Published on Thursday, 4/17/25, at 11:26 a.m. Eastern.
Updated on Friday, 4/18/25, at 1:45 p.m. Eastern.
Former Princeton star point guard Xaivian Lee committed to Florida on Wednesday night.
Lee, who was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection, chose the Gators after visiting Kansas and St. John’s before his trip to Gainesville. The four-star transfer was ranked as the #26 overall player in the portal at 247Sports.
The 6-foot-4 Lee is a native of Canada who played high school basketball with UF’s Thomas Haugh in Pennsylvania. He averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game for the Tigers, who had a 19-11 record and finished in a third-place tie in the Ivy League.
Lee averaged 32.1 minutes per game. He made 43.9 percent of his field-goal attempts, 36.6 percent of his 3-pointers (59-of-161) and 78.9 percent of his free throws.
As a true sophomore at Princeton, Lee averaged 17.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.0 SPG. He hit 45.1 percent of his FGAs, 33.8 percent of his treys and 79.8 percent of his FTAs.
Lee played in 32 games as a freshman in a reserve role. He averaged 4.8 points and 1.8 RPG while getting only 13.3 MPG of playing time.
In an 81-80 win at Dartmouth this past year, Lee had 33 points, eight rebounds and four assists. When Princeton hosted Rutgers on Dec. 21, he led the Tigers to an 83-82 win with 21 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and three steals.
Lee had a triple-double in a 77-69 win at St. Joseph’s, as he scored 18 points, snagged 13 rebounds and dished out 10 assists.
Todd Golden’s team currently has five more roster spots open. Alex Condon (10.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.3 BPG) and Rueben Chinyelu are testing the NBA waters and will likely be joined by Haugh (9.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 2.2 APG) in doing so in the coming days.
Condon is currently projected to go late in the first round or early in the second in most mock drafts. Most draftniks currently have a second-round grade on Haugh.
Unless Condon ups his stock in pre-draft workouts, I like UF’s chances of getting him back for another season. I’m supremely confident that both Haugh and Chinyelu will return to school.
If both of those players are back, UF will have the nation’s premier frontcourt. Micah Handlogten is coming back and there’s also Olivier Rioux, a 7-foot-9 walk on, who will become the tallest player in college basketball history when he hits the floor next season. He was redshirted during UF’s run to the program’s third national championship.
Sam Alexis (4.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG) wants more playing time, so he understandably decided to enter the portal. He was a key part of the rotation until suffering an ankle injury in a win at Mississippi St. By the time he was ready to come back, Handlogten had decided to take his redshirt off and was ahead of Alexis.
Florida’s other starter in the backcourt with Lee was expected to be Denzel Aberdeen, but he stunningly decided to enter the transfer portal on Friday. During a four-game stretch in early February when either Walter Clayton or Alijah Martin were out with injuries, Aberdeen produced 13, 10, 20 and 22 points thanks to increased playing time.
I believed Aberdeen was poised to make a huge leap in 2025-26 and would be an All-SEC level player. Perhaps he still will be, but it seems as if it’ll be at another school.
UF is also welcoming in a pair of four-star freshmen in Alex Lloyd and CJ Ingram. The Gators are currently in the mix for two other transfers, AJ Brown (Ohio) and Cedric Coward (Washington St.).
FanDuel has the Gators with 25/1 odds to repeat as national champions. I like UF for a one-half unit play (to win 12.5 units).