Xaivian Lee brings elite ball handling, playmaking ability to Gators

As the Florida Gators reload their roster for 2025-26, one of the new players who will lead the team next season is Xaivian Lee. The former Princeton point guard is a top-50 transfer and one of four members in UF’s 2025 class — which is entirely backcourt players.

Lee averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists at Princeton during his junior season. He shot 43.9 percent from the floor, 36.6 percent beyond the arc and 78.9 percent at the line. Lee scored 1,154 career points with the Tigers.

He is a two-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection, and his 165 assists last year set a Princeton single-season record. UF coach Todd Golden discussed Lee this week during his appearance on the Field of 68 podcast.

“I think Xavian, first of all, he’s an elite offensive player. I think that’s the best way I would describe him,” Golden said. “And 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&B competition as he does against everybody else. And to be able to do that, obviously playing in our league, you’re playing against most all A&B teams and just an incredible shooter, has gotten better there every year at Princeton.”

Lee averaged more points as sophomore (17.1 PPG), but his assist per game went up from 3.7 in 2023-24 to 5.5 this past season. He was the first player in Princeton University men’s basketball history with a triple-double in a game, recording 18 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists against Saint Joseph’s on Dec. 3, 2024.

Lee posted a pair of triple-doubles and 10 20-point games during the 2024-25 campaign and also had a 21-point, 11-assist double-double in a neutral-site win vs. Rutgers. He had a pair of 30-point games and four in the last two years. Lee is the No. 41 overall transfer and No. 10 point guard in the On3 Industry rankings.

“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, to have an assist rate like that and a turnover rate that low says a lot about his ball handling and just playmaking ability,” Golden said. “And I just think he’s going to be able to give us a big scoring punch and playmaking punch from the point guard position. And we’ll play him on the ball quite a bit this year.”

Todd Golden confident in offseason rebuild

Lee will replace Walter Clayton Jr. as the starting point guard. The Gators also lost fellow senior starters Alijah Martin and Will Richard along with Denzel Aberdeen, who transferred to Kentucky.

Sam Alexis and Kajus Kublickas hit the portal as well. In addition to Lee, UF’s 2025 class includes Ohio transfer AJ Brown and top-40 overall recruits in four-star guards CJ Ingram and Alex Lloyd.

Florida is hosting USC transfer Desmond Claude this week for an official visit. Starting bigs Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu are going through the draft process, while Thomas Haugh is returning.

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“We’ve done a pretty good job, for the most part, retaining the guys that we wanted to keep,” Golden said. “Obviously losing Denzel was tough and we wish him nothing but the best, but I’m pretty confident we’ll be back to find someone to take that spot and I think the Gators will have a pretty good group again next year.”