Gators Hoops: Recruiting outlook for 2019

With their season in the rear view mirror, Florida Gators Head Coach Mike White and his staff can now spend more of their time on recruiting. Travel teams have already begun playing in warm-up events around the country, but the real action starts on April 20 when college coaches are allowed to hit the road and watch prospects play in person.

As things stand today, Florida has three spots available in its 2019 recruiting class and has offered more than 30 prospects. Fourteen of them in the top-25. Today we breakdown prospects we are hearing the Gators are in good shape with.

Lewis is a hard playing, vocal, jumping jack wing who can defend as many as three positions. He communicates very well on defense, encourages his teammates throughout the game – even while he is on the bench – and is very coachable. Lewis is explosive, loves to play the game and is not afraid of making mistakes.

Brown is a high motor prospect who played at a high level each time we watched him with Game Elite last year. Brown, whose 16U team played “up” in age went toe-to-toe with his older peers. He scrapped for rebounds, dove for loose balls and scored at all three levels. He was good defensively but struggled a bit defending pick and roll ball handlers. Nothing to be concerned about because almost all high school players need to improve defensively.

We first saw Mann at the 2016 E1T1 Nike Premier Exposure Camp and have been tracking and talking about him ever since. The Gainesville native appeared headed to play at The Rock before deciding on The Villages Charter School. Mann has great ball skills, a terrific feel for the game and is very difficult to defend when he comes off a ball screen. The Gators run a perfect system for Mann’s skills. With his shooting and scoring ability it is easy to envision Mann on the floor with Andrew Nembhard.

Payne is a long agile and mobile big man who catches your attention before the game even begins. Once play begins you quickly see that Payne has great instincts and timing which make him an excellent shot blocker coming from the weak side as a help defender. Payne is an energy bringer who is a deadly finisher in transition, gets back on defense quickly and will hit the floor for loose balls. Payne is very good at hedging on ball screens and getting back to his man in the low post.

Gantt is a skilled, physical, strong bodied combo forward with range to the arc and who attacks the glass at both ends of the court when shots go up. His length, athleticism and toughness stand out, but his passing – especially from the pinch post – is very good and a bit underrated. His motor and skill set makes him a great fit at Florida (and for many programs for that matter). Gantt understands spacing and how to move without the ball. He plays with a high IQ and we love how he is vocal on defense.

A New York native, Walker is another prospect we first saw at the 2016 E1T1 Nike Premier Exposure Camp. That was in September before Walker played the first game of his sophomore season, but already had offers from Iowa State and UCF plus interest coming from several other high major programs. A long, lean, athletic combo forward, Walker will rattle rims with dunks and has shown the ability to defend multiple positions. Competing against five-star Nassir Little during Orlando Christian Prep practices for the past two years has helped Walker’s game at both ends of the floor.

The Gators just offered Withers on Wednesday but the Huntersville, NC prospect is someone you should be aware of. We only saw one of the power forward’s games last year with Team Loaded but Withers’ skills, elite athleticism and incredible length impressed us. He used his long arms to get his hands on a lot of balls, was a shot blocker and was terrific on the glass. His ball handling needs improvement but he was adequate ball handler in transition. He has three-point range but, in the game we saw, was more effective in the 15-17 foot range.

New names will certainly come up after the Spring live periods and we will keep you updated.

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