Todd Golden details what Xaivian Lee brings to Florida

Xaivian Lee is the biggest addition to this point of the offseason to this point for Florida. That’s with the need at the position coming off of last season and what he’ll be bringing himself to the Gators’ backcourt.

Todd Golden again discussed the commitment of Lee for them from out of the NCAA Transfer Portal during an interview on ‘The Field of 68’ last night. He had a lot to say about his offensive numbers, namely his shooting percentages and assist-to-turnover numbers, through three seasons at Princeton.

“Yeah, I, I think Xaivian is just, first of all, he’s an elite offensive player,” said Golden. “You know, I think that’s the best way I would describe him.

“And, just an incredible shooter, has gotten better there every year at Princeton. Where he’s incredibly elite is his ball handling and his playmaking. He had like a 35% assist rate with a 14% turnover rate last year. And, for the stat nerds like us, you know, to have an assist rate like that and a turnover rate that low says a lot about his ball handling and his playmaking ability.”

Lee has averaged 12.7 points (43.5% FG, 33.4% 3PT), 4.5 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game in his collegiate career so far for the Tigers. He then, over the past two seasons as a starter who was a unanimous selection as First Team All-Ivy League, posted 17 points (44.5% FG, 35.2% 3PT on 1.9 threes), 5.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.1 steals.

Then, in transferring from the Ivy League to the Southeastern Conference, Golden expects Lee will be just fine playing against that level of competition. He showed them enough, during conference play and at times in the non-conference, to know he can play with the type of teams they’ll come across next season.

“Even at Princeton, you know, in the Ivy League, the one thing that really stood out to us about his performance was he has always performed as well against tier-a and -b competition as he does against everybody else,” said Golden. “To be able to do that? You know, obviously, playing in our league, you’re playing against most all -a and -b teams.”

Again, this was a much-needed commitment for Florida, especially since Lee has also pulled his name from testing for the 2025 NBA Draft. The Gators lost all four of their top guards from last year’s title team with Walter Clayton, Alijah Martin, and Will Richard, their three leaders in scoring and steals as well as being among their best in shooting percentages, out of eligibility and Denzel Aberdeen transferring to Kentucky. That now leaves Lee with a lot of opportunity, along with AJ Brown (Ohio), to be a lead guard for them in Gainesville.

Florida didn’t have much in their backcourt coming off of winning the national championship earlier this month. That’s where Lee comes in now to give them some of that production back at the guard spot.

“I just think he’s going to be able to give us a big scoring punch and a playmaking punch, you know, from the point guard position and we’ll play him on the ball quite a bit this year,” said Golden.