Prather was another one who improved incredibly from freshman year to senior year. He was just a high flying dunking machine and a lockdown defender when he got to UF. Couldn’t shoot and couldn’t put the ball on the floor and attack. By the end he could do it all. Loved that guy. “Wes Chandler was Percy Harvin before Percy Harvin was born.”
Another one in the discussion of best Gator PG ever is Cheese. It was crazy that Wilbekin was lightly regarded coming in, and Cheese was definitely considered behind Kasey Hill….but they both were two of the toughest players I’ve ever seen. Both were so much fun to root for.
Chiozza was so darn talented. When Chiozza was still in high school, I was posting that he already was better than Kasey Hill. Mike White ignored me.
Chiozza was a Top 75 recruit lmao. He wasn't some unheralded gem. And, as I've said a bunch of times, Wilbekin is better than Chiozza by a pretty wide margin. Wilbekin came up as a pro without two-way contracts -- in that situation, Euroleague contracts were a much better financial decision. Wilbekin is the only UF player in the Euroleague currently, and he's a Top 5 guard there.
Gonna just agree to disagree with you there then. Wilbekin is one of the five or so best guards outside the NBA right now. I don't think Chiozza has the skillset to do what Wilbekin has done in Euroleague; the best comp for Chiozza to me is Larkin (similar size, athletic profile) and Larkin is a considerably better scorer at all levels than Cheeze.
As far as comparisons go, it's important to remember that 2-way contracts weren't a thing when Wilbekin was coming up.
This video is a pretty good compilation of the absurd shots Scottie makes on a regular basis He's an NBA-level shot-maker, no doubt.
I love Wilbekin, but he didn’t make an NBA team. The point about no 2-way contracts is a good one. I also like Larkin and have liked him since high school. Cheese kicks ass when he gets G League games. I am disagreeing with the notion that Wilbekin is better than Cheese by a wide margin. I don’t have the necessary information to say which one is better.
I've watched the pro development of both and there's genuinely no doubt that Wilbekin is better than Chiozza imo. For Wilbekin, NBA is just a matter of risk at this point -- why be the 13th man on an NBA team when you're the star of the most popular team in the country in which you're living making the equivalent of a $3 mil/year NBA contract?
Jack, Maybe, maybe not, but we can agree to disagree as I’d take Scottie. The story we all know is: One was heralded and the other was 2 stars. Scottie’s development was astounding. Don’t get me wrong, that was a stat saw him in high school knew he was better than his ranking But the coaches deserve a ton of credit here
Wilbekin being an "unheralded two-star" is a bit of an undersell given that he skipped his junior year of AAU ball and senior year of high school to play at UF. Clearly he was athletic enough to at least register as a 4-star but just hadn't yet. Debates now about Wilbekin's career are just centered around how knowledgeable one is about European basketball. Calathes and Wilbekin are the most successful overseas UF pros at this point and no one is close.
I loved Wilbey and Cheeze, but Nick Calathes and JWill need to be in the conversation about best UF PGs. And Dan Cross? Heck, some might like Clifford Lett as the most under-rated UF PG.
