Florida Basketball: Impact of Keyontae Johnson returning to Gators

Keyontae Johnson has decided to return to Florida Basketball for his junior season, what is the impact?

Florida Basketball once again got good news for the upcoming 2020-21 season as leading scorer Keyontae Johnson has decided to withdraw his name from consideration for the NBA Draft and return for his junior campaign. Johnson made his announcement via twitter.

"“I can’t wait to get back and play with my brothers again next season! We’ve got unfinished business & the Gators will be ready to go. I’m excited to keep growing on and off the court with Coach White and our coaching staff here & keep playing in front of the gator family.”"

Johnson, known for his outstanding defense, showed dramatic improvement over a year ago on the offensive end. The 6-5 wing was the most consistent and turned out to be the best player for a Gators squad that went 19-12 last year and finished fourth in the SEC at 11-7.

Johnson averaged a team-high 14 points and was second on the squad in rebounding at 7.1 boards a game to go along with a team-best 1.2 steals while shooting 54.4% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc. He played his best basketball down the stretch as he compiled five of his seven double-doubles and scored in double-figures on nine occasions, which include three 20-point outings over the last 10 games — the Gators won seven of those contests. The first-team All-SEC selection was third in the conference in effective field goal percentage (59.3%), sixth in true shooting percentage (62.1%), ninth in Player Efficiency Ranking, and 14th in defensive rating.

Johnson’s return along with 2019-20 All-SEC freshman selection Scottie Lewis, who also decided to bypass the NBA Draft, means that the Gators will have at least three of their top five players from last year back as Noah Locke had previously said that he would be staying in Gainesville. Now, all the Gators are doing is waiting for Andrew Nembhard’s decision. Nembhard is testing the NBA waters for a second consecutive season, and while it makes the most sense for him to return, it is unknown whether the 6-5 point guard will do so.

Even if Nembhard does not return, coach Mike White will have plenty of talent at his disposal. Locke, Johnson, and Lewis will likely be joined in White’s four-guard system by Cleveland State transfer Tyree Appleby and 6-10 Omar Payne. Tre Mann, Louisiana Tech transfer Anthony Duruji, Ques Glover, and Jason Jitoboh will be counted on off the bench. The Gators also currently have the nation’s 29th best-recruiting class in 2020, according to 247Sports, after landing four-star small forward Samson Ruzhentsev, four-star shooting guard Niels Lane and three-star junior college power forward Osayi Osifo.

Florida is currently situated next in line in ESPN’s Way-to-Early 2020-21 Top 25. However, the Gators are No. 22 in FanSided rankings.