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2019-20 Florida Basketball: The Good, the Bad, and the Average

It was a roller coaster-year for Florida basketball. Here is our year in review.

Graham Marsh

© Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

A worldwide pandemic ending the 2019-20 NCAA basketball season is unprecedented. Fans, media, players and coaches across sports have never seen anything like this. 

However, for Florida basketball, COVID-19, better known as the Coronavirus, spreading rapidly throughout the world and causing all kinds of events, including March Madness, to be canceled, was about as unpredictable as UF's season. 

Every year for every sports team has peaks and valleys, but it seemed like the Gators had a new peak and valley every week. This gave me plenty of moments to choose from when deciding on the good, the bad and the average of Florida basketball. 

The Good: Keyontae Johnson and Andrew Nembhard

I can't say enough good things about forward Keyontae Johnson. Yes, there were certain pockets of the year where he didn't seem to get involved as much as he should have. 

But if you look at the entire year in review, he was unquestionably UF's most consistent guy on both ends of the floor. Johnson's 14 points per game led the Gators in scoring. It also felt that if anyone could go create their own shot on this team, it was him. 

Look at the first Georgia game. Johnson was remarkable in the 22-point comeback to defeat the Bulldogs. He was getting to the line seemingly with ease and knocking down free throws like it was practice. 

Insert Andrew Nembhard. 

Nembhard was even better than Johnson the night of that Georgia comeback. The point guard's 25 points that night spearheaded the largest comeback in school history. 

And the sophomore was excellent all season. He made this offense go. 

The main area that the Ontario, Canada, native needed to improve on moving into this year was his scoring. He was already an NBA-caliber passer, but he was not enough of a scoring threat to fully maximize his passing abilities. 

He went from an eight points-per-game scorer to an 11.2 points-per-game scorer. This was with his assist total staying about the same, going from 5.4 APG his freshman season to 5.6 this year. 

The Bad: Inconsistency

It wouldn't be fair to pin the downfalls of this team on one coach or person. The reality is that this group did most everything as a team, including losing. 

The disastrous loss on the road to Missouri wasn't any one particular person's fault. Most of the team struggled to score and coach Mike White called basically nothing to get them out of the scoring slump. 

No particular player was the sole reason for giving up a bucket on 10 straight possessions against Kentucky to blow the double-digit lead at home. Again, it was a peak-and-valley season, where every peak seemed to be immediately followed by a valley. 

College basketball is an inconsistent game by nature, we know this. However, Florida was an extreme example. To escape the pit of mediocrity the Gators have been in for multiple years now, they need fewer valleys. 

And they need the valleys to not be nearly as low. Barely beating Towson by six points on your home floor isn't going to work. 

The Average: Kerry Blackshear Jr.

I could put a slew of freshmen in this category as well - Scottie Lewis, Omar Payne, Tre Mann and Ques Glover. However, I will give them a pass because this was their first year playing college hoops. 

No, Lewis was not everything Florida fans hoped the five star from Pennsylvania would be. No, Mann did not look like a McDonald's All American most of the season. However, those guys have the excuse of inexperience. 

Kerry Blackshear Jr. does not. 

He was without question UF's biggest disappointment this year. His 12.8 points per game and 7.5 rebounds a game aren't bad, but they're not good either. And they're especially disappointing when you were the SEC Preseason Player of the Year. 

Blackshear was voted by SEC coaches to the All-SEC second team. He was supposed to be the best player in the conference. The graduate transfer from Virginia Tech regressed throughout the season and was largely a disappointment. 

Oh, and he can't impact games when he's not on the floor. Yet, we saw quite a bit of this throughout the season:

Overall

This is a team with potentially a bright future. However, a few things need to happen for that future to actually illuminate. 

Out of Johnson, Nembhard and Lewis, two out of those three at the very least need to stay in school. All three would be well served to stay in college and continue developing for another season. 

Also, guys like Mann, Glover and Payne need to take large steps forward next season. An extra year of college ball under their belt should mean a huge step forward.

This team has all the makings of a team that grows together from the start and turns into something special. That wouldn't be the first time that was said for a Mike White group in Gainesville. 

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Graham Marsh
GRAHAM MARSH

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