Point guard dominance is at an all time high in college basketball, and quality production and leadership from a floor general is a must for National Championship contenders. When you look down the rosters of recent national champions, it doesn’t take long to realize most teams rolled out one, or even two, elite point guards. North Carolina had Joel Berry. Villanova had Ryan Arcidiacono and Jalen Brunson. Duke had Quinn Cook and Tyus Jones. UCONN famously shocked the world with a Cinderella championship riding Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright. Mike White is notorious for his development of point guards, enough to be called “The Guard Whisperer” by Gator Country contributer Brent Mechler. David Huertas, Raheem Appleby, and Kenneth “Speedy” Smith were all benefactors of White’s knowledge before he came to Florida, and he was able to coax the best out of Kasey Hill the last two campaigns. With guard play so important to success, let’s see how the main pivots performed for the Gators last season and see what we can expect this year.
First, lets look at the primary options we’ll see at the position for Florida.
There is no surprise who will be starting at the point for the Gators when the season starts. Senior Chris Chiozza, after playing behind Kasey Hill for his first three seasons, finally gets his opportunity to be the sole starting point guard. Averaging 7.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists last season as a junior, look for his numbers to take a serious jump as he becomes the primary ball handler on the roster.
With the graduation of Hill and the outgoing transfer of Eric Hester, Florida was in certain need of a guard to round out their 2017 recruiting class. They filled that gap with 3-Star Michael Okauru, a 6’4”, 180 pound athlete who was the 8th rated recruit in the state of North Carolina. ESPN stated “He has a chance to be a totally different player in a couple of years if he can continue to develop his ball skills and confidence, and could consequently prove to be a late bloomer.” Okauru is projected to be a bit of a program player, who will contribute positively to the team culture and have a chance to play a key role when he is a upperclassman. A long guard, he looks to be a defensive stopper who will hound the opposing team’s best perimeter player. He is yet to polish certain aspects of the game, and carving out a role offensively will be a storyline to follow early in the season.
Last year’s minute breakdown at the point guard spot may come at a bit of surprise to you. Though Kasey Hill was the primary starter at the one, he actually only logged 46% of the available minutes at that position. Chris Chiozza chipped in with 34% of the starting point guard minutes. Interestingly, Florida played a two point guard set the remaining 20% of the time, following the current trend of college basketball.
What can we expect the minutes distribution to be this season? With Chiozza being the only veteran point guard on the roster, I am expecting him to get the lion’s share of the minutes. After averaging 22.1 minutes last year, look for that number to swell to more like 31-33 as he will be relied on heavily to orchestrate offense and spearhead the defense. If he were to take that workload, that would leave 7 to 9 available minutes to the backups. Will Okauru be ready to handle that as a freshman? That will be the question. Though White and staff have spoken highly of Okauru’s attitude and work ethic, even single digit minutes can be tough to play for a first year guard in the SEC. A capable and willing defender, if he can prove himself to be an irritating on that side of the floor, he could play a role right away.
One potential option is sliding KeVaughn Allen over to point. He hasn’t logged any minutes at the one to this point in his career, but having the ball in the hands of your best offensive player for more time is never a bad idea. Additionally, it may be in Allen’s best interest to see some time at the point in order to better his NBA prospects. White once stated in a press conference that Allen “doesn’t understand how good he is” and having him dribble the ball up the floor and get into offense could force him to be more confident and decisive with his decision making.
Florida has a good problem on their hands, and it’s the embarrassment of riches they have at the wing. KeVaughn Allen, Jalen Hudson, and Egor Koulechov all have the talent to command major minutes, and the coaching staff believes freshman Deaundrae Ballard is already good enough to be in the rotation. A benefit of Allen playing point guard for stretches would be opening up some minutes at wing for some of the more talented players on the roster, so I imagine we will see this experiment at some point.
Last year Florida point guards combined to average 16.7 points per game, a number that would be great to match. Unfortunately, I think that it is unlikely. Though Chiozza’s offense should increase, his pass-first demeanor doesn’t lend to his personal points numbers being particularly high. Gators point guards averaged the bulk of assist numbers for the roster with 8.3 combined, and that number could be also be lower as we will see less of the two point guard sets that the Gators employed last year. I have written in the past about the assist struggles of the Gators outside of the point guard position, so the drop in playmaking from the graduation of Hill could be a problem if the players at the 2-5 positions don’t improve.
Kasey Hill’s struggle to hit jump shots both off the dribble and on the catch had a few implications regarding the Gators’ offense. Firstly, when he ran and pick and roll, defenders would slip underneath the screen since they weren’t worried about him elevating for a shot. That also made it harder for roll men such as John Egbunu and Kevarrius Hayes to get open lanes to hoop for drop off passes. With Chiozza running these plays, expect more efficiency out of screen and roll. Additionally, the lack of shooting from Hill meant teams would play a lot of zone defense to clog the paint and protect against dribble penetration. With Chiozza being around 10% better from beyond the arc then Hill, anticipate teams being more hesitant to zone up against Florida.
Point guard play will be extremely important to the Gators this season, and quality performance at the position could push Florida deep into the NCAA Tournament. With Kasey Hill handing over the reigns to Chris Chiozza after 3 seasons as the starter, we are entering a new era of point guard play that will be captivating to watch.
What do you think of Florida’s point guard situation going in to this season? Leave a comment here or post on the Gator Country forums!