Florida basketball: Tyree Appleby addition just strengthens Gators for future

In a recent post about the prospect of former Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan returning to the Gators, I said the prospect was extremely unlikely … now, that is reinforced.

Let me first begin by saying, I don’t think Billy Donovan should replace Mike White … under any circumstances.

White has developed a good culture with Florida basketball, and the hope is White will continue to build upon what he has started and return the Gators to the national spotlight, diversifying the university’s athletic department to be more than a football school.

I think he is well on his way.

First, he lands one of the biggest (literally and figuratively) transfers as Kerry Blackshear elected to transfer from Virginia Tech to Florida for a graduate year.

That’s big, right?

Of course it is!

Well, you can add one more big transfer to the list of wins for White.

Cleveland State point guard Tyree Applebee announced on his Instagram page that he had decided to join Florida basketball after making an official visit to Gainesville.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz7BnJrJZyk/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

So, in addition to adding a solid big in the middle, White has brought in an assist-dealer the likes of which the Gators haven’t seen in some time.

Oh, and did I mention that Appleby was the first player for Cleveland State to notch a triple-double? Yeah, he averaged 17.2 points, 5.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game for the Vikings.

Just to put that in perspective, his 17.2 points per game would have been tops on the Gators’ roster and beat the next player by about six points. KeVaughn Allen averaged a little more than 11 points per game last season.

Appleby would also have led the team in assists, even with Andrew Nembhard averaging 5.4 assists per game last season.

And, he would have tied Allen for the best steals-per-game average.

All-in-all, despite the fact Appleby will sit out the upcoming season because of transfer rules, tossing him into the mix along with fellow transfer Andrew Duruji (from Louisiana Tech) and the youth the Gators have, White has set a nice stage for success.

White has dug deep to pull off landing Appleby. Tyree’s brother Raheem played for White at Louisiana Tech. Toss that in with the fact that Duruji is coming from Louisiana Tech and White is using his connections to make the Gators stronger.

And, the fact that White has hit the nail on every target’s head thus far shows that Gator nation is, at least on the outset, in good hands.