Florida basketball recruiting: Zyon Pullin signs with Gators completing Todd Golden’s roster overhaul

By OnlyGators.com Staff
June 8, 2023
Florida basketball recruiting: Zyon Pullin signs with Gators completing Todd Golden’s roster overhaul
Basketball

Image Credit: UC Riverside

After deploying numerous stop-gap measures while evaluating the program in his first season, Florida Gators head basketball coach Todd Golden on Thursday completed a substantial overhaul of his team’s roster that analytic experts believe will set the Gators up for success in 2023-24. The final piece of the puzzle was UC Riverside guard Zyon Pullin, who committed to Florida out of the transfer portal on Wednesday and officially signed with the program 24 hours later.

Pullin, the top backcourt player left in the portal, is rated as a four-star talent and the No. 79 overall prospect available this cycle, per 247Sports. He became a priority target for Golden once North Texas G Tylor Perry, the 58th-ranked player in the portal, committed to Kansas State over UF.

“We are very excited to welcome Zyon into our program here at Florida,” Golden said in a statement. “He’s a very talented, mature young man who’s won a lot of games in college and been very productive along the way. He has great positional size and plays with great pace and tempo. He will be a great asset to our team this year.”

The fifth player the Gators have added out of the portal this offseason, Pullin (6-foot-4, 195 pounds) posted career-highs of 18.3 points and 48.6% shooting along with 4.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 39.4% accuracy from 3-point range in his fourth season with the Highlanders. He projects as a point guard for UF, though he will certainly share those duties and need some time to grow fully into that permanent position.

Though he explored NBA Draft waters, Pullin chose to remain in school and ultimately chose Florida over a stacked offer list that included Gonzaga, LSU, Michigan and Xavier. He has one year of eligibility remaining due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four-star Marshall center Micah Handlogten, the 7-foot-1 Sun Belt Freshman of the Year leads the transfer class as the No. 27 prospect in the portal. Four-star Iona G Walter Clayton Jr. (No. 68) — a unanimous All-MAAC first-team selection — three-star Yale forward EJ Jarvis and three-star Seton Hall power forward Tyrese Samuel (not regraded) are the other members of Florida’s five-man transfer class.

The commitment of Pullin continues a string of positive news the Gators, which not only added the aforementioned transfers but also got star G Riley Kugel to eschew NBA Draft interest and return for his sophomore season following a breakout campaign.

Florida also officially added Australian C Alex Condon, a 6-foot-10 high school prospect who spent last year playing for the NBA Global Academy, and three-star 2023 PF Thomas Haugh (Pennsburg, PA), the No. 189 recruit in the nation.

Florida, which at one point had nine of its 13 scholarships open following offseason departures, now has one remaining as Golden must decide what to do with the additional headcount. He could give that scholarship to a walk-on presently on the team, find another high school talent to add or consider going the international route again.

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