Tuesday afternoon, transferring forward Efe Abogidi announced the Gators made his list of finalists in the transfer portal. After playing his first two years of ball at Washington State, Abogidi announced his intentions to leave the program in mid-April. The other finalists in his recruitment are the Arizona Wildcats and Maryland Terrapins.
In addition to the portal, Abogodi tested the NBA draft waters but decided to return to amateur competition for at least one more season.
Abogidi’s strengths are condensed in the frontcourt. He’s an athletic big man who has a knack for blocks and can make an opposing defender pay sorely under the net for undercommitting to him. Last season, he averaged 8.1 points per game with minimal shooting from the arc, supplemented by 1.8 blocks and 5.8 rebounds.
As Florida basketball expert Eric Fawcett points out in an article for Gator Country, Abogidi is a golden boy for the analytics head coach Todd Golden is using to identify big men. Particularly with regards to his offensive rebounding – an area Golden made no bones about prioritizing improvement in – Abogidi could be a great help to Florida’s roster.
How exactly Golden would intend to meld in another long frontcourt player with more SEC potential than proven ability isn’t clear as daylight to me. CJ Felder and Alex Fudge also fit that bill and both of them have been cited as having NBA potential. Odds are, however, that injury or underperformance will allow that question to answer itself.
Also to be noted is that Abogidi has three years of eligibility remaining. That has been a theme among many of the transfers being signed by Golden and his staff. Fudge still has three years left, as do guards Will Richard and Trey Bonham.
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