NCAA Basketball: Early tournament games in 2020-21 to get excited about
Florida vs Iowa State at the Emerald Coast Classic
There is reason to be excited about this potential match-up from a couple of fronts. First, both programs did a great job recruiting and they both rank in the high 20s in terms of the class coming in. Both squads will be seeing a number of players leave, whether it be from graduation, transferring or declaring early for the NBA Draft. The rosters that we know from 2019-20 no longer exist, and college basketball fans should be excited to see the new product.
Florida Basketball finished 11-7 in SEC play which was good enough for fourth place. The Gators began the pre-season ranked No.6 by the Associated Press, but a 2-3 start dropped them out of the polls on Nov. 25 never to return. The pre-season hype was due to senior Kerry Blackshear Jr. who would average 12 points per game and Keyontae Johnson who averaged 14 points.
The first interesting talking point concerning Florida is ” Will Johnson declare for the draft?”, as he currently sits top 65 on prediction draft boards. Aside from Blackshear Jr. being a senior, bench players Donay Bassett, and Gorjok Gak who both averaged less than seven minutes have entered the transfer portal.
The players arriving in Florida will not be ready to replace Blackshear Jr. and potentially Johnson as of yet, but they have three players who have signed letters of intent. The two four-star players are forward Samson Ruzhentsev and shooting guard Niels Lane, and Osayi Osifo a three-star 6’8 forward. If Johnson stays at least one more year to improve his draft stock, Florida will be looking at another top ten pre-season ranking.
Iowa State Basketball is facing similar challenges with players opting to transfer. Luke Anderson will be suiting up for USF next season, something he did not do with Iowa State. As well as Marcedus Leech who is looking to finally play, albeit somewhere else. The two notable transfers are Caleb Grill and Terrance Lewis who both averaged about 13 minutes last season but looked like they could be ready for a larger role in 2020-21.
When one adds senior starters Prentiss Nixon (9 ppg) and Michael Jacobson to the emigration list from Iowa State, the Cyclones are still set to return three starters. That, of course, was before Tyrese Haliburton decided to put his top ten projection in the upcoming NBA Draft to the test and declare after his sophomore season.
To counter these departures Iowa State has four signed letters of intent from players they will be putting on display at the Emerald Coast Classic. The highlight is seven-foot, four-star center Xavier Foster, who looks poised to slip into a starting role. He is accompanied by a trio of six-foot-five three-star players in Dudley Blackwell, Darlinstone Dunbar and point guard Jaden Walker. These two new-look teams are looking to move up in their conference standings and their first test will be at the Emerald City Classic.