the summer become even more important to developing chemistry, on and off the floor.
"We definitely have a lot of guys who fit what the coaches want to do this year," said Richard, who a year ago was a new-guy sophomore and transfer from Belmont who went on to be the team's second-leading scorer and one of the most efficient offensive players in the SEC. "I can see we're starting to gel already by just playing together and getting a sense of what each player can do."
Following UF's lopsided loss to Central Florida in the NIT, the Gators went looking for size and physicality the likes of which would impact – preferably immediately – a team that was one of the worst rebounding teams in the country last season, as well as a sub-par 3-point shooting team.
Florida checked that first box, with the addition of 6-10, 235-pound forward Tyrese Samuel (Seton Hall), 6-8, 220-pound EJ Jarvis (Yale) and 7-1, 230-pound Micah Handlogten (Marshall). The team also signed 6-11 Australian freshman Alex Condon and 6-9 forward Thomas Haugh, both of whom arrived further along with regards to their athleticism, skill set and competitive spirit. In other words, further along in everything.
Remember, last season it was 6-11 Colin Castleton as the team's lone, proven "big" and he was lost for the season to a broken wrist in February.
"We're bigger now," Richard said. "A lot bigger."
The coaches hope tougher and more physical, too.
Gators with a post-practice huddle-up.
Clayton, a standout football player and Division-I prospect as a safety in his prep days, will be a tone-setter who figures to be on the court at least 30 minutes a game. He averaged 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists on his way to being named 2023 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player and unanimous first-team all-league selection. He also shot 43.1 percent from the 3-point line his first two collegiate seasons.
"I watched Florida some last year and I think we're going to be a more physical team this year," Clayton said. "We're putting an emphasis on rebounding and we're going to be better with that at the guard spots. Rebounding will be a team effort."
Added Samuel, who averaged 11.6 points and nearly six rebounds in starting 33 games in the Big East last season: "I know what big and athletic looks like. Me and EJ are older guys, but we have some fearless young big guys too. That's what you want. At the end of the day, being fearless and playing hard is going to win you more games."
Of course, scoring helps, also.
The Florida coaches like what they have back on the perimeter in Richard and Kugel, who blew up over the last six weeks of the season and is now showing up in the first round of 2024 NBA mock draft boards. Both players shot over 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from the arc in SEC play.
Now roll in Clayton, plus grad-transfer and first-team All Big West Conference point guard Zyon Pullin, who averaged 18.3 points (on 49 percent from the floor and 39.4 from deep), 4.2 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 free throws per game. Pullin is scheduled to check in Sunday.
Those are four players with proven track records. Five if you count wing Julian Rishwain, a grad-transfer who played for Golden at San Francisco and shot 43 percent from deep during the Dons' NCAA Tournament season of '21-22. Rishwain underwent reconstructive knee surgery in January is cleared for shooting only.
"A little more mature, a little more focused, a little more driven and a little better understanding of what it takes to be good," Golden said of his incoming veterans. "I think the key for us is the way we've kind of raised the level of talent."
Now it's about coming together, whether that means going out to lunch as a team Wednesday to watch the Gators in the College World Series or getting after it in the gym with the team's summer-long aggregate shooting competition (Spoiler: Richard is leading for the second year in a row).
"Through my time as a coach and as a player, if guys get along off the floor, you have a much better chance of being good," Golden said. "I think we're off to a good start that way."
Which brings us back to that Clayton-Kugel conversation.
Hey Riley! Walt missed that game when you guys played Bartow a couple years ago. What would have happened had he played?
"C'mon, man," Kugel said. "We'd have won by 10 anyway."
Kugel had one more thought he wasn't about to keep to himself.
The 6-foot-2 junior guard came to UF from Iona, but grew up in Lake Wales, Fla., and has always followed the Gators. Clayton knew the ups and downs of UF's first season under Todd Golden. He knew junior wing Will Richard could shoot and play defense. He'd watched highlights of some of the other transfers, but admitted the tape could only provide limited intel.
