Florida Gators Basketball Transfer Profile: Alex Fudge
By Nolan Fluke
In college basketball, with every new season comes new faces. With the transfer portal hitting all-time highs, coaches are looking to bring in experienced transfers to fill their spots instead of recruiting out of high school. After the Florida Gators lost three players to the portal, head coach Todd Golden got active and brought in 4 new transfers, including Alex Fudge, to upgrade his roster. Who are these transfers and can they help the Gators back to the top of the SEC?
Hail Florida Hail will be highlighting each one of these new transfers and bringing our fellow Gator fans insight on their pasts, along with their potential future impact.
After highlighting Kyle Lofton, the next profile is sophomore transfer from LSU, forward Alex Fudge.
Player History: Alex Fudge, F
Coming out of high school, the 6’8 Florida native was a 4-star recruit to Louisiana State University. In his rookie season, he played 29 games as a Tiger and was on the floor for an average of 13.9 minutes per game.
As a rotational piece, he put up 3.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.3 assists while shooting 42.4% from the field, 28.6% from three, and 56.8% from the charity stripe. His numbers are reflective of a rotational player, but his play shows a high ceiling.
Fudge’s Fit as a Florida Gator
His time at LSU was short, and his college experience is limited to less than 30 games, but Alex Fudge can be a great rotational piece for the Florida Gators.
For his limited minutes, his rebounding numbers at 3.2 are solid. They may seem little, but if we adjust his minutes, his rebounds per game per 40 minutes would be 9.1, which would put him as one of the top 30 rebounders in college basketball. Obviously, no player plays 40 minutes, but if given the chance he has shown in his single season at LSU that he is capable of cleaning the glass for Florida.
Fudge loves to play in the dunkers spot. His athleticism and length makes him a dangerous lob threat and his above the rim play could be a huge asset to the Gator offense. However, his shooting numbers need much improvement if he wants to become a major piece for Coach Golden. With him shooting below league average at the rim and not having developed a three-point shot yet, I can see Fudge being utilized on the bench as a backup forward and as his shooting develops working his way into higher minutes play.
In Summary
As much as I think Fudge would thrive in a small-ball center type role, as long as Colin Castleton is playing center for Florida, Fudge will most likely be a rotation player for the Gators.
His rebounding shows potential if given the minutes, his length helps Castleton protect the rim, and his athleticism poses a great above the rim threat. Fudge just needs to improve upon his shooting numbers this next season to put himself into a starter conversation.
With all this being said, I am excited to see Fudge wearing a Gator uniform, and am excited to watch him develop under Coach Golden.
Keep up with the Florida Gators here.