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Chris Meaney
The SEC is loaded this year as most teams used the transfer portal to their advantage and shored up their talent as well as their depth. Teams like Kentucky, Tennessee and Auburn built elite freshman classes while LSU, Arkansas (as usual) and Florida made key additions via the portal.
SEC slates are going to be high scoring and mega exciting all year long. For DFS players this is the conference that will command your attention, so keep that at the top of your mind as we go team-by-team through the SEC to preview the coming season.
In this one, Florida.
(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)
Florida Gators 2021-2022 Season Preview
2020-2021 record: 15-10 (9-7 SEC), fifth in SEC
Postseason: Lost in NCAA Tournament second round
Key Departures | Florida Gators
- Tre Mann (playing professionally)
- Scottie Lewis (playing professionally)
- Omar Payne (transferred to Illinois)
- Noah Locke (transferred to Louisville)
Key Additions | Florida Gators
- CJ Felder (transferred from Boston College)
- Brandon McKissic (transferred from UMKC)
- Phlandrous Fleming (transferred from Charleston Southern)
- Myreon Jones (transferred from Penn State)
- Kowacie Reeves (top 50 recruit)
Returners | Florida Gators
- Colin Castleton (12.4 PPG/6.4 RPG/2.3 BPG)
- Tyree Appleby (11.3 PPG/3.1 RPG/3.3 APG)
- Anthony Duruji (6.1 PPG/4.4 RPG)
Florida Gators Outlook for 2021-2022
Keyontae Johnson had a scary incident last year where he collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital. He hasn’t played since and is still awaiting medical clearance 11 months later. Obviously, his health is more important than basketball, but I know he wants to get back to the court, and everybody else does too. As of now, he is on the team and a return is hopeful, but we don’t know when that might be.
Colin Castleton is a bad man. The big man is fantastic in transition and surprisingly quick for his size. He is an excellent rim protector that had a top-30 block rate and should benefit from the addition of a shooter like Myreon Jones. Coach Mike White has been successful working the transfer portal the past couple of seasons and even more reinforcements are on the way. Tyree Appleby and Anthony Duruji are back, which will be great for continuity. Appleby got better as the season went on and became a reliable source of fantasy points before he got priced out by the sites. Duruji was an up and down player but had a few slate breaker games as a sub-$5k option. I think he will continue to be a high-level role player that could become lethal if he finds consistency with his jump shot.
Jones was a sniper during his time at Penn State and hit at around a 40% clip on his nearly 200 attempts. His presence will help keep the defense honest when trying to cheat over on Castleton down low. Brandon McKissic (17.2 PPG) and Phlandrous Fleming (20.1 PPG) were big time scorers at their previous stops. Again, it’s hit or miss for transfers moving up to a higher conference, but one would think they’ll produce getting to play next to better players. I’m interested to see how Coach White uses BC transfer CJ Felder. He was inside the top 50 in block rate himself and pairing him next to Castleton in the starting lineup could prove to be a beneficial move for rim protection. Felder wasn’t shy about shooting triples last year as he attempted 70 and made them at a 32% clip which isn’t horrible all things considering.
(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)
Summary
This is an intriguing roster with some really above-average pieces. The question will be are any of them elite enough to make a run in March? White has wisely built the roster around Colin Castleton’s skill set which should lead to some monster games in his future. Outside of Castleton it might be hard to peg who else goes off on a game-to-game basis and it might be a situation where the guards take turns each slate getting theirs.
