Jitoboh joins Gators highly regarded 2019 class

By
Graham Hall
-
22
4746
6'11" forward/center Jason Jitoboh committed to the Gators on March 28, 2019 (Edit courtesy of Jitoboh's Twitter)

Florida didn’t take long to fill at least one of the recently vacated scholarships.

In light of three players opting to transfer from the program, UF landed a commitment from highly regarded forward Jason Jitoboh.

A 6-foot-11, 270-pound prospect, Jitoboh gives Florida’s 2019 class a sizable presence after signing guards Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann alongside power forward Omar Payne.

The three-star prospect out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is coming off injuries to his foot and ankle, making it likely the Gators will opt to sit Jitoboh for a season as he recovers and develops.

With the addition of Jitoboh, the Gators have just three open scholarships to fill.

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22 COMMENTS

  2. With it being 8 months until the start of next season, I personally hope that his recovery comes along fast enough that he can play some minutes next year. Still hold out hope that one of the big guys in the transfer portal ends up down in Gainesville. Go Gators

  3. I’m still holding onto hope that Stokes takes off season conditioning seriously. He can be a potential game changer on the offensive side of the ball. I love shooting the three point shot but if we have no inside threat, opponents are just going to run us off the line every game.

    I think Stokes has shown great potential in his limited playing time.

    • I know a couple of former 3 stars that are currently projected going in the first round if the NBA draft. A lot of times with 3 stars, it’s how much do they want to be better and they get it more playing college ball than they ever could playing HS or even AAU ball. I only worry about getting someone who’s coming here injured. It’s taken Stokes a year and a half to finally start going after his potential.

      • Yeah, from what I have gathered, his injury kept his stars at 3….and it can political if you aren’t in the AAU circuit heavy. AT any rate and for depth in a program like ours that has to compete against the Kentuckys, cheating LSU’s of the world….that size doesn’t grow on trees and can be developed. Tennessee’s 3 star guys look pretty good to me.

  5. I wish White recruited the same caliber of big men as he does guards. If he did UF would be a different program. Glad we got another big fella, but sounds like he is more of a long term project much like Bassett and Stokes. What do we have to do to get a big fella that is ready to ball?

    • Have to remember that he originally only needed to replace one front court player until Chase Johnson left in the middle of the season, and Keith Stone decided to leave too. By then, he probably only had a handful of relationships of unsigned frontcourt players.

      • That’s is all true, Corey. My point is that it White tends to recruit higher caliber guards than big men. I am sure this commitment was a response to attrition, but it would be great to have higher quality front court players nonetheles. I hope White can shore up this deficiency in the future.

        • Brian, I think the issue is the difference between recruiting and actually signing. I’m sure he’s recruiting the higher caliber bigs, but the issue is signing them. However, that seems to be taking care of itself. He’s progressed from 3 stars, Bassett and Gak, to 4 stars, Chase Johnson, Stokes, and now Payne. Jitoboh is also rated a 4 star by some services. Hopefully, he can move on to a couple of 5 stars from here.

          • That’s a good point Joe, I do see some improvement here. Stokes was a higher caliber recruit if I remember correctly. I do think Jitoboh has potential to turn into a contributor after a redshirt season, so he may end up being really good for the program. In that respect, at least, this is a good pick up. The impatient fan part of me wants White to hit one out of the park at some point and get a stud who can just really bring it. I think I was spoiled by the recruiting prowess of Donovan. I have such fond memories of U. Haslem, Donnell Harvey, David Lee, P. Young, Al Horford, and of course Noah. Speights and Macklin weren’t too bad either. We just need White to give us one or two in that range for us to be competitive. I would have hoped for at least one big time big to emerge in the first four years, but it hasn’t happened yet.

          • I like Jitboh’s last name. Makes me think of Egbunu, just a big freaking scary DUDE in the middle. Ah, if only he would have never gotten hurt…I really think we could have made a final four run that year.