Clayton Richard Aberdeen Martin Klavzar 2012? Wilbekin Beal Boyton Erving Walker Mike Rosario I'd count Brewer as much more a forward than a guard so I don't think the championship teams had the same depth.
Indeed, it can’t be very often that a team‘s fourth best guard is better than Denzel. Or a fifth better than Klavzar. That 2012 group was deep, but probably this group is deeper. Would Walker crack the top 4 on this years team? And 2012 Wilbekin hadn’t yet turned the corner. Maybe his defense would give him some minutes, but he would be no replacement for Klavzar’s scoring. Probably most would say that the overall deepest team in gator history was the 2000 team, where Donovan would sometimes sub out all five players at a time. Here’s what they had going on: Bigs: UD Donnell Harvey Brent Wright Matt Bonner Mediums: Mike Miller Major Parker Guards: Kenyon Weaks Teddy Dupay Brett Nelson Justin Hamilton This team doesn’t really have anyone in the Miller mold, but I think they’re competitive in the front court and at guard. UD I think starts over Chins, but this year’s team likely wins all the other comparisons. At guard, I would take Clayton over Dupay. Maybe Nelson over whomever is the #2 guard in this squad, but as above, this year’s group would sweep the rest of the battles. This team has some elite depth for sure. Man, that 2000 team vs this squad would be a crazy fun game.
Justin Hamilton may be the best on ball defender I saw with my own eyes as a gator. But he and Nelson were both freshmen on that 99-00 squad. That was a great call though, those are some good comps
2013 with seniors Boynton and Rosario, junior Wilbekin, and frosh Frazier was pretty stout, too. Though is interesting that our best teams (2005-06, 2006-07, 2013-14) were all pretty thin and somewhat inexperienced in the backcourt. At any rate, Golden has done an amazing job of flipping the roster the last two years. Never imagined it happening this fast. What’s maybe more interesting is what these guys have in common: all 5 of them are at least 20 years old, and 3 of them have been in the program at least two years, while the other two have already proven themselves at a high level of play elsewhere. That’s a recipe for success in the NIL era. Golden talks about getting long and straying long in the front court, but he might as well start talking about getting old and staying old at guard.
In 1998 we had Jason Williams, Eddie Shannon, Kenyon Weaks along with Dan Williams, Jamaal Horton, Mike McFarland, Eddie Nunez and even Major Parker played some guard. That's a lot of guards and some were VERY good.
One of my happiest days was when Billy Donovan committed to the Gators. Although a decent coach, I knew that Lon's ceiling was limited and his recruiting was mediocre.
Lon was never a good salesman for the program. Good Xs and Os guy, though. He followed up his Final Four by signing Mr. Florida in Basketball, LeRon Williams. We thought we were off and running! But the kid turned out to be just a below-average D1 player, and left after a while. Kruger followed it up with a first-round exit loss to a lower-seed, then packed up his bags and went to Illinois. Travelin' Lon Kruger. Cue the Temptations: Wherever he laid his hat was his home...
Lon left because he lost Daytona Beach Mainland's Vince Carter to the Tar Heals and was convinced you couldn't recruit elite talent to Florida. Billy proved him wrong.
It really is, when you look at Aberdeen’s progression and how strong Klavzar has looked we have a couple of guys that could easily be starters right now. Hell even Brown as a true freshmen passes the eyeball test in the limited minutes that he could easily hold his own if forced into action (similar to Klavzar). Clayton is up there as one of our best offensive guards ever, so of course any kind of strength around him makes for an amazing backcourt. The fact that the transfer portal allows you to bring in a player of Martin’s caliber is almost a hack.
Too bad Donnell Harvey didn’t stick around more than a year. He had all the tools but left way too early and washed out in the NBA.
I recall Vince Carter saying that he didn't want to have to be "the man" at Florida so that is why he went to UNC. Where he had to be "the man". LOL.
On the flip side I was SHOCKED when Lon Kruger left KSU where he was a legend to come to UF after the firing of Norm Sloane and the Don DeVoe fiasco. He had recently taken his team to an Elite Eight and barely lost of Danny Manning and the Miracles. I could not believe that we got a coach that good then.
I'm trying hard to find a deeper guard group and can't do it. The Weaks, Dupay, Nelson, JHam group comes closest. That was when Billy would sub out all five and run opponents into the ground. This current group just beats their opponents up with a constant barrage of shots. It's the FB equiv of flooding the zone.
