Welcome to Gator Nation, John Bol! (Photo via Chris Schmitz, twitter)
Todd Golden just landed his biggest commitment as the Gators’ men’s basketball coach. As a head coach, period, in fact.
7’1 center John Bol, a consensus four-star prospect out of Sunrise Christian High School in Wichita, Kansas, has committed to Florida. He also held offers from a bevy of other schools, including Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, Wake Forest, UConn, Texas, Kansas State, and Butler. He was said to have chosen Florida primarily over UConn, Wake Forest and Missouri.
As a member of the 2024 recruiting cycle, he’ll be on campus not this upcoming season, but next season. That shows an ability for Todd Golden to not only recruit well in the portal, but to get it done the old fashioned way through the high school ranks, too.
The commitment of John Bol gives Todd Golden his highest-ranked recruit since he became a head coach at San Francisco prior to the 2019-20 season. And it’s a commitment that looms even bigger than it ordinarily would because it wasn’t just other top-flight college programs that Golden beat out for his talents. Bol was considering going to Overtime Elite, a developmental pro basketball circuit for 20-and-under men situated in Atlanta.
Bol is ranked as the 29th best overall player in the 2024 class, and the #3 ranked center in the class. He’s an energetic playmaker in the paint who still has room to sprout, and his talent- not to mention his basketball IQ- has drawn rave reviews from scouts and analysts. And he does it at both ends of the floor. There are multiple highlights on YouTube and twitter of Bol volleyball-spiking an opponent’s shot to the ground, running down to the other end of the floor and then finishing for two points for his squad all in the span of a few seconds.
Golden and the Gators first offered Bol last fall, and quickly became a real player in his recruitment. They got him on campus about six weeks ago, and this morning he pulled the trigger. That commitment adjusts Florida’s class ranking upward to #11 in the country with only two commits- the other of which is four-star shooting guard Isaiah Brown- and should, if fans have any sense about them, quell any complaints about Golden’s ability to recruit.
One year after missing out on Norchad Omier and Johni Broome in the transfer portal, Golden gritted his teeth, hit the reset button, and went to work. He’s landed an absolutely loaded transfer class for this upcoming season, including Walter Clayton Jr. and Tyrese Samuel, and now he’s shown an ability to recruit top-quality kids from the high school ranks as well.
All those additions to his roster have netted Florida a top 20 squad in terms of pure talent, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings system. Of course, talent will still need to be developed and fine-tuned, but Golden has now shown real success in checking the box that failed him last year.