Media Day Takeaways: White talks Kerry Blackshear, assesses true freshmen

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida's men's basketball team won't take the hardwood for a meaningful game until Nov. 5, but there are plenty of reasons for UF fans to already be excited about the potential for the squad in the 2019-2020 season.

The program recruited well in this past cycle, landing commitments from five-star prospects Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann, and Rivals100 target Omar Payne.

Along with continuing to establish a strong presence on the high school recruiting trail, the Gators successfully dipped into the transfer market yet again. Kerry Blackshear, a coveted graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, committed to Florida back on June 26, which marked a necessary win for the staff over several other top-tier schools.

For Mike White, there was a brief moment where it appeared as if his program was going to miss out in the Blackshear Sweepstakes.

"He told me, 'I've got bad news for you, Coach,'" White said at UF's media day on Tuesday when detailing his conversation with Blackshear. "And I was crushed.

"I said, 'So we're on the outside looking in, I guess,'" White continued. "'Where did you end up choosing to go, man? I'm happy for you. Crushed a little bit, but we'll talk later.' He says, 'Yeah, I've decided that I'm going to go to the University of Florida.' He just totally messed with me, yeah. So, I'm still a little bit mad at him for it. I'm going to get him back Friday."

The additions of Blackshear and several talented true freshmen have led to media outlets tabbing Florida as a contender for a Final Four appearance this season, but White quelled expectations to an extent on Tuesday.

Although he acknowledged how good his roster looks on paper, the fifth-year head coach knows his team still has a lot of work to do in order to achieve their goals.

One of the biggest question marks on the team — which was a concern last year — was their lack of leadership. White and his staff are still looking for the player(s) who will guide the Gators, but labeled sophomores Andrew Nembhard and Noah Locke as a couple of guys capable of stepping up to the challenge.

"I don't know what our leadership is going to be, but I think we have more potential leaders on this team than any team that I've coached," White said. "I think we have four, five, six, maybe seven guys that have a chance to lead in some capacity, [with] Noah being one of those guys."

"He's got leadership capability and qualities," White said when describing Nembhard. "He's gifted in that regard. And he became a lot more demonstrative late season. He became more vocal, became a little bit harder on his teammates late season, and really was a big reason, along with Kevarrius Hayes, that we got into that tournament and won a game."

Given his age and experience, Blackshear will be one of the players that Florida will look to when it comes to being a leader this season as well.

The 6-foot-10, 241-pounder is also going to be a main focal point of the offense given his ability to distribute the ball and score in the post. In his last season with the Hokies, he averaged 14.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

"He gives us an opportunity to play a little bit differently offensively than we've played here in that we've struggled to score on the interior," White said of Blackshear. "We've struggled at times to get to the foul line, to throw it in the post. He's the best passing big that I've coached. He's good at a lot of things."

As someone who is new to the program, there has been a little bit of an adjustment period for Blackshear.

White gave an anecdote about him not being too happy about Blackshear passing up on an open shot the other day, but said it speaks to his willingness to put the team first.

"He wants to gel so badly that you can see he's probably overthinking it a little bit," White said. "Really unselfish, super skilled -- a couple of these other guys we've got to rein in a little bit, but I don't have that worry with him."

Florida has successfully landed multiple graduate transfers in recent years.

The program reeled in Canyon Barry back in 2016, and followed that up the next year by adding Egor Koulechov. Barry was tabbed as the 2017 SEC Sixth Man of the Year, and Koulechov gave them a dangerous shooter on the outside as he shot 39.5% from behind the arc with the Gators.

UF's football team takes pride in their 'Defensive Back University' tradition, but White believes his team has a moniker of their own with Blackshear now on board.

"Grad Transfer U, bring them on. Put that out there," White said of his program's success in the transfer market. "See who's available in the spring."

"We broke through with Canyon, who helped us get Egor, and they both helped us get K.J. We sold that for sure, the experiences that those guys had here academically and athletically and socially. It was a big selling point in K.J.'s process. Boy, those first two guys, they were tremendous, two of my favorite guys that we've had.

Last season, Florida ranked 291st amongst NCAA Division 1 programs in scoring offense as they averaged 67.8 points per game. They also ranked 274th in the nation in shooting percentage as they shot just 42.5% from the field.

Needless to say, White and company are hoping to improve their production in their 2019-2020 campaign.

"I do think we're more talented on paper this year. I'm optimistic that we can be better offensively, but we've got to figure it out," White said. "I know we're more versatile offensively, which sometimes can be -- I think a lot of times can be a positive, but it can be a negative, too, if we've thrown too much at the wall. We've got to figure out what we're good at quickly, what our strengths are, who we want to play through."

Blackshear and the return of Gorjok Gak, who sat out all of last season, provides UF with more size underneath than they've had in the past.

On top of giving the Gators more efficiency with higher percentage shots down low, having bigger bodies allows White to have more options with which types of lineups he'll send out to the floor.

"I don't know how many minutes a game we'll play big," White said of his game plan on offense. "But we'll play the four-guard lineup, and then we'll play two 5s. I think with the skill level of K.J., that makes it a little bit easier. I think you could consider him a 4-5 guy, even at his size. So yeah, it'll be a little bit different out of necessity, small or big."

"Hopefully we can get through today without anything happening and we can get into Friday, again, healthy and hungry and get after it. And then we'll re-evaluate every day, every week, going into the season. If we've got 14 healthy bodies early in November, we'll have to make some decisions, of course, but that's a good problem to have."

Omar Payne: "Omar Payne is extremely long for his height. I want to say he's like a plus -- I want to say we measured him at 6'10" maybe with a 7'5" off the top of my head, so I think he's like a plus-seven guy. Good motor and can really run and jump. I mean, just very gifted athletically, improving his skill level."

Tre Mann: "He's really talented with the ball. He can score it, he can pass it. He became a developing point guard play making passer late in his high school career, much better than early on when -- he's always been a prolific scorer at that level. I'll tell you, he's been an awesome kid, getting extra workouts, always in the gym."

Jason Jitoboh: "Jason has got to get a little bit smaller. Jason is a power guy, but a skill guy at the same time. Really good feel for a big, strong 5 as a passer. He's got good touch."

"Gorjok, he's been very good. He's taken advantage of fighting through injuries and rehab, yet learning the game from the sideline. From limited reps, from film, improving his skill level at the same time — playing with a lot of confidence for a guy who hasn't played in a long time. He's had some really good, again, abbreviated practices."

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