NCAA Basketball Recruiting: 2019 prospect Lester Quinones adds Florida to wish list

2019 prospect Lester Quinones adds the Florida Gators to his recruiting lists.

In somewhat of a shocking move consensus four-star 2019 recruit Lester Quinones recently added a school, the Florida Gators, to his previous final college list. Which means that he is now considering eight schools.

“They’ve [the Gators] been telling since the fall to wait out for them,” Quinones told ZagsBlog. “And they want me now.”

Quinones is still ranked among the top-100 prospects in the class, although he has fallen slightly in the recruiting rankings over the past few weeks. He dropped one spot in both 247Sports and 247Sports Composite’s rankings to No. 76 and 65, respectively. However, ESPN still has him ranked 89th and Rivals has him holding steady at No. 44.

Florida has somewhat been a disappointment this year. The Gators are very much on the NCAA Tournament bubble after beginning the season among the top other teams receiving votes in both the AP and USA Coaches poll. The Gators closed the regular season by losing three straight games to finish in eighth place in the SEC (9-9).

But UF (19-15) played extremely well in the SEC Tournament reaching the semifinals. Florida opened the SEC Tournament with a 66-50 win over ninth-seed Arkansas (17-15) as freshman forward Keyontae Johnson compiled his second double-double of the campaign with 20 points and 12 caroms. They then upended top-seed  LSU 76-73 on a 3-pointer with a second left in regulation by freshman guard Andrew Nembhard, who finished with 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Florida fell to No. 22 Auburn (25-9) 64-62 in the semifinals on Saturday.

The Gators will lose four seniors following the completion of this season, including key contributors KeVaughn Allen, Jalen Hudson, and Kevarrious Hayes. On a positive note, UF will get the return of junior forward Keith Stone along with freshman Noah Locke, as well as Nembhard and Johnson. Dontay Bassett, Isaiah Stokes and Deaundrae Ballard will also likely return.

Coach Mike White, who is an excellent recruiter, already has signed three players from the 2019 class. Top-20 prospect Scottie Lewis, as well as four-star point guard Tre Mann and four-star center Omar Payne, are the players who have inked LOIs. Two-star point guard Alex Klatsky has verbally committed to the Gators and may attend as a walk-on. That means that the Gators, if the everything remains as it currently is,  may have one scholarship still available for the upcoming class.

Florida could use another wing or post player. 6-foot-10 center Jason Jitoboh is reportedly the Gators top target. The Gators are also heavily involved in Jordan Mitchell, Issa Muhammad and junior college prospect Jonah Antonio.

In addition to Florida, Quinones is still considering Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, LSU, Georgia, Memphis, and Ohio State. The 6’4″ shooting guard will take his third official visit this weekend (March 15-17) to Memphis. He has already taken an official to LSU and Maryland and is expected to use another official visit to Michigan at some point.

LSU has always been the favorite to obtain Quinones services, but that may change with the recruiting scandal that is surrounding coach Will Wade. Michigan and Maryland along with Georgia and Memphis also seem to be major players.

So, it will be interesting to see if Quinones reduces his options before finally making a decision.