Welcome aboard AJ, It's Great to be a Florida Gator! It'll be interesting see the role AJ plays on the team, more like Martin or more like Richard.
I think Martin splits his time between SG and SF and Haugh splits his time between SF and PF. Good to have guys with positional flexibility!
I feel VERY good about this young man in O&B. I am seeing a trend in Golden's picks: They need to be smart. Intelligence as evidenced by grades is a sign of more than just book-learning. Just as being able to hold two competing thoughts in your head is a sign of emotional maturity, balancing competing athletic priorities is a skill gained through trial. I see our players under Golden being asked to balance "individual capability"with "needs of the team." Channelizing those productively is what helped us win games many other teams would not have.
The only bigger school he played last season was Memphis. He was 5–12 from the field, and 7–7 from the line. Had 19 points against a pretty good opponent. That’s encouraging.
Put 14 up against us in Tampa as a freshman as well. I don’t think this is the guy that leads us to a national title as a primary scorer, but I think he will be a very good depth piece and we didn’t take a huge NIL hit from what I understand.
A.J. has moved from being rated 177th on 247's transfer list to a 68th ranking. I'm guessing that if he had signed with UK, he would now be in the top 5.
He's a really good shooter from both 2 and 3. Elite effective fg% (57), which makes him Will Richard level. Relatively low turnover rate. Don't know enough about him defensively, but he is a pretty big guard who can play the two or three. He definitely replaces Aberdeen's spot up shooting, but more efficient offensively (again, on part with the best of Richard), which is nice. Not sure what they did defensively, but he was easily their best offensive rebounding guard.