This summer gave coaches the opportunity to see a lot more of the 2025 class and after going through evaluations the Gators have narrowed their focus on a few targets–particularly at the guard position. They’ve already made some progress with the 2025 class as it was announced that combo guard Alex Lloyd would be taking an unofficial visit at the end of August, per Jake Weingarten.
Lloyd has been rocketing up the recruiting rankings recently from being a top-75 player to where he sits now as the 32nd ranked player in the class according to 247 Sports–though some outlets have him as a five-star talent. Hailing from Fort Lauderdale and attending Westminster Academy the Gators aren’t too far away–but they’re far from the only in-state school looking to land him. Some of Lloyd’s first offers when he was around the 75th ranked player in the class came from Florida Gulf Coast and Florida Atlantic–though recently the offers have looked like Florida, Florida State, and Miami–three schools that are considered heavily in the mix right now. Another school said to be heavily involved is Michigan State, though the Spartans haven’t officially offered (it’s worth noting that the Spartans are known for officially offering very few players).
A 6’4” combo guard, the first thing that strikes you about Lloyd is his pace. He loves pushing the ball in transition, and even after a made basket against he’s going to look to try to get the ball down the floor as quickly as possible after a teammate inbounds to him. Fast break basketball is certainly where Lloyd is at his best, and given that he not only plays with pace but has positional size it makes sense that Michigan State has been interested given their success with that style recently. Lloyd has a reputation as a solid shooter, and he has made it known that a recent focus is to try and be more of a distributor and playmaker, perhaps to shed the “combo” guard label that many evaluators have given him in order to be seen more as a true point guard.
Florida’s staff will certainly love the pace that Lloyd thrives at given that they want to accelerate the tempo past what they were able to do in their first season in Gainesville. The Gators ended up being a team that played much slower and shot a lot less threes than Golden wanted–so a player like Lloyd who can play fast and knock down shots will check a lot of boxes the staff looks for in a player.
Gainesville won’t be the first unofficial visit Lloyd has taken as he has already been to Florida State, Miami, and Florida Gulf Coast.
In addition to the schools he has already been offered by (and Michigan State), Lloyd has said Kentucky has shown interest, and he has been open about his dreams to get an offer from Duke. Given his current close proximity to the Miami campus, the Hurricanes are thought to be in a strong place in this recruitment, though it’s still very early in the process. Elite recruits are making decisions later than ever, so expect this to be a lengthy recruitment as the Gators push for a guard that they really like.
There hasn’t been an official date set for the visit, other than that it will be near the end of August.
In addition to the offer to Lloyd, the Gators have also extended offers to elite guards Mikel Brown, Ricardo Greer, and Shon Abaev.