Before the football team kicked off against Miami the Florida Gators basketball program had a treat for fans in Gainesville, opening up practice to anyone who wanted to escape the heat and see a group of players for which there is a lot of anticipation. Gator Country’s own Nick Marcinko and Andrew Spivey were in attendance as well as a number of other trusted sources giving us our first real look at a team that is attempting to improve on a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament.
Firstly, the starting lineup as of this moment is exactly what the staff has been alluding to all offseason long:
Walter Clayton
Alijah Martin
Will Richard
Alex Condon
Rueben Chinyelu
One of the early storylines of the practice was the focus on defense, both in the half court and in special situations such as baseline out of bounds plays. Multiple sources said the defense was far ahead of the offense–something that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the way Florida prioritized defense with many of their offseason acquisitions.
Much of this was due to the work of Chinyelu defensively as he used his absurd length to block and alter shots all around the rim. Florida’s staff saw him as an instant way to drastically improve Florida’s defense and his presence on the interior is going to make the Gators a lot more difficult to score against.
Alex Condon was as energetic as ever, and looked noticeably stronger than he did as a freshman. This was on full display as he had a number of “and-1” finishes at the rim in scrimmages, brushing off heavy contact to finish easily. Florida’s staff has banked heavily on the development of Condon, and you can expect him to be a crucial part of Florida’s frontcourt.
Denzel Aberdeen was also a force on the defensive end using his length and speed to be disruptive, forcing the catches of his man far from the hoop. When his check did get the ball he was aggressively hounding them looking for steals which caused a high level of disruption.
While it’s great to see the defense operating at a high level–Florida’s perimeter shooting was noticeably poor. Of course, this is coming from one practice, so there might not be anything to take from this especially given it was these players’ first time playing in front of a crowd for months. Florida brought in some players to increase their shooting this year on the perimeter and a number of them have proven track records, so it’s probably not a cause for concern quite yet.
One of these shooters was freshman Urban Klavzar who didn’t do much in the scrimmage section but was absolutely lights out shooting the three in warm ups and in drills. Saturday Down South’s Neil Blackmon noted a ridiculous streak of makes that he was on that was only ended because his shot, while flying through the air, collided with a ball shot by one of his teammates. Klazvar did struggle on the defensive end which is going to be a concern with him, but the shooting could be special.
Returning star Walter Clayton didn’t have his best practice, particularly when it came to shooting the ball. He’s taking in a lot of new information now that he’s switching over to being the starting point guard and it seemed he was a little bit slow processing which is something that you’d never say about his game last season–so he’s likely just going through a bit of a learning curve. This was also fan’s first look at him since he cut his hair, something that shocked a lot of people as they entered the gym.
Of course, when you’ve got a 7’9” player in the building–people are going to take notice. Freshman walk-on Olivier Rioux was a sight to behold for fans in the building who, quite literally, have never seen a man of that stature in their entire lives. Rioux is a long way off from being a contributor at the SEC level, but he continues to work on his game and particularly his conditioning to hopefully be able to one day do that.
The player that stole the show by all accounts was Florida Atlantic’s Alijah Martin. Martin was the big name in Florida’s transfer class and he showed why. Always known as an elite defender, he had some big steals in the scrimmage and one that ended with a thunderous dunk on the other end. Becoming more of a scorer with the ball in his hands was an offseason focus after he was largely a catch and shoot guy at Florida Atlantic and he looked surprisingly polished already doing that–shaking defenders one on one and creating space to drive down the lane or get to his jumper. Martin is going to play a massive role next to Walter Clayton in the backcourt both offensively and defensively, and his performance in Saturday’s scrimmage couldn’t be much more encouraging.
Practice ended with veteran Will Richard at the free throw line, and he was tasked with making just one free throw–with his teammates forced to run if he missed. His first attempt spilled off the rim to jeers of laughter from his teammates before they all had to run sprints.
Mercifully, he hit the second one, ending practice with smiles all around for the players and the fans in attendance.