North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier reportedly hearing from Kentucky
This is a big one, folks. North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier is on the Wildcats’ radar.
According to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, Kentucky is one of more than a dozen schools to express interest in Lanier. Joining UK are the likes of BYU, Cincinnati, Duke, FAU, Illinois, Kansas State, Louisville, Maryland, Miami (FL), Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Villanova, and West Virginia.
Lanier, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Nashville, was tabbed ASUN First Team All-Conference during the 2023-24 campaign as a senior. In what was a massive breakout season, Lanier averaged 19.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 0.9 steals in 33.4 minutes per outing. He shot 51 percent from the field, 44 percent from deep, and 88 percent from the line while starting 31 of 32 games played.
According to On3’s transfer portal rankings, Lanier is considered the 8th-best player to enter his name into the portal this offseason. He will have one year of eligibility remaining.
As a Nashville native, Tennessee has been viewed as the favorite ever since Lanier went into the portal on April 24. However, it’s been over a week now since he made that decision and his list of interested schools is quite lengthy. The Volunteers should still be considered the frontrunner, but an announcement does not appear imminent.
Whichever team lands Lanier will get one of the top scorers in all of college basketball. His efficiency numbers were through the roof last season, ranking among the nation’s top 100 players in offensive rating, true shooting percentage, free throw percentage, and three-point percentage, per KenPom.
Lanier rivaled former Kentucky guard Antonio Reeves in terms of pure shooting figures.
Lanier’s breakout season seemingly came out of nowhere, too. He was hardly recruited out of high school and barely played as a freshman at North Florida in 2020-21. Lanier was given a larger role as a sophomore and junior, but never averaged more than five points per game. He then went from 4.7 points per game as a junior to 19.7 as a senior in ’23-24.
Head coach Mark Pope still needs a go-to scorer to help fill out his debut roster for 2024-25. Lanier would look pretty good getting buckets inside Rupp Arena next season.
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