Scottie Lewis: Family, His Defensive Niche and SEC Media Day

Freshman Scottie Lewis came into Florida as the seventh ranked player nationally.

The 6’5″ shooting guard out of Eatontown, New Jersey is an exciting addition to Florida’s roster. He is locked in and ready for the upcoming 2019-20 season and is even taking a social media break.

The freshman is expected to be a pivotal piece in Florida’s success this year.

Family

Lewis is the middle of five children and has a close relationship with his brothers and his mother.

He wears the number 23 for his brothers and himself. They’re so close that he even has “five forever” tattooed on his left arm as tribute to them.

“I wear the number, um, my mom raised five kids on her own. I didn’t want to wear five so I chose twenty-three equaling five. So it was for my brothers and myself.”

Defensive Niche

Scottie developed his defensive niche during his time in high school where he was surrounded by other top players.

He credits players like Jalen Gaffney, Aiden Igiehon, Alex Klatsky and Bryan Antoine for giving him the opportunity to focus on the defensive side of his game.

Lewis takes pride in his skill set and ability to defend. He watched players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan and Patrick Beverly along with lots of YouTube videos to watch them offensively and prepare to guard them.

“Probably my freshman year of high school, you know I played with Jalen Gaffney, Aiden Igiehon, Alex is a great shooter, Bryan Antoine is a great scorer, so I didn’t have to score as much as most top players have too. So the defensive thing was kind of my niche, and I gravitate towards that and I took pride in that. So I focused on the skill set of playing defense. I watched players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Patrick Beverly and kind of picked their brains. Watch YouTube videos day in and day out and learning how they watch players offensively and prepare to guard them.”

Florida Basketball News

Ahead of SEC media days starting tomorrow in Birmingham, Alabama, a couple of  Gators got preseason accolades.

Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. was named to the SEC First Team and predicted to win SEC Player of the Year.

In addition, point guard Andrew Nembhard was named to the SEC Second Team.

Florida was also predicted to finish second in the SEC.