Florida announced a new addition to the basketball roster this past week with Sante Fe College guard Kevin Pazmino joining the roster as a walk-on.
Ever since coming to Florida Todd Golden and his staff have been looking for upside plays with the walk-on spots, something he started when he landed 7’9” behemoth Olivier Rioux from IMG Academy who chose walking on to Florida over going to a mid-major or low-major program. With Rioux it was gambling on pure size, but with Kevin Pazmino it’s a skill–spot up shooting.
Pazmino was a pure catch and shoot threat for Sante Fe, taking 196 attempts from deep last year and hitting 39% of them. As a known sharpshooter teams actively tried to take away his three-point attempts but still he was able to find looks, though many were contested and the level of difficulty with these shots was high making his 39% an impressive mark. Surprisingly, Pazmino actually grew to like a hand in his face more than a wide open look as he hit 44% of his catch and shoot threes that were marked “closely guarded” by Synergy Sports, a much higher percentage than the 29% he shot when wide open. The ability to hit shots while closely guarded is something that gives hope to his shooting translating at the next level as many of the shots he’ll have to take are guarded.
Not just a stationary shooter, Pazmino loved to sprint to the wings in transition and find early looks before the defense was set. Transition threes are much trickier than they look, as running in transition causes tired legs and getting feet set when rapidly decelerating is no easy task. Pazmino was able to hit 41% of his transition threes, an extremely impressive mark that should have Florida’s coaching staff excited. Another difficult shot he was excellent at was flying off pindowns and staggers as he shot 35% from three on these attempts–a number that might not look outstanding, but one that is much higher than the consensus.
Florida wasn’t a good three-point shooting team in Golden’s first year at Florida, and while he tried to improve the team in that area in year two it still wasn’t a strength. Not only were the Gators just average in terms of percentage (ranking 148th in the country), more importantly they were reluctant to take threes ranking 258th in attempts. The addition of Alijah Martin from Florida Atlantic should help in that area, but Golden is still looking to be creative in the way he diversifies the skills on the roster and Pazmino is a dart throw he thinks could possibly pay off down the line. Golden already made a similar attempt last year with Julian Rishwain, but he was never able to play a consistent role after coming off injury.
Pazmino just finished his second year at Sante Fe College, though he redshirted his first year and has only used a single year of eligibility. It was not a good year for Sante Fe who finished 10-20, but the down year from the presumed highest contributors meant Pazmino was able to play more minutes and develop his shooting stroke that the Gators now see potential in. The native of Weston, Florida stands at 6’4”, though he has short arms that help him greatly as a shooter, but limit his defensive impact as well as his ability to finish at the rim–two areas he will need to improve drastically if he’s ever going to be a division-1 player. While he might not be someone who can contribute for the Gators right away, he did just finish his first year of eligibility and he had one elite skill in his shooting, and he’ll look to add another skill in his first year at Florida that can get him closer to his ultimate goals.
Decades ago it was commonplace for players to transfer from Sante Fe College to the University of Florida but it has become much more rare, and Pazmino will mark the first player to make that transfer in over 20 years.