Florida Makes The Cut For Four-star Big Man Omar Payne

The Florida coaching staff has made the list of another elite prospect.

Sunday night four-star power forward Omar Payne released his top-7 schools that included Florida, Florida State, UCF, Ohio State, Texas and LSU, Louisville. Payne made the announcement via his Twitter account.

Payne, a 6-foot-9 215-pounder with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, ran with Team Parsons during the travel season and the Gators watched all of his games in Orlando during the final live evaluation period of July. A Florida coach was at nearly every one of Payne’s games during the recently completed travel season.

“It’s a great program,” Payne told Rivals.com about Florida. “I like the way they play. The atmosphere is nice. Their coaching staff is nice. They are good people. I talk to them a lot. We have a good relationship.”

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Payne has made unofficial visits to Gainesville and has been in regular contact with the coaching staff for a couple of years now. He has a very good relationship with the coaching staff who, thanks to Payne transferring from Osceola High School to Montverde Academy, have a shorter drive to watch his games and to observe him at practice.

In a June interview Payne told GatorsTerritory.com that he planned to narrow his list of schools “towards the end of summer,” so the timing of last night’s announcement was not surprising. In the same interview the No. 49 ranked prospect in the Rivals150 also said he would “probably commit towards the end of November and sign in the spring.” Hopefully that changes and he decides to lock in his spot by signing in the early period in November.