Riley Kugel named preseason first-team All-SEC by league coaches
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida sophomore guard Riley Kugel earned first-team honors on the preseason All-SEC team, as voted on by the league’s coaches, the SEC announced on Thursday.
It’s the latest preseason accolade for Kugel, who previously earned a second-team All-SEC nod from the media voters and was named to the Jerry West Award Watch List during October.
The Orlando native started in 17 of 32 games played during his freshman year, averaging 9.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. That earned him a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team.
It also provided him with the opportunity to test the NBA waters, but Kugel ultimately decided to return to Gainesville for a second season and boost his draft stock.
“I had feedback from other people outside, but I mainly just tend to listen to my main core of my mom, dad, and then turning to like overall just my decision, what was best for me, and I know that staying here would be the best option,” Riley Kugel said in the preseason. “I feel like I could have went last year, but I didn’t want to go last year in that type of headspace.
“I didn’t want to leave college, I won’t say as a loser, but I didn’t want to leave college with a negative record. I don’t want to leave college with a 16-17 record and going, ‘OK, I was on a team that barely won. He did that, that’s cool.’ I want to be on a winning team, show people I can play on a winning team, and I just want to make it as far as we can — hopefully play for a national championship.”
Kugel, who’s wearing No. 2 this year, has played well in the preseason. Kugel led the Gators with a 20-point performance in their scrimmage win over Miami and scored 19 points in the second scrimmage last Saturday against FIU.
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“He’s made a huge jump. It’s really in his consistency,” UF coach Todd Golden said of Kugel. “At times last year, you saw the ceiling and how well he can play, whether it was when he had [24] at home against Kentucky or when he carried us down the stretch to wins at Georgia and against LSU at home. But, for us, the way he’s practicing has been super consistent in going really, really hard and really raises the level of our team.
“He’s just playing at a really, really high level and being really efficient, unselfish, smart and competing really hard on both ends. He had a great rebounding performance (against Miami), which was really encouraging. It’s just what we expect in our program. When guys go from freshman to sophomore, we expect them to make a really big jump. He’s doing that.”
The Gators will have the Orange & Blue Scrimmage on Thursday at 7 p.m. (free admission) at the O’Connell Center before their season opener at home against Loyola Maryland on Monday at 8 p.m.
Preseason First-Team All-SEC
First Team
Trevon Brazile – Arkansas
Johni Broome – Auburn
Riley Kugel – Florida
Antonio Reeves – Kentucky
Tolu Smith – Mississippi State
Santiago Vescovi – Tennessee
Zakai Zeigler – Tennessee
Wade Taylor IV – Texas A&M
Second Team
Grant Nelson – Alabama
Mark Sears – Alabama
Davonte Davis – Arkansas
Justin Edwards – Kentucky
Matthew Murrell – Ole Miss
Josiah-Jordan James – Tennessee
Tyrece Radford – Texas A&M
Tyrin Lawrence – Vanderbilt
