Tuesday's Take: Kerry Blackshear Jr. Hasn't Been What Florida Hoped He'd Be
The preseason SEC player of the year.
That was the hype around the graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, Kerry Blackshear Jr. When he announced his transfer in late June, it was huge news.
No, it was program-changing news.
So much so, that his decision to wear orange and blue in his final season of college basketball elevated the Gators to the preseason No. 6 team. Blackshear, along with incoming-recruits Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann, were supposed to lead a huge run this season.
That simply hasn't happened.
Now, Blackshear has not been bad by any stretch. You can't call 13.3 points per game bad. But it's not great, either.
The Orlando native came to Florida to be great. Head coach Mike White expected Blackshear to be great. Florida fans expected nothing short of that.
Instead, they got not-bad.
And in a season filled with highs and lows, all of the lows are certainly not on him. He didn't go 0-5 from three against Kentucky and 0-7 from three against Florida State as Noah Locke did. He didn't score just five points against Ole Miss for the road loss as Andrew Nembhard did.
But Blackshear has gotten into foul trouble, a lot.
The big man has been notorious for silly fouls early in ball games. It is far too often that he will push off in the paint going for a rebound and get caught. It is far too often he has to push more than desired on defense and gets a whistle. The big man who is supposed to be on the floor the vast majority of the game has played under 30 minutes 12 times this year.
Not all of those were due to foul trouble, he got ejected early against St. Joseph's in the Charleston Classic for "throwing an elbow," when he clearly did not intend to elbow St. Joe's Taylor Funk. He also sat the final few minutes in games where it was out of reach late to somewhat skew the numbers.
But the point still stands that he struggles to stay on the court enough to help his team in big moments.
Obviously, foul trouble is a bad look. But more than him not playing, the success Florida has enjoyed at times without No. 24 on the court has been eye-opening. Blackshear played just 12 minutes and scored two points in the dominant victory over Arkansas.
It seemed like without him out there, Nembhard and Keyontae Johnson were significantly more assertive, and they were cooking the Razorbacks.
Those two second-year guys have shown consistent ability to score. Johnson has been in double-figure scoring for 10 straight games and Nembhard is averaging 13 points a game in those same contests.
Early in the season, Nembard and Johnson were struggling to score. Nembhard averaged under 10 points per game and Johnson was up and down, scoring in double figures inconsistently. So, it was thought that the offense needed to run through Blackshear. And for the most part, it did.
Not including the St. Joe's ejection, in his first eight games in orange and blue, Blackshear scored in double figures. He now gets to that point far less.
But what is the bigger difference between when Blackshear was the leader of this team, and now?
It's simple. Florida is winning more basketball games.
UF has won five out of its last seven games. And Johnson and Nembhard, along with Locke when his threes fall, have been the main culprits.
Blackshear has not, and that seemed crazy at one point. It seemed absurd to imagine any success in 2020 without the transfer having a heavy hand.
Yet, here we are.
