Outlook: If you can figure out what was going on with last year’s Florida squad, please – enlighten me. A tremendous defensive team never really came together offensively for a variety of reasons, most notably because Jalen Hudson’s talent was apparently snatched by the Monstars. Unfortunately, no one informed Mr. Hudson of this issue, as his unrepentant chucking ended up leading the entire SEC in percentage of shots taken while on the court, despite abysmal percentages all year long. Fellow senior wing KeVaughn Allen wasn’t much better, and it’s fairly easy to argue that his best season came as a sophomore.

Mike White now turns the team over to the kids, as five of the Gators’ six best players will be freshmen and sophomores. The “veterans” among those – point guard Andrew Nembhard, shooter Noah Locke, and versatile forward Keyontae Johnson – will need to step into the leadership roles vacated by their confusingly ineffective ex-teammates. Thankfully, that youth will have an experienced star to rely on, as well, due to the massive win of securing Virginia Tech grad transfer Kerry Blackshear’s services over most of the rest of the SEC East. He brings a steadying presence in the paint to a team that lacked one, and his ever-increasing skill level turned him into one of the ACC’s most dangerous players last season. He’s the first true low post threat White has had (sorry, John Egbunu), and that should spark the Gators’ anemic attack.

To me, the most baffling part of White’s approach to last year’s team was how the Gators smashed the brakes on offense. White’s teams had never been lower than 110th in Average Possession Length, but that number cratered to 291st last year, despite having an athletic and deep roster led by a terrific passer in the lead guard spot (Nembhard). Similarly, the Gators went from 37th nationally in frequency of transition possessions (20.3%) to 251st (14.5%). The numbers did not support this decision, either: Florida’s offense was in the 67th percentile nationally in transition efficiency, per Synergy, while its half court counterpart sat in the 39th percentile.

That should – should – revert back to its old tendency this year, especially to unleash incoming freshman Scottie Lewis, a gazelle of an athlete who is absolutely devastating in the open floor and a potential lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. He tries to dunk everything (and usually succeeds), and he’s one of the fiercest competitors in the entire class, a deadly combination for someone so overflowing with talent. Nembhard was also tremendous in transition last year, both as a finisher and distributor, and he’ll hopefully be told to push the pace as often as possible.

In the half court, though, Nembhard will need to take a significant step in his creation out of the pick-and-roll. Nearly 40% of his possessions ended in this fashion, and he scored a hideous 0.579 points per possession on them, taking ill-advised shots and turning the ball over too often. This is a great read, but the execution is lacking - rather than throwing short-hop groundball, a lob likely results in a Kevarrius Hayes alley-oop: