This will be a huge weekend for Florida basketball recruiting as the Gators are set to welcome a trio of key visitors for what will be an electric atmosphere on campus for the football game against Tennessee.
Visiting will be 2024 guard VJ Edgecombe, 2024 forward Ryan Jones, and 2024 guard Isaiah Brown who has already committed to the Gators.
Brown, currently ranked 105th in the class of 2024, was an early commit to the Gators who didn’t take a lot of visits due to his keen interest in Florida and he’s being rewarded with an official visit–something you don’t always see for players who already have made their choice. Hailing from Orlando it’s not a long trip and the Gators bringing him in could be somewhat tactical. He’s currently the only commit in the 2024 class and Florida’s coaching staff will certainly be looking to him to do some recruiting with the other two players on campus.
Ryan Jones is a familiar name to Florida fans as the Gators have been after him for some time, largely due to the fact that he is a local Gainesville product attending The Rock School. A 6’8” forward who can play both power forward and center he has settled in as the 66th ranked player in the 2024 class, and the Gators are said to be leading the way in his recruitment over teams like LSU, Miami, Virginia Tech, and Missouri. Some sources are saying that the Gators could already have Jones’ commitment if they wanted but they want to see a little bit more before being certain they want him. Jones has always been known for his high motor, his physicality, and his rebounding–but some analysts think he lacks a little bit of upside. With the Gators set to return a lot of young frontcourt pieces in 2024 they might decide they want to look for a bit more upside in a frontcourt piece, but they’re clearly still interested in Jones enough to bring him in on a visit. This is definitely a name to keep a close eye on with the Gators being in an excellent place, should they want to take him.
VJ Edgecombe is the star of the weekend as he comes to Gainesville as the 17th ranked player in the class of 2024. A 6’4” ball handler Edgecombe is as polished a scorer as there is in the 2024 class and when you watch him pour in buckets with ease against quality competition it’s easy to see why he’s being recruited by so many elite programs. Edgecombe recently released his top-10 schools which are Florida, Alabama, UConn, Baylor, Duke, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Saint John’s, and the G League Ignite program. Edgecombe is known to be a cerebral, high-IQ player on the court and you can also see his intelligence off the court. Shortly after he announced his top-10 schools he announced the six visits that he’ll be taking with the Gators getting his first official visit. There is a lot of debate as to whether schools want to be a player’s first or last visit, and usually the answer to what’s better is going to be different player to player. Florida is considered to be one of the leaders for Edgecombe along with Duke and Alabama–no surprise given how well those two programs have performed recently.
Florida lined up these visitors with the Tennessee football game knowing that the atmosphere in Gainesville was going to be perfect to bring in potential players. During the game the 2012-13 team will be honored which will show some of the basketball history at the school.