The 2025 National Championship Game was the first to feature zero freshmen since 1989, but that doesn’t mean Todd Golden’s 2024 high school class was insignificant. First, 7-foot-9 freshman center Olivier Rioux provided a constant stream of viral moments throughout the NCAA Tournament, despite redshirting his first year in Gainesville, and second, Isaiah Brown may have just won the Gators an important transfer portal battle.
Brown, a three-star recruit in the 2024 class, has an older brother, AJ, who has spent the first three years of his collegiate career at Ohio University. And now, the two will be teammates.
Ohio transfer AJ Brown has committed to Florida, per his IG page.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 24, 2025
Ohio transfer AJ Brown joins younger brother Isaiah in Gainesville
Last season, AJ, a 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore guard, scored 13.2 points a game while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from three. He's a true off-ball guard who will pair nicely with incoming Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee, who is expected to run the point in Gainesville next season.
Golden will largely have his frontcourt intact, with Alex Condon's NBA Draft status the only thing preventing the return of his four most productive forwards: Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu, and Micah Handlogten. However, the Gators' backcourt is undergoing a complete offseason overhaul.
When Lee was added to the roster, he was expected to fit next to Denzel Aberdeen, who came off the bench as a junior on Florida's championship run. However, Aderdeen then entered the transfer portal and joined SEC rival Kentucky. Abderdeen's departure came on the heels of First-Team All-American point guard Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard, and Alijah Martin all exhausting their final season of eligibility.
AJ Brown is a high-volume spot-up three-point shooter with soft touch on his high-arcing jump shot, who will help space the floor for the dribble-hand-off actions that Florida relies so heavily on. The lengthy guard is an instinctive cutter who will thrive in off-ball actions and amplify Lee's strength as a passer. The Princeton guard posted a 99th percentile assist rate last season, but is a questionable finisher at the rim, so he'll rely on spraying the ball to shooters like Brown from the paint, or finding cutters around the basket.
As Florida's second transfer portal addition, Brown is likely to start in the backcourt for the Gators next season, and his younger brother Isaiah could compete for playing time off the bench after appearing in 19 games last year as a true freshman.
Despite his three-star status, the younger Brown was Florida's highest-rated recruit in the 2024 class. The Gators could lean more heavily on freshmen next season with four-star wing CJ Ingram and four-star guard Alex Lloyd both ranking as top 40 players in the 2025 high school class.