Figured this may be a good place to talk about the roster for next year and any developments that happen over the next couple of months. our returnees as of this very second, barring portal entries are as follows: SR Alexia Gassett, 6-2 F JR Sarah Deng, 5-10 CG JR Laila Reynolds, 6-1 W SO Liv McGill, 5-9 SG SO Daviane Mindoudi Ongbakahoumb, 6-1 W SO Me’Arah O'Neal, 6-4 W/F FR Emilija Dakic, 5-10 PG FR Nyadieng Yiech, 6-3 W/F RS FR Kylee Kitts, 6-4 W/F - portal FR Caterina Piatti, 6-4 C We are looking for likely: 1-2 experienced combo or guards 1-2 W/SF 1 BIG C
And just to name a few targets I think we are after that were named in another thread: AMARACHI KIMPSON - UNLV SO G 5'8 avg 15p 3r 2a // scored 24 on us and shot 50% LAURA ZIEGLER - St Joseph’s SR F 6’2 avg 18p 10r 4a // 1000pt scorer these are based on social media interactions only. Coach is following kimpsons parents on twitter (and her) and they are following back which is a good sign
Kyle to the Portal, was hoping she could come back to us..no contact tag also FR Nyadieng Yiech, 6-3 W/F was named Canadian HS player of the year
I knew that Kyle would be a stretch and after the years she had here, I figured she would catch some eyes. Can see her going to ND(home), Tenn or possibly Maryland is loading up talent. I think our true freshman class is going to be really strong, and I feel that we are really close to landing the UNLV transfer. Kitts can hopefully come in and make an impact day 1 I would like to see a big jump in reynolds and o’Neal (provided they both stay) the issue with one is confidence and the issue with the other seems to be motor and effort freshman bigs are all going to be ready to contribute and make each other better but would love a leader type big to lead
Kitts I know has grown a few inches I know the one you are talking about motor, she has talent but her focus seems to be all over the place
Ra Shaya has a statement on insta: DEAR COACH KELLY, GATOR STAFF, FANS, AND BOOSTERS, I WANT TO START BY SAYING THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE A PART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND REPRESENT THE GATORS ON AND OFF THE COURT. COACH KELLY AND THE ENTIRE COACHING STAFF-YOUR BELIEF IN ME, YOUR GUIDANCE AND YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT HAVE MEANT THE WORLD TO ME, AND I WILL FOREVER BE GRATEFUL FOR THE MEMORIES WE'VE CREATED TOGETHER. TO THE INCREDIBLE FANS AND GENEROUS BOOSTERS-THANK YOU FOR EMBRACING ME AND MY TEAMMATES WITH SO MUCH LOVE AND ENERGY. PLAYING IN FRONT OF YOU WAS TRULY A BLESSING AND AN EXPERIENCE I WILL NEVER FORGET. DURING MY TIME HERE, I'VE BUILT FRIENDSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIPS THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME. THE BONDS WITH MY TEAMMATES, CLASSMATES, AND THE GAINESVILLE COMMUNITY ARE SOMETHING ILL ALWAYS CHERISH. AFTER DEEP REFLECTION, PRAYER AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FAMILY, I'VE DECIDED TO ENTER THE TRANSFER PORTAL AND TRUST GOD AS I TAKE THIS NEXT STEP IN MY JOURNEY. THIS WASN'T AN EASY DECISION, BUT I'M EXCITED TO SEE WHAT HE HAS IN STORE FOR ME NEXT. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING, GATOR NATION. I'LL ALWAYS HAVE LOVE FOR THIS PROGRAM AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT SO SPECIAL. WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE, Ra Shaya Kyle
She was on campus and on the bench present ? I think someone said she was unable to play due to some restrictions ?
Kitts doesn’t surprise me because it’s been too easy for a certain school to tamper lol. Letting her train with another SEC program for a year so they didn’t have to use their own scholarship, lol. Even if she doesn’t go to SC, which I bet she does, I imagine that it was hard to sit out for the whole year and do all the work in practice and watch from the bench. Plus I got the vibes she really wants to be a guard/forward combo. These are kids you know. They haven’t had a chance to be part of a toxic program so they don’t necessarily know a good thing when they have it, or they are worried about a better thing. when you are in a program and coach says, “we are gonna play you at the 5, it’s really where your skillset it suited” and you want to be a wing, that’s going to make you want to leave. you talk to another coach who promises you the world “you’re gonna be a starter, major contributor. You can play the 1-5, we have big goals for you!” And then does the same thing the prior coach was doing because they reallllly needed to fill that 8th roster spot—so they said whatever they needed to. I’ve seen it SO MANY TIMES. Plus, if she didn’t like what we had planned for her, this was her last chance to make a new choice. Absolutely no hard feelings towards anyone who leaves. If they don’t want to be here they aren’t gator material, no? Jeriah was a unicorn and we should really appreciate players like her It’s almost not worth recruiting out of high school at this point because very few play at the same school for 4 years. Better to just be the greener grass they run to. this is why recruiting Europe and Canada has become so popular lol they won’t mess around with jumping in the portal, not getting picked up and messing up their visas. Sad but true
dont underestimate the power of the men’s team doing well. This could actually be a positive for gators BBALL as a whole and show kids that we can be a basketball school. I think we will add at least 2-3 from the portal and probably look in junior college to round out the roster. I can’t stress enough that we have a nice group of true freshman coming in as well. moving fast is definitely important but to be fair some of these kids that decide that quickly probably are more impulsive and likely to hop in again and again (matharu) On that note, matharu left either because she didn’t like the idea of the 6th man role (she would have likely started most of the year here… in hindsight) or because she wanted to be on a tourney team etc etc She left us—at the very last second and put us in a shitty place, she sat til Jan and then came off the bench and was used less at Baylor than she would have been here. We played longer in the postseason. Glad for her lol Bummed cause I wanted to see if Kitts was really good or if she got ranked highly because of her sister lol wishing Kylee absolutely the best, but I figured O’Neal or daviane would be the ones hitting the portal from that class
I'd love to be that optimistic, but we've been successful in men's ball before. We need an administration that will care about the women's side as well. I think there are a couple of decent pieces coming next year, but I am not sold on the overall quality of the incoming class. The bigger concern for me is numbers. We never use enough scholarships IMO. You have them... use them. We need 3-4 just to be adequate in numbers, and I'm not sure we are done losing players just yet. I think the two you mentioned are very good possibilities...maybe even one other. Hoping Kelly can pull in a haul like she did when Leilani, Rashaya, and K.K. came on board. I think the staff needs some changes as well. Regardless, we will know a lot more about our odds of moving forward or backward within the next month. Hope they can make some moves.
Was told Kylee looked really good down low, but like you said was told but the other program and her sister that she would be stuck down low in our offense. Funny thing is Kyle who committed to Miami today was told we wanted to be more up tempo and have people running and Liv was going to be the focus going forward got her extra year but didnt want to be back at UF because of said item. We have to get 3 or 4 more girls because really I am not positve we wont lose 1 more girl and we taking our sweet time in the portal. I know KRF just had a baby but it seems like we are flat footed again like last year. Also I know someone close to Matharu and they were told no way would she transfer if she had to do it over again. She was told she would get starters minutes and she barely got what 10 minutes a game most games out there . But teams that we are on the level with play wise are killing us in the portal Clemson has gotten what 4 really decent players UGA 4 also, I know we had 1 or 2 girls at the 1st home game in the tourney but they ended up elsewhere because we didnt even put a real offer to them from my understanding..since then I have not heard of 1 girl coming on campus to us for a visit. Unacceptable.. I know CJ went on a recruiting trip to talk to some ladies, but nothing has come of it
Ra Shaya Kyle going to play for Indiana native Tricia Cullop…not shocked but she may find Cullops demeanor similar to Sharon versyp and Katie Gearlds—that’s not a compliment I guarantee based on the statement she made, our athletic dept busted their asses to get her that extra year. I thought she was going to move closer to her boyfriend, it also possible that Miami has a masters program we don’t. There’s a ton of factors to consider that we can’t see that go into a decision like this. not mad, just disappointed lol
The rumor has now been confirmed to be an fact, Rashaya Kyle was granted another year. Man that would of been great to have a returning veteran piece that is solid, and would help the other players and incoming freshmen. Her numbers were good, she improved under this staff, why leave ?
