Tre Mann announcing his return to Florida means the Gators have a guy who offers one of the premium skills in modern basketball—the ability to create offense individually. Yes, he didn’t hit shots at the rate you’d expect for a 5-star McDonald’s All-American but he showed flashes that gave us a glimpse at what he could be—the valuable instant-offense option the Gators have lacked over the last few seasons.
More than that, Mann represents something else that the Gators haven’t had in a number of seasons.
Competition for minutes.
Depth has not been a strength of the Gators in recent history. Whether it’s injuries, players not panning out, or other unforeseen circumstances the Gators haven’t had deep rotations and that issue has brought on a few problems. Foul trouble has forced suboptimal lineups and fatigue has made for tired legs and missed jump shots particularly in the second halves of games but more than that it may have brought something worse—complacency.
Florida’s key pieces have known that they are just that—key pieces. When you look at the rosters over the last couple of years the starters have been fairly clearly defined and they didn’t have players behind them that were really pushing for minutes. That meant Florida’s key players knew their minutes and their role was safe and not much they could do would take away from their standing with the team.
Something Coach White has lamented over the last few seasons is that he didn’t think his teams were competitive enough. While quantifying competitiveness can be difficult you can see exactly where he was coming from, and that may have started in practice. Florida’s teams haven’t had internal competition for minutes, and perhaps the fact players didn’t have to compete for their role on the team made for a lack of competitiveness with opponents as well.
The lack of competition for minutes has been especially noticeable at the guard positions.
Last year Andrew Nembhard and Noah Locke were unquestioned starters and the only players behind them were freshmen in Tre Mann and Ques Glover.
A year prior Mike Okauru fell out of favor with the staff meaning there wasn’t a backup option pushing Nembhard, and there wasn’t huge competition at the wing spots with senior KeVaughn Allen playing alongside Noah Locke. Hypothetically Jalen Hudson would have factored heavily into that conversation but a lackluster senior campaign for him made it that Allen and Locke settled into safe roles.
In 2017 Chris Chiozza and KeVaughn Allen were safe at the one and two with two freshmen who both didn’t pan out in Mike Okauru and Deaundrae Ballard behind them.
How about the opposite—let’s look at when the Gators did have competition for minutes in the backcourt.
The 2016 team was a fantastic one, and part of the reason that they got so much out of Kasey Hill, Chris Chiozza, KeVaughn Allen, and Canyon Barry was that each one of them had to fight for minutes.
Healthy competition between teammates for minutes and roles brings the best out of every player and for the first time since 2016 the Gators look like there are going to be position group battles for key roles. At the point guard spot, you’ve Tyree Appleby in his fourth season of college basketball after proving he could light it up in the Horizon League. Tre Mann will want a piece of the action, and Ques Glover is also going to want to make his presence felt in the race for PG minutes.
Noah Locke will be penciled in at shooting guard, and that might be the best spot for Mann to steal a starting spot. Additionally, incoming recruits Samson Ruzhentsev and Niels Lane are both players comfortable at the two and both of them (at 6’7” and 6’6”, respectively) offer size and length defensively Locke and Mann don’t have.
Having actual competition for minutes should be incredibly exciting for the team and fans alike. No one is going to have a spot gifted to them and every practice and game is going to be an opportunity for players to prove they deserve minutes. Each player is going to want to get the most out of every practice and every rep and that’s only going to make the team better.
Tre Mann returning to the Gators means they have a potential star, but if nothing else it means this team is going to have a healthy level of internal competition that can only make the group better.