The more he plays, the better he gets. We have seen it with Aberdeen and we are seeing it with Klavzar, WHO ROCKS!
I think we have at least two guards for next season that can play. And Brown has shown signs of being good as well. Maybe one portal pick-up is all we need and not an elite one.
He just needed to see his shot fall in games. Well, that, plus scrubbing the stench of Euro defense off his skin. He's a baller now.
I expect a big sophomore jump from Brown. He just looks like a smooth, deceptively good player. That little layup off the Klavzar assist was quite an impressive example of body control and creativity. But yeah, I think we need another portal guy with experience. Alex Lloyd should be a good addition but I don't like to put too many expectations on true freshmen. This would give us 5 quality guards. The strength of the team, assuming everyone is back, will be the frontcourt. Condo, Haugh, Chins, Handlogten, Alexis. Wow. And I think Mikics and Big Ollie might be solid contributors next season as well. Maybe Ingram will be a tweener frontcourt/backcourt small forward.
Urban is hitting 69% of his 3's over his last 3 games and has upped his overall 3-point percentage on the season to 41.4%. Good for him. Great to see him get 23 minutes last night. Fully expect him to play a bunch of minutes next season. I expect we'll go after two guards in the transfer portal. Guessing they'll go after an Alijah-bulldog type of player who can really defend and bully his way to the basket. Also guessing they'll focus on getting a true point guard with high assist/turnover ratio and 3-point shooting ability. Depending on NIL $, we should be an extremely attractive landing point for a bunch of kids. Our stock will be higher than was the case at the end of last season. Really hoping we can hang on to Condo, but I have some doubt. We're going to have to seriously up his NIL deal so as to compete with 2nd round draft pick $. Not sure he's a 1st rounder at this point, but others beg to differ. Gators Alex Condon in First-Round Territory of ESPN NBA Mock Draft I do believe that if Alex chooses to hang around another year, he'll have a legit shot of being a lottery pick in 2026. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Portal strategy will be interesting. Key is keeping as many pieces in place via NIL as possible. Continuity and development make all the difference, as we are seeing. We have two pretty good freshmen in CI2 and Lloyd, though not sure either is “add water.” Ingram is physically ready and can defend, but needs work on his shot and ball handling, and Lloyd is razor thin and doesn’t turn 18 until the season starts, IIRC. If Condon comes back, we can afford to experiment with Haugh at the 3 a bit. If we need Haugh at the 4, we probably need help at the 3 in addition to the backcourt. But it all depends on who is available. We’ve made it work with a variety of different portal guys the last two years. Just need a good fit—and that may mean only taking one guy if we have to divert NIL cash to keep others in the fold. Much rather spend that cash on our own kids.
This is my thought/hope. For the past couple years, we have had guards who with height, but also braun. That's a luxury when your guards can't be bullied.
