Florida Basketball has been on a great recruiting run as of late. It got even better in late August, with five-star point guard Tre Mann committing to the Gators.
After the departure of two-time national champion head coach Bill Donovan, Florida Basketball was lucky to grab Mike White as his successor. Not only has he proven to be a great “x’s and o’s” guy, his recruiting ability has been just as impressive.
That’s important due to how the SEC as a whole has increased their talent pool, with programs such as Alabama, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Auburn and others have joined Kentucky in grabbing five-star caliber players. The Gators in the past have done well enough but have traditionally gone the route of developing under the radar recruits for 3-4 years.
After another successful season, Florida will have to replace key guards Chris Chiozza and Egor Koulechov. They managed to pull that off with five-star point guard prospect Andrew Nembhard, along with highly-touted four-star perimeter players Noah Locke and Keyontae Johnson. And with leading scorer Jalen Hudson returning, the Gators will have one of the better backcourts in the country for the 2018-19 season.
But these aren’t the typical Florida Basketball freshmen and there’s a legit possibility that any of them won’t be around for more than a year, making the 2019 recruiting class just as important. That’s why this latest batch of news is so good for the program.
Florida has had some impressive classes under Mike White. Today, he lands his first impact in-state recruit with Espn no.30 Tre Mann. Gators getting it done on the recruiting trail. @SECNetwork
— Paul Biancardi (@PaulBiancardi) August 28, 2018
Tre Mann is a 6’3 point guard from the Villages, Florida that chose the Gators over North Carolina, Kansas, and Tennessee. He’s a scorer-first kind of player who is a fantastic shooter and can use his speed and quickness to drive into the paint, creating offense for himself and others.
This is a great insurance plan for Florida in case Nembhard is gone. Even if he stays for his sophomore season, the two can easily play with one other on the court, creating a lethal scoring duo out on the perimeter. He’s the first commit for the 2019 class and the program in on the shortlists of a few more top-50 overall players. Coach White’s recruiting acumen is keeping the Gators right along SEC Basketball contention.