Last year the Florida Gators signed a recruiting class that consisted of three members. Coaches All-SEC freshman team member KeVaughn Allen, Kevarrius Hayes, who came on late in the year when John Egbunu went down with injury and Deerfield Beach native Keith Stone. While Allen and Hayes showed their potential to be quality players for Michael White, Keith Stone had to watch from the sidelines.
Stone committed to former Florida coach Billy Donovan back in October 2014. He came to Florida with plenty of promise and was a much-needed scoring threat for the Gators. Unfortunately the 6’8” swingman from Zion Lutheran High School needed time, spending his first year in Gainesville taking a redshirt. Gators fans are not the only ones anxious to see Stone on the court, Head Coach Michael White may be more anxious than us all.
“I’m really excited about Keith Stone” White expressed during his post-season press conference.
During the season Florida had its struggles offensively. This left White and the staff with a lot of what-ifs. Pondering what could have been with Stone on the floor, but they did not give in to the temptation to play him.
“We’re coming off a loss, boy if we had Keith last night; things will get better when we get Keith” Coach White described of the conversation had between him and the staff.
The mystic around Keith Stone will only continue to grow as we approach next season. White acknowledged the great redshirt year Keith had, and though White is obviously excited about the potential of Stone, he also recognizes that those expectations need to be toned down.
“Does that mean for Keith that he should have unreal expectations, that he is going to come in and get 25 a game and be the best player in the world, absolutely not.” White said. “He is going to be a freshman. He is going to make freshman mistakes. He is going to have a bad practice every once in a while. He is going to have to go through a learning curve.”
While White is attempting to muzzle his own excitement, he is also preparing Stone for the adversities that come with playing college basketball at this level.
“He is going to face adversities he didn’t face last year. As I told Keith a couple of weeks ago when we sat down. We’ll lose a game and he’ll be a big part of it and he wasn’t a part of any losses this year.” White expressed.
Though White is helping Keith through this process, Keith has also been putting work in on his own. Florida officially has Stone listed at 233 lbs. but White said he is currently up to 245 lbs. That weight gain will only help Stone increase his ability to be a major contributor to next year’s squad. In White’s effort to convince us that Keith still has growth points, he also is not shy about his talent and work ethic.
“But is he talented? Yes. Does he love the gym? Absolutely — as much as anyone I’ve ever coached. He lives in the gym.” White noted. “He is really skilled and can really score it. He is competitive, he’s a great kid.”
It can be hard for redshirt players to maintain consistency and focus when it comes to improving their game. As for any freshman, there is still the uncertainty surrounding their ability to transition expectations to production. Coach White clearly wants to integrate Stone into the team and looks forward to his ability to enhance and possibly push this team to the next level.
“We expect big things out of him. I expect him to have a good freshman year and we probably don’t need to go further than that.” White said.
Keith Stone’s reputation is building, but there is still sometime before we see what he as to offer as player. If the rave is true, the Gators may have been holding on to a jewel that is ready to shine.