Of Florida’s many new pieces for the 2020-21, the most fascinating player might be Phlandrous Fleming, most recently of Charleston Southern.
If you were to look just at the counting stats, Fleming’s numbers would just off the page at you more than any other of Florida’s incoming talent. Playing for the Buccaneers Fleming put up ridiculous numbers, averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists. It’s not just his numbers that are fascinating, but his size and style of play. While he was listed at 6’4” at Charleston Southern, it’s said he came to Gainesville measuring 6’5” but with a near 7’ wingspan, something that might speak to his ability to rebound the basketball.
He’s a true jack of all trades from a stylist standpoint, something that contributed to his stat sheet stuffing at Charleston Southern. He can handle the ball a bit, he can shoot a bit, he can pass a bit, he can post up a bit…for that reason you can imagine him filling a lot of roles at Florida, but it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly where the best fit would be.
Of Florida’s incoming transfers, Fleming also played on the worst team in the lowest rated conference. Last year the Big South was considered to be the 28th ranked league in the country according to KenPom, and Charleston Southern finished last in league play. In fact, the Buccaneers were only 2-18 against D1 competition last year, and both wins were single point victories. In a way, you could say the Buccaneers were two points away from being winless in 2020-21.
In a lot of ways, Charleston Southern needed a hero and Fleming did his very best to fill that role. He played a whopping 34 minutes per game (surprisingly down from his junior season where the Buccaneers also needed him to put in yeoman’s work, averaging 35 minutes per game) and was 9th in the country in usage. Fun fact–when you look at the player that played the most minutes at small forward for Charleston Southern, it was Phlandrous Fleming. When you look at the player that played the most minutes at power forward for Charleston Southern it was…Phlandrous Fleming. The Buccaneers actually went pretty deep in their lineup and played a number of guys, but it was always around the hefty workload of their featured player–Phlandrous Fleming.
Considering the quality of the Big South, that also puts some of Fleming’s superhuman numbers into context. Though, considering how much losing took place at Charleston Southern, you know Fleming will be hungry for winning basketball. For the Buccaneers, the NCAA Tournament was never a realistic goal, and Fleming now has the opportunity to make a dream come true by playing in one for the Gators.
However, playing for a struggling team gave Fleming the chance to play a whole lot of minutes and get a whole lot of shots up, experience that helps him now as a fifth year player. The question is–just what part of his dominance in the Big South will translate to the SEC.
If there is one area of his game that we can reasonably expect to translate to the SEC, it’s his rebounding. Rebounding is something that generally tends to travel from league to league, as various studies in the past have shown. Florida actually saw a bit of this first hand a couple of years ago with Rice transfer Egor Koulechov. Standing only 6’4” with a 6’5” wingspan, it seemed a bit unbelievable that Koulechov, who was an incredible rebounder at Rice (8.9 rebounds per game), was going to be able to battle much larger players on the boards at Florida. Silencing his doubters, Koulechov averaged 6.4 rebounds per game for the Gators, leading the team by a large margin.
Luckily for Fleming, he has a huge length advantage on Koulechov, so it stands to reason his tenacious rebounding will continue at Florida. The Gators have struggled to defensively rebound during the Mike White era including last year where they were 275th in the country in defensive rebounding percentage, so Fleming could provide some major help in this area especially if he’s playing small forward next to a prototypical frontcourt.
There are a few areas of his game where there are definitely some questions regarding his translation to SEC basketball. For starters, nearly 10% of his offense came from isolation, and that’s something that isn’t an effective style of basketball in the SEC, even for the most talented of one of one guards. The average percentage of shots from isolation in the SEC is 4%, so it’s not likely that Mike White is going to utilize Fleming in that role. Plus, watching the film of Fleming’s isolation possessions, it was a lot of him playing bully ball against smaller wings, and again, that’s not something he’ll have the chance to do much in the SEC. Fleming isn’t awfully explosive, or quick, and he relies on savvy and strength to get to his spots and convert. In the Big South, he was able to do that against pretty much any defender, but there won’t be many favorable matchups for that style of play in the SEC.
Fleming also ran a lot of pick and roll at Charleston Southern, to largely mediocre results. Of course, that isn’t something you can put squarely on Fleming’s shoulders, as he didn’t have the talent around him to really make those sets effective. Fleming is a decent ball handler and an okay passer, but he lacks the explosive first step to fly off a screen and stress defenses, so once again, it doesn’t exactly seem like something he’ll be able to do at Florida.
The central theme we’re seeing here is that at Charleston Southern Fleming was a primary scorer and initiator, and at Florida he’ll likely need to settle more into a secondary role. What could very well make or break how well he does in that role is shooting the three, something he has been inconsistent at in his career. Fleming is a career 30% three-point shooter, but that number doesn’t tell the whole story. As we know, he was taking a ton of shots for Charleston Southern, and that often meant forcing up tough threes at the end of a shot clock, something that lowered his overall efficiency. While he’s likely better than the 30% number would suggest, he still isn’t an excellent shooter by any means. For a lot of players with supreme length like Fleming, shooting the long ball can be tough. A massive plus wingspan makes jump shot mechanics much more difficult and that’s why you often see players with super long arms struggling to shoot from deep.
Catch and shoot attempts were tough to come by for Fleming who almost always had the ball in his hands, but he did hit 33% of his threes in this scenario. He’ll get a whole lot more catch and shoot attempts at Florida, and just how much he’s able to take advantage of those shots will speak a lot to how big his role is for the Gators.
An area where Fleming will be expected to bring huge value to the Gators is on the defensive end. Fleming was a multiple time defensive player of the year in the Big South, something that is nothing short of spectacular. So often, you see players who need to shoulder a big offensive load rest on the defensive end. Well, Fleming on the other hand, who had arguably the largest offensive load of any one player in the country the last two years, still showed maximum effort on defense and not only hustled, but provided quality.
Fleming’s condor-like wingspan is a positive trait on the defensive end where he’s able to be disruptive, using that length to get steals and shock ball handlers into picking up their dribble. His size and length also allow him to switch up and down the lineup, something that will be huge if Mike White continues to use the heavy switching defensive scheme he has loved over the last several years. Fleming isn’t incredibly athletic so there will be times he finds himself in tough matchups in the SEC, but generally he is going to bring fundamentally sound defense with intense amounts of effort. Considering the amount of energy he showed defensively while playing 34 and 35 minutes per game at Charleston Southern while quarterbacking everything on the offensive side, effort will be no problem at Florida where he’ll be able to play less minutes and get significantly more rest.
Phlandrous Fleming might not end up being a star for the Gators but he’s a rugged defensive player who does a lot of little things offensively that will allow him to pick up easy points and be productive. Whether it’s getting a steal, a tough rebound, or a physical layup after a cut, Fleming is going to always give max effort and considering he has always found a way to be productive at the college level, there is nothing to suggest he won’t be able to do that at Florida.