Florida Basketball: Kowacie Reeves is becoming the next Scottie Lewis
By Will Thomas
While still working on becoming a threat in the SEC again, Florida basketball is starting to look much better than last season.
They just went on the road and won a tough game against Mississippi State, and have won four of their last five.
While the team as a whole is improving, one guy isn’t quite living up to expectations.
Kowacie Reeves is in his second year in Gainesville and is the best all-around athlete on the team. He has all the physical tools needed to thrive at the college level.
One thing is wrong though: He’s struggled to score consistently.
Watching Reeves play reminds me a lot of Scottie Lewis, who played for Mike White from 2019-2021. And digging deeper, we can find a lot of similarities between the two.
Lewis is 6’5”-189. Reeves is 6’6”-190.
Both were elite recruits in their respective classes and were admired for their length and defensive ability.
They both have the freakish ability to jump out of the building, throw crazy blocks, and rip the rim off the backboard.
A less positive similarity is that both players struggled to score at times for the Gators.
Scottie averaged 7.9 ppg in his final year in Gainesville. Reeves is currently putting up 9.1 a game. Surprisingly, Lewis shot the three-ball better than Reeves is right now. Scottie shot it at a 31.8% rate, while Reeves is sitting at 29.5%.
From the field as a whole, Lewis was shooting it at 44.5%, and Kowacie is at 38.7%. Lewis was also grabbing more steals and blocking more shots than Kowacie is.
So what’s happening to Reeves? He had tons of hype coming into the season after a promising freshman season and started the year off strong, which included a season-high 20 points against Ohio.
A big part of it seems to be that the team has more guys that can score compared to last year. Will Richard has shown up and taken over the three-point shooting for the Gators. Colin Castleton is as dominant as ever. Freshman Riley Kugel is emerging as a game changer, and Myreon Jones has started to find his rhythm.
With more competition to get buckets, Reeves is starting to press a little bit. We’re seeing him drive to the basket and try to go over double teams, which doesn’t really work for anyone.
From deep, his numbers are down, implying a shooting slump that may be brought on by some added pressure to keep up with his teammates.
Here’s the good news: Reeves isn’t the same player as Scottie Lewis. He’s better. Their playstyles may mirror each other at times, but Kowacie’s ceiling is higher. He can shoot and drive at an elite level and doesn’t turn the ball over often.
Kowacie needs to just settle down and trust his skills. We’ve seen him be frustrated at times during the games when shots aren’t falling. His minutes have gone down over the past three games as a result.
When, not if, Reeves gets hot again, this team is going to kick it into another gear.
Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.