Todd Golden goes on record about three current Gator transfers
by Bob Redman, aka “Hollywood Bob”
He hopes that they aren’t done yet, but new Florida Gators Basketball head coach Todd Golden is excited about the three current transfers the Gators have been able to secure from the transfer portal in his short time in charge of the Florida program. Golden is going to bring a methodical style of basketball to Florida based heavily on analytics and his three new pupils fit into exactly what he wants to do.
Golden has been able to secure players he likes for all phases of the game so far and will still look to add more as we move ahead through the offseason. But the three guys Florida has signed have him stoked.
Guard Trey Bonham transferred from Virginia Military Institute. A guy that can handle the ball, he’s also a scorer and his attack mentality is something that Golden likes.
“Trey Bonham is a little bit undersized (6-foot, 170), but a heck of an offensive talent,” Golden said. “He was a really good scorer over the last 15 games of the year. I think he averaged 19 points, five rebounds and four assists for VMI on a Top 150 team. I think he’s a guy that’s going to come in here and surprise in terms of competing at the SEC level.”
Wing Will Richard was the first transfer to commit to Golden and got things rolling because of his stature among the list of transfers out there. The Belmont star was named to the Ohio Valley Conference’s All-Newcomer Team last season.
“Will Richard, he’s just a really talented kid both on and off the court,” Golden said. “Great student, comes from a great family and had a breakout year at Belmont, I think he averaged like 12 (points) and six (rebounds) as a freshman in a really good mid-major league. I would call him a really talented wing player with great length, a really good shooter, great athlete, and can really score the basketball. I think he’s a guy that will come in and have good success in the SEC relatively quickly. We’re excited about him.”
The last of this early group of transfer signees comes from conference foe LSU. Alex Fudge played his high school basketball just an hour and 15 minutes away from Gainesville at Lee High School in Jacksonville, but opted to go to LSU to start his collegiate career. A coaching change and a great deal of upheaval in Baton Rouge saw a mass exodus in the basketball program and Florida was fortunate to land one of the better athletes and overall players in the portal.
“Alex Fudge is a young man that is born and raised in Florida,” Golden said. “He went to LSU and played relatively significant minutes, I think like 15 minutes a game on an LSU squad that was Top 25 analytically. Obviously their program had some issues and he decided that he wanted to come home. I think he’s going to be a great defender great athlete, a rim runner, and rebounder as his offensive game continues to develop. He’s so very young, he’s turning 19 years old in the next couple of days. I think the sky is the limit for his potential and I think he’ll get more and more comfortable with us on the offensive side of the ball.”
Golden was able to entice second-team All-SEC selection Colin Castleton to return for another season and the big man will certainly be an analytics bonanza for Golden. He also reeled back in sophomore wing Kowacie Reeves who really finished last year strong and spent a couple of days in the portal before deciding to stick with the Gators. Senior Myreon Jones will be around another season allowed by the free COVID year in 2020-2021. Along with incoming freshman Denzel Aberdeen, there seems to be a solid nucleus with which to build.
They will likely try and add another big man and point guard before the fall.
“I think we have multiple guys that can handle it right now with Trey and Myreon,” Golden said of the point guard duties on the team. “Denzel Aberdeen is a freshman we have committed and he can get a taste of that. Transparently I think we’ll attack one more guy over the next couple of weeks that we feel like can come in and be a primary ball handler for us.”
The Gators hosted a couple of priority targets visit this week in St Bonaventure point guard Kyle Lofton and forward Osun Osunniyi. Both players would be super-seniors and would be playing in their fifth year of college basketball (including the COVID season). Lofton scored 12.8 points and dished out 5.9 assists per game last season while Osunniyi averaged 11.3 points, hauled in 7.5 rebounds, and is known as a big time shot blocker swatting 2.9 blocks per game.