Experience and leadership are everything in sports. It’s what helps drive a team to the finish line in certain games. It can also be the way to get out of a bad streak at any time during the season. A veteran presence is also needed to guide the younger players on the team. Simply put, he is a vital piece of a winning team.

Fortunately for him florida crocodilesThey have a lot of that. And while a part of it is in the attack zoneMost of the experience lies in the guard position.

In the Gators’ starting lineup, they will have Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richarda couple of upperclassmen, along with graduate transfer Alija Martin. Then, from the bench, he will have Junior Daniel Aberdeenwho finished the season at full speed, to help be the leader of the second unit.

“Those four guys are the ones leading the charge, and I would expect them to have really good years,” Gators head coach Todd Golden said.

Clayton Jr. is the leader of the Gators and rightly so. He has been one of the top scoring point guards in the country over the past two seasons. He averaged 16.8 points per game in his final season at Iona before transferring to Gainesville last year, where he increased his average to 17.6 points. Without a doubt, the preseason first-team All-SEC selection will be a vital instrument in Golden’s offense in 2024-25.

His running mate, Martin, will also be able to fill the gaps that Clayton Jr. has in his game and at the same time be able to recover the pieces that were left when Pullin left for the NBA.

“Alijah Martin is a great addition for us,” Golden said. “I think he does a great job of raising the bar for us every day in terms of our competitiveness, in terms of our belief and in terms of our confidence.”

Martin played in 124 career games (86 starts) with FAU over four seasons. This includes a run to the final four in 2023, in which he was instrumental.

Martin brings a level of toughness and strong defensive effort that will help improve a woeful Gators defense from a season ago. In his final season with FAU, Martin managed to reach into the cookie jar 56 times, which was a personal high for the guard.

However, he is not just a defender. He can also put the ball in the basket. He scored 13.1 points per game in 2023-24. On top of that, Martin averaged 16.5 points in the Owls’ postseason run in the 2022-23 season.

The last spot in the starting rotation goes to Richard. Richard will be the longest-tenured Gator of the three, as 2024-25 will be his third season in Gainesville since transferring from Belmont. He was one of the first transfers Golden made and has been one of the Gators’ most consistent players.

He has racked up 68 appearances (65 starts) during his time with the Gators and is near the top when it comes to shooters on this list. He has shot 36.6 percent from behind the arc over the past two seasons, making 121 three-pointers during that time.

These three will certainly be a dangerous trio in the SEC, but let’s also not overlook the depth the Gators have at guard.

Aberdeen will potentially be the first name to come off Golden’s bench this season. Aberdeen didn’t have the start to the season they would have liked last year, but they definitely made up for lost time to finish the season.

In the SEC Tournament semifinals, the versatile guard sparked an 18-point comeback to help Texas A&M. He finished this game with 20 points and scored four three-pointers to lead his team to the finals of the tournament.

This game showed the player he could be for the Gators, a guard who can light up from deep. Additionally, he saw an increased workload in the final four games of the season, playing at least 10 minutes per game in each of the four.

However, Aberdeen will not be the only point guard coming off the bench. Golden will also have the option of Isaiah Brown, Kajus Kublickas and urban klavzar put on the court to provide minutes of rest to the starters. This trio may have no experience in college sports, both Kublickas and Klavzar has games registered abroad.

Kublickas played 37 games for Zalgiris II in Lithuania and competed in multiple international tournaments with the Lithuanian under-20 and under-18 teams. Klavzar played 33 games with CD Estela Cantabria, a team in Spain’s second division. Additionally, he has played with the Slovenian under-16, under-20 and senior national teams since 2019. This may not be a Division I experience, but it still counts.

This is a deep and experienced roster that Golden has assembled and this depth will play a big role in this upcoming campaign for the Florida Gators.