Gator Basketball Basketball Recruiting Thread

InstiGATOR1

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I was wondering how this stacks up versus the ‘04’s.

This class is stunning. C’mon down C.J.!

By 247sports (sizes as reported then)

2004

Brewer, 5*, 6'7" 174 lbs, 23 national rank, 4 SF, rating .9904
Horford, 4*, 6'8" 211 lbs, 42 national rank, 7 PF, rating .9819
Noah, 4*, 6'10" 200 lbs, 73 national rank, 17 PF, rating .9717
Green, 4* 5'11" 165 lbs, 105 national rank, 19 PG, rating .9582

This class was rank 8th in its year with 66.47 points.

2019

Lewis, 5*, 6'5" 185 lbs, 11 national rank, 4 SF, rating .9957
Mann, 5*, 6'3" 170 lbs, 25 national rank, 3 PG, rating .9909
Walker, 4* 6'8" 200 lbs, 28 national rank, 6 PF, rating .9896
Payne, 4* 6'9" 215 lbs, 38 national rank, 10 C, rating .9859

This of course is projecting (hoping) UF gets CJ Walker. Without Walker this class has 64.62 points and is ranked 4th in the 247 composite rankings.

Oddly UF dropped slots from 2 to 4 over night? Maybe 247 had some glitch in their algorithm calculating this. Anyway with Walker this class would be 66.80 points as of now and would be ranked number 1 at this point in time. Clearly many other recruits will commit and UF may fall further in these rankings. Also player rankings will be adjusted in the future. It will be interesting if either of UF's 5*s lose a star?

BTW, I think this is not White's 04s as much as it is White's class of 1998 which was the class Donovan built his program on. For this class I have to switch to the RSCI (Recruiting Service Composite Index) as 247sports does not go back that far:

1998

Miller, 6'8" national rank 13, 6 SF
Dupay, 5'10" national rank 20, 3 PG
Halton, 6'4" national rank 53, 7 SG
Haslem, 6'10" national rank 72, 9 C

This class was ranked 5th. It also included Sylbrin Robinson who I think was also signed in 1999 but never qualified either year.

Another great past UF class of four players was Norm Sloans class of Portillo, C, Ramos, PG, Poole, SF and Walker, PF. Only Poole really worked out for UF, but that was another era.
 

PhD Gator

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The best recruiting class in UF history has to be the 2001 class of Kwame Brown, James White and David Lee.

ESPN.com - RECRUITING - Class of 2001: Top 100 seniors

Yes I do realize Brown declared for the NBA and White transferred.
Yeah, that was a sick class on paper. However, if we add CJ Walker, this class might be better on paper.

The three you mentioned were:
#2 (Brown), #22 (White), and #28 (Lee)

We currently have:
#13 (Lewis), #30 (Mann), and #35 (Payne)

As a comparison point, the 2004's were:
#23 (Brewer), #43 (Horford), #75 (Noah), #107 (Green)

Note: The 2004 were 247 rankings as this what I found the easiest. The two classes we are most directly comparing are using ESPN to be consistent.

So, if you add in Walker (#19) it would be hard to argue that this wouldn't be a better class on paper than 2001 (and clearly better than 2004 on paper). Yes, the average ranking would be just a bit short of 2001, but I think getting 4 top 35 guys would be an even better class than the 3 top 30 guys we got in 2001. Obviously this argument gets much stronger when you realize Brown shouldn't even be counted since he never played here, but we are obviously comparing class-to-class here.

All of that said, while David Lee ended up being amazing as a Gator (and after), I hope that this class far outperforms that one as a group while in Gator uniforms. I think they likely will given Brown did nothing here and White did very little here playing only one season, but we will see.

On a slightly different note, I know most have been reasonably confident in Walker being a Gator. However, looking at the Crystal Ball predictions, this seems far from the case. We only have 1 Crystal Ball, while Oregon has 3, Miami has 2, and LSU has 2. Are there any reasons to believe we will likely land him? I know we have the benefit that his trip here is still upcoming, which could easily swing things in our favor (especially given the class we have coming in), but I'm just curious why there is so much optimism that he is a Gator. @LeeForThree - any thoughts?
 

InstiGATOR1

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The best recruiting class in UF history has to be the 2001 class of Kwame Brown, James White and David Lee.

ESPN.com - RECRUITING - Class of 2001: Top 100 seniors

Yes I do realize Brown declared for the NBA and White transferred.

I agree that if this class stays at 3 players it is the one to compare it to. Otherwise, I listed some four player classes for comparison.

As for your caveat, you are exactly right. None of these player have even signed with UF. Sometimes players sign and do not end up enrolled. So this is all in fun.
 

Jack o' Diamonds

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Oddly UF dropped slots from 2 to 4 over night? Maybe 247 had some glitch in their algorithm calculating this. Anyway with Walker this class would be 66.80 points as of now and would be ranked number 1 at this point in time. Clearly many other recruits will commit and UF may fall further in these rankings. Also player rankings will be adjusted in the future. It will be interesting if either of UF's 5*s lose a star?

Ranked 2nd on Rivals, 4th on 247....
 

LeeForThree

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Yeah, that was a sick class on paper. However, if we add CJ Walker, this class might be better on paper.

The three you mentioned were:
#2 (Brown), #22 (White), and #28 (Lee)

We currently have:
#13 (Lewis), #30 (Mann), and #35 (Payne)

As a comparison point, the 2004's were:
#23 (Brewer), #43 (Horford), #75 (Noah), #107 (Green)

Note: The 2004 were 247 rankings as this what I found the easiest. The two classes we are most directly comparing are using ESPN to be consistent.

So, if you add in Walker (#19) it would be hard to argue that this wouldn't be a better class on paper than 2001 (and clearly better than 2004 on paper). Yes, the average ranking would be just a bit short of 2001, but I think getting 4 top 35 guys would be an even better class than the 3 top 30 guys we got in 2001. Obviously this argument gets much stronger when you realize Brown shouldn't even be counted since he never played here, but we are obviously comparing class-to-class here.

All of that said, while David Lee ended up being amazing as a Gator (and after), I hope that this class far outperforms that one as a group while in Gator uniforms. I think they likely will given Brown did nothing here and White did very little here playing only one season, but we will see.

On a slightly different note, I know most have been reasonably confident in Walker being a Gator. However, looking at the Crystal Ball predictions, this seems far from the case. We only have 1 Crystal Ball, while Oregon has 3, Miami has 2, and LSU has 2. Are there any reasons to believe we will likely land him? I know we have the benefit that his trip here is still upcoming, which could easily swing things in our favor (especially given the class we have coming in), but I'm just curious why there is so much optimism that he is a Gator. @LeeForThree - any thoughts?


As of today we are out on Walker...but I believe that has everything to do with us being officially at our scholarship limit. If he doesn't commit this semester and holds off until after the season....we should be back in the mix and my bet get him.
 

InstiGATOR1

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As of today we are out on Walker...but I believe that has everything to do with us being officially at our scholarship limit. If he doesn't commit this semester and holds off until after the season....we should be back in the mix and my bet get him.


Do we know if he or UF canceled his 12 October official visit?
 

LeeForThree

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"And then there was 3"? Since he put it that way, instead of, "and then there were 3," I've got him as a scUM lean.

Meanwhile, Gators Assistant Coach Jordan Mincy gave away the Scottie Lewis commit Sunday night on Twitter, when he tweeted, “Life has a lot of twist and turns…so buckle up and enjoy the ride. Sleep well gator nation!!!”

Why was that a giveaway? Because the day before Andrew Nembhard committed to Florida, Mincy tweeted, “Haaaaaaa, gator nation sleep well….. #WorkHard”

The day before Noah Locke committed, Mincy tweeted, “DJ Khaled voice….. “Another One” #youngsteph #gatornation ….. sleep well people”

And the day before Keyontae Johnson committed, he tweeted, “Every year its a new surprise! Keep your seat belts on people. Sleep well gator nation!!!”

A search of Coach Mincy's twitter feed shows that "sleep well," isn't just a common phrase he uses all the time -- he only ever says it on the day before the Gators announce a big commit.

The only difference this time, with Lewis, was that Mincy tweeted "sleep well" two days before the announcement instead of one day. But the next day he followed up with a sleeping zzzzz face emoji, just to let everyone know they could continue sleeping well.

Full disclosure, I didn't figure that out all by myself. But, the person who picked up on it posted it on a garbage website that deserves to remain nameless. :cool:
I've known this tell for a while lol. It's real. In this case the sleep well was possibly Omar Payne and the was for Scottie...since scottie was a more secret down to the wire recruitment.
 

Thick&ThinG8r

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I want to remain optimistic, because for some reason basketball verbal commits tend to stick to their guns more than football verbal commits, which we all know aren't worth the paper they're not written on. Still, I'll feel better on Nov. 14th when it's announced that the signed letters are in hand.

That said, it's worth mentioning that although Coach White is obviously turning out to be an excellent recruiter, he might not be quite as successful it it wasn't for The House that Billy Built -- our $10 million freestanding basketball practice facility.

a8bffd84d2a5ec6f18ccc2da159d2e74.jpg


That football facility can't be here soon enough. They need to speed up the process of those other construction projects that are ahead of it. Go to 24-hour construction shifts! Sure, it might be a disruption to the students, but I can vouch from experience that restful sleep and good study habits while in college are HIGHLY overrated.
I hear you, but the move in dates are set in stone.
We can only hope for good weather and generous donors to keep things on schedule.
Trust me a lot of obstacles have already been overcome like the lack of contamination to the site. It's just going to take patience and that's coming from someone who has been begging for this for years.
 

MidwestChomp

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I would love Lewis to be a Corey Brewer type player who is an elite defender, and who can score inside and out.
 

InstiGATOR1

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I would love Lewis to be a Corey Brewer type player who is an elite defender, and who can score inside and out.

I would say Corey Brewer is another player that Scottie Lewis is comparable to. Highly athletic, good defender etc. Brewer was not a great outside shooter, but he was a decent threat. Lewis needs to work on that aspect, but otherwise I see them as similar.
 

rogdochar

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Regardless, there's too much turnover in basketball.
 

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