SEC Basketball: 2024 offseason grades for each team

Florida Gators - Grade: C-

Todd Golden and the Florida Gators had a relatively quiet offseason. After bowing out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round following a loss to Colorado, Golden needed to replace three of his top scorers from last season. This would be no easy feat since Florida had one of the top offenses in the country last year. 

Golden signed one of the heroes in Florida Atlantic's run to the Final Four two years ago in Alijah Martin. Martin scored just over 13 points per game last season, down slightly from the prior year. The other notable signing for the Gators was Sam Alexis. Alexis spent the past two years at Chattanooga where he saw his scoring average double and his rebounds per game nearly triple. He ended the season averaging 10.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks. But the biggest addition to the team, pun intended, was Olivier Rioux a 7’9 center out of Canada. Time will tell if he has any real impact this season. 

It would have been good to see Florida do more to improve its defense. Last season the Gators had one of the worst defenses in college basketball giving up 79.2 points per game. Martin, though slightly undersized, is a capable defender. He averaged just under two steals per game and had at least one steal in all but four games last season. And Alexis is a solid shot blocker and rebounder. The biggest concern with Alexis is whether or not he can impact the game at the same level in the SEC. He started of the season with nine double-digit rebound games in his first 15 games. Over the final 18 games of the season he only only recorded four such games. 

It's tough to tell if the Gators improved significantly on either end of the court. The offense should be in decent shape, but it's uncertain if the defense improved at all.