The Florida Gators will evaulate Bruno Fernando this fall

Center Bruno Fernando (6-11, 225, Montverde, FL Academy) is new to high school basketball in the United States but he has already caught the eye of the Florida Gators and coach Mike White.

Fernando has only played summer league basketball in the US but the Gators and other schools have seen enough to be interested in the big man according to his high school coach Rae Miller.

“I really don’t know if Florida has officially offered him or not but we have had discussions about him and a potential offer,” Miller said. “I think Florida and other schools are waiting on the school year to start so they can actually see him play outside of summer ball.”

Miller, who handles Fernando’s recruitment, has said that teams are very interested in getting Fernando on campus but want to see him in action before doing so.

“We haven’t talked about a visit to Florida yet but that’s something that will be talked about in the future,” Miller said of a potential visit to Gainesville. “Right now a lot of schools are in preliminary talks with me about potential visits.”

One thing that has Florida enamored with Fernando is his size and strength for a big man and according to Miller that’s something Florida Gators head coach Mike White wants to see this season.

“Florida is in search of bigs and he’s one of the better bigs in the country,” Miller said of White’s message. “He will be getting a lot more opportunities once schools are able to see him play this school year and Florida is looking to see his skill set as well.”

When Fernando was asked what a Florida offer would mean to him he simply said it would be a blessing to him, but Miller says that a lot more schools have already offered him.

“Right now he has had about 10-15 offers come in from schools around the country,” he said. “Everything right now is open though and we are in the preliminary stages of his recruitment because he has yet to play a high school basketball season.”

The Florida Gators are very likely to be the next school to offer after they are able to come by Montverde this fall.

“I know that Florida has talked about coming by this season to see him in play,” Miller said. “Florida and other schools say that they want to see him play before an offer actually becomes an offer. Bruno needs to play a high school basketball for these guys to see.”

 

INSIDERS TAKE: Florida is one of the handful schools that has been in touch with Bruno and his high school basketball coach a lot, but it doesn’t like anything will move forward until the Florida Gators basketball staff is able to lay eyes on one of his games or practices.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.