NCAA Basketball: Ranking teams in the 2019 Charleston Classic
1. Florida Gators
The Gators are the clear favorite in The Charleston Classic as one of the ten best teams in the entire country. Head coach Mike White enters his fifth season in Gainesville with legitimate national title hopes. The Gators have one the best top-sevens in the land.
The Gators return last year’s freshmen backcourt of Andrew Nembhard and Noah Locke as well as wing Keyontae Johnson. All three averaged at least 8 points per game, but none averaged double figures. Each of them can be expected to make tremendous strides as sophomores and Gator fans should find their confidence in them well placed.
In addition to the sophomores, Coach White is bringing in talented point guard Tre Mann as well as wing Scottie Lewis. Both players are ranked in the top 20 of the 2019 recruiting class, giving Florida five legit, high-level players at the guard/wing slots.
As we move to the frontcourt we find more talent. Coach White landed the best graduate transfer on the market in former Virginia Tech Hokie Kerry Blackshear Jr. The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 14.9 points and 7.5 rebounds last season. While his career has been plagued by foul trouble, he was still able to average a career-best 30 minutes per game last season. The arrival of Blackshear took Florida from “very good” to “title contender” in the course of one evening.
Florida also welcomes back Gorjok Gak after a redshirt year as well as top 50 power forward Omar Payne. While there are whispers that Payne may not be ready to contribute post-haste, he is certainly talented and will benefit from going against a player like Blackshear every day in practice.
Next. Way-too-early national top-25 rankings. dark
I currently have Florida ranked sixth in my July top 25 and would more than likely entertain any thoughts placing them as high as third. Anything less than 3-0 in this tournament would be a disappointment.