Scottie Lewis’ name was first mentioned by Coach White referencing a statement from Kerry Blackshear Jr. who stated that Lewis was going to be president one day (a remark that White jokingly responded with “president of what?”) and that says all you need to know about how highly everyone thinks of Florida’s prized recruit.
Easily the highest-ranked player White has ever signed, Lewis weighed in a bit on what led him to Gainesville.
“It was kind of a no-brainer for me to commit here. I knew that I could come in and lead the team in certain ways and I know I’m going to have other guys to lead me too.”
Where Lewis might do most of his leading is on the defensive end. It was his shutdown ability that was his calling card in racing up recruiting rankings and becoming the 7th ranked player in the class and defensive intensity is definitely something he wants to spread throughout the roster.
“Being able to lead the team on the defensive end is something that I hope is going to be on my agenda for every game.”
Just how good of a defender is he going to be?
“I was a good defender in high school but the fact now that I’m getting stronger, faster, smarter…I’m going to look even better as a defender.”
He also credited the staff and Coach White particularly with his instruction and strategy and defense, things that will also help Lewis prove that he’s the best defender in the 2019 class.
When it comes to defensive mastery Lewis explained the breakdown of what it takes.
“I think it’s 90% wanting it and effort and 10% the rest. If you want to guard someone and you want to lock someone down and you take pride in not being scored on, you won’t get scored on.” He continued: “You can’t be discouraged when you get scored on…the next play you’ve got to take pride and think “he just scored on me” so let’s get another stop and let’s create something. So, 90% effort and the willpower to do it and 10% everything else.”
That mindset isn’t something you see very often from modern players and it’s something Lewis says is a product of the modern era.
“We have social media that says scoring is like the “main part of basketball” and when I mentor kids back home everyone’s like “I’m scoring this, I’m scoring that, I’m scoring this that and the third” and I’m like “so is everyone else.’”
As someone who is one of the biggest names in the recruiting class and is a projected NBA lottery talent Lewis knows something about what it takes to differentiate yourself amongst the best basketball players and it’s something he takes a great deal of pride in.
“I separated myself by doing things that other people didn’t want to do. I wanted to be a guard who could rebound and pass the ball extremely well off the wing and be a prolific defender at the same time and I added that and I kinda made that who I am and my identity. It got me here, it got me to be a McDonald’s All-American and Hoops Summit player.”
While a lot of the talk was around the topic of defense there are was also a discussions about who was the best dunker on the team, a title that Lewis thinks clearly belongs to Louisiana Tech transfer Anthony Duruji. When asked if he was going to be working on taking the Dunk King title from Duruji Lewis quickly stated it wasn’t an element of his game that he’s looking to spend time on improving but you still better watch out if Lewis gets on a fast break because he had this to say:
“I’m definitely going to make University Of Florida basketball exciting this year.”