Good morning Gator Country members! You know what time it is–Thursday mornings mean an Around The Hoop newsletter where I share any thoughts I’m having regarding Florida basketball before they turn into a story or a post on the message boards. Let’s go!
Riley Kugel has made himself some money for next year.
If you’re a fan of the NBA, you know that they are facing a major issue when it comes to the devaluation of their regular season. Load management keeps stars out for considerable amounts of games, and tanking for elite prospects has reached a new level. Soon there will be a third of the league aggressively trying to lose as much as possible in the final months of the season, which hurts the product.
College basketball fortunately does not have this problem. Teams are at all times incentivized to try to win, and now with NIL–players can increase their value with production at the end of the season even if things aren’t going well for their team.
That’s what’s happening for Riley Kugel right now. He has been a solid player all year long, but his game has elevated to a new level in recent weeks where he has easily been the Gators’ best player since Castleton’s season was ended. He has size, athleticism, creativity, and flashes of an elite jumper. If you’re looking at talent acquisition for Florida’s roster next year–what’s probably most important to the Gators isn’t some mid-major player, it’s making sure that Kugel stays on campus.
NIL is of course going to play a role here–and this is where Kugel has made himself some money with the excellent play in recent weeks. I know that coaches across the country are going to get infatuated with mid-major guards that score 20+ points per game at that level, and some are going to go on to be high-major studs. However, there is a risk there. Right now, Riley Kugel is a sure thing. Florida’s coaching staff would be wise to do whatever possible to make sure that Kugel stays at Florida and doesn’t look to transfer, which is always in the cards. Of course, he also may have made himself some professional money. I’m not sure he’d get selected if he entered the NBA Draft, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a team used a second round pick on him, or gave him a guaranteed two-way deal.
Florida will hopefully be able to pitch him on coming back from one more year to hopefully become a first round pick, with him getting a considerable NIL cheque in the short term.
Florida’s offense actually had some rhythm against Georgia.
Offensively things have seldom come easily for the Gators this year but things were actually humming against Georgia on Tuesday which is hopefully something the Gators can build on.
I need to say something here, but before that I need to give a preface.
*The Gators are obviously a much better team with Colin Castleton on the floor*
While Castleton makes the Gators better, the opportunity cost of having a post up player who needs the ball a lot is fairly high. I don’t think the Gators did a good job whatsoever of generating good looks for Castleton, and that means that things were pretty bogged down when they were trying to get him the ball way too far from the hoop at times. Without Castleton on the floor, the offense almost flows better at times.
This is why I had to preface by saying the Gators are (obviously) a much better team with Castleton. That is still true. However, I think this shows just how clunky the offense is that the Gators have run this year. I have talked at length in these newsletters about how bad Florida’s offense has been structurally and how they need a gigantic schematic overhaul, and seeing the Gators play pretty well with an open floor shows just how misused Castleton was. Luckily, Castleton is such a fantastic player he was able to score efficiently anyways.
If Jason Jitoboh is going to be a high-level player, he needs to rebound.
Jason Jitoboh is 6’11” and 300 pounds, nearly always the biggest player on the floor. He has excellent touch, and when he gets good position he’s an offensive threat. Yes, there are going to be defensive issues with a player that large–something that most people will live with.
However, if you’re going to be 6’11” and 300 pounds, you need to be an impactful rebounder. Arguably, that player would need to be the MOST impactful rebounder on the floor.
Jitoboh is not the best rebounder on the floor, nor is he a solid rebounder. In fact, he’s not even an average rebounder. In his last four games, in which he has played 19 minutes or more, Jitoboh has a combined 5 defensive rebounds.
When it comes to defensive rebounding percentage, Jitoboh is second last on the Gators–only ahead of point guard Kyle Lofton. At 8.5% he’s not only second last on the team, but he’s well behind most of Florida’s guards who sit around 12%. Defensive rebounding numbers can be dubious (though at least percentages are better than raw counting numbers) but looking at the film as well as Florida’s overall rebounding when Jitoboh is on the floor, he has been poor on the glass.
Energy level could play somewhat of a role here as he is playing more minutes than ever in recent weeks and seems to not have the juice to box out every time a shot goes up. However, he has had below-average rebounding numbers his entire career–so it’s clearly an issue he’ll have to figure out if he’s going to be a regular at the high major level.
That’s all for today, talk to you next week!