Florida basketball added to its 2025 recruiting class on Monday with the addition of wing CJ Ingram, and in doing so added to a position that’s been thin in recent years.
Right now a lot of coaches in college basketball are valuing versatility and multi-positional players and generally–that means wings. Specifically, wings that can handle the ball a little bit, and guard multiple positions–making them players that could play the shooting guard, small forward, or power forward spot. In recent years, Florida has gone in a different direction. They haven’t had much length on the perimeter or players that you could classify as wings and it has hurt them in a number of ways. In 2022-23, the Gators didn’t have any bulk or length at the forward spots which led them to playing 6’4” Will Richard, 6’5” Riley Kugel, or thin 6’6” Kowacie Reeves at the power forward spot, hurting their defensive rebounding as the Gators ultimately finished 285th nationally in this category. Last year the Gators went a different direction, playing exclusively bigger frontcourt players and centers at power forward and multiple smaller guards in the backcourt, and the lack of mobility in the frontcourt and the lack of length in the backcourt led the Gators to a frustrating defensive season that saw them finish 94th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric.
In both seasons, Florida’s roster was crying out for someone built like CJ Ingram–someone who at 6’6″ and 195 pounds could guard some of the elite isolation scorers at the wing, someone who could bring length to the passing lanes and as a help defender, and someone with the strength to deal with the physicality of the SEC on the glass.
Florida’s 2024-25 roster is also short of wings, and possibly the difficulty in landing a player of that style (wings are hard to come by in the transfer portal, and therefore are also extremely expensive) led them to make getting a big wing from the high school ranks a priority.
Something else you’ll see as a priority in 2024-25 and moving forward is the defensive side of basketball. Golden has always been a defensive-minded coach, and he was filled with frustration at Florida’s inability to get stops last year and has clearly made a shift with his player acquisition to get back to a defensive mindset. Right now Ingram projects as one of the best defensive players in the 2025 class, and given his physical maturity already he could be someone that finds a role right away. This would also be huge for Florida’s management of NIL funds. Right now high school players come much cheaper than veterans in the portal, and if the Gators think they could get production from Ingram right away, they could steer their resources to different positions in the portal banking on Ingram bringing defensive production right away as a freshman.
Ingram has been one of the biggest risers in the 2025 class this summer, with the biggest jump being On3 who took him from outside the top-100 all the way to 30th. The other major recruiting services are yet to update their rankings after the marquee circuit events so it will be interesting to see how others view him–but clearly he is going to be somewhere in the top-75. Of course, up until a few months ago–Ingram was considered a football prospect who was never going to see the court. While he was pushing to get looks at quarterback, multiple SEC teams were ready to take his commitment immediately if he chose to play tight end. A focus on basketball makes the 2024-25 high school season (At Oak Ridge in Orlando, where he just transferred in order to get better basketball competition) a fascinating one. Right now the positives for Ingram are defense, athleticism, and physicality–but the knocks on him are offensive polish and the jump shot. Since this will be the first year he is focusing fully on basketball, developments on the offensive end could make him look like even more of an enticing prospect.
Not long ago Ingram put out a final list of schools consisting of Kansas, Michigan, Texas A&M, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Mississippi State, and of course–Florida. He also mentioned he was going to go through a full recruitment and make multiple visits–but that didn’t happen. The Gators put the full court press on the recruitment in order to keep him home, and the push was successful. It’s not often a team can keep a player from going through a full recruiting cycle with multiple visits at a program like Kansas, so the Gators did well to push a decision from Ingram and keep him in Florida.
Florida’s 2025 class now has some nice balance between Ingram, a dominant defensive player, and Alex Lloyd, someone who is electric on the offensive end. These are also players that play different positions, and could compliment each other well for multiple years.
Ingram’s high school season will be a fun one to watch, and you can look for him to come in and contribute right away in 2025 with his defense and physicality, as well as whatever offensive weapons he can add to his game this year.