The one who can walk on the sky plays for the Florida Gators.
Chris Walker next year is going to have an incredible season at Florida because he will have a role as a featured player on their roster.
Walker has many skills and different abilities that make him unique on the basketball court. Nonetheless, if you do not know any information about the athletic 6-foot-10 power forward, know this … he can leap over buildings.
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In all seriousness, the man has a lot of bounce.
If you haven’t heard of him yet, don’t feel bad. The reason why he isn’t more popular already is because Walker missed more than half of the college basketball season. In addition to missing most of the year, he only averaged five minutes a game (4.8 exactly).
Walker had to overcome a lot before joining the Florida Gators.
Hampered with academic issues that stemmed from him not finishing classes at his high school, derailed Walker’s debut in Gainesville. Because of his elgibility issues, Walker had to take online classes, and then enroll at Florida for classes in the spring semester.
Nevertheless, when he arrived at Florida and played in his first game, everyone saw the immediate impact that Walker was going to have on the basketball team.
During his first game as a Florida Gator, the first highlight for Walker … a dunk. This seemingly fit him because Walker already dunks the basketball better than most players in college basketball.
With his limited time playing basketball, and his late enrollment, the most minutes Walker played in one game as a freshman was 14. This season, that number will double.
Walked had to fight for minutes playing behind a stacked frontline that had Patric Young as its centerpiece. In his freshman year, Walker was around 180-190 pounds. This did not help his case to get more playing time since the SEC especially is one of the conferences in college basketball that feature a lot of talented big men (a little on that later).
Though Walker had raw talent and skill, it needed polishing to get to the level where many expect him to reach this upcoming season.
The first step was adding weight, and strength. Walker walked in the weight room a string bean and left as an MMA fighter. All last summer has rapidly increased his development.
Let me be clear.
I am not expecting Walker to have a season where we will proclaim that he is the best big man in the Southeastern Conference. Or even him having such an impact that the Gators will win the NCAA Championship or SEC Championship.
What I do expect is a man who will play with a high motor, get a lot of rebounds and block even more shots. Last season he had eight blocks from the 18 games that he played in.
The numbers are not obviously gaudy, but they will increase as he develops and gets more time on the floor.
One of the players that Walker should study is Jordan Mickey.
He is the best big man in the SEC and though he may not be as athletic as Walker (Mickey is quite athletic), Mickey still is an awesome player and developing into a go to scorer.
Because Mickey and Walker have similar games, it would help him to learn how to score in the low post and develop moves that the stud LSU product has.
Moving forward, next year the Gators will have a relatively young team since they are losing four seniors on their roster.
Now most of the players on their team are underclassmen (Walker included) and will have to play a major role for Florida.
I do believe though that next year, Walker can introduce the world to his supremely gifted basketball talent and maybe even touch the sky next year catching lobs from his point guard Kasey Hill.
I ask just one time, can we see a Tracy McGrady throw off the backboard in transition with a sick two-handed reverse?
Special.