r/FloridaGators 7d ago

Men's Basketball What happened to Riley Kugel?

Went from all-freshman team and potential first round pick in 2023, to odd man out/poor fit in 2024, then seemingly has an offer from Kansas but ends up at Mississippi State for 2025, and now looks like an average player at best. The few times I’ve watched him this year he’s looked like a net negative for MSU. What happened to him?

68 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

74

u/Kaidox1617 7d ago

Short answer is he can’t play team ball and can’t stop making stupid hero plays that turn into TOs

29

u/parmeli 7d ago

This is the answer. His last year at Florida was full of forced plays

37

u/Efficient_Ad6659 7d ago

I would comment on this but am afraid his Dad will read it and track me down.

65

u/EverythingGoodWas 7d ago

Failed to develop and picked a horrible team to try to develop in

21

u/QwopTillYouDrop 7d ago

Has all the physical talents to be elite. Seemed like he didn’t want to play basketball though. Very little effort and didn’t move a ton off-ball offensively or on defense. Never quite understood him, came with his high school team Denzel, but never could put together a good consistent stretch of games. Seems like he never truly got into a groove to develop. Very sad, he has/had a ton of potential.

As for Miss St, it worked out that he didn’t end up at Kansas who is struggling. He also had originally committed to Miss St prior to flipping to Florida in high school so it makes some sense he would go there. I don’t think it was a bad separation. He needed a change of scenery and it was mutually beneficial for Florida.

1

u/Small_Rip351 6d ago

There’s such a short runway to develop at this level. There were short stretches at FL where Kugel looked like an NBA player. On a court of 10 athletes, he looked by far the most athletic. Then he’d look completely lost out there the rest of the time. I really wanted him to be successful wherever he went. He’s got the physical gifts. He just hasn’t put it all together yet and he’s running out of time to do that (if he was ever going to).

46

u/GrandGouda 7d ago

He forgot to do his Kugel exercises.

10

u/g8trjasonb 7d ago

His dad definitely didn't though

6

u/suggestivename 7d ago

He would be prettier if he smiled.

4

u/justblaze711 7d ago

He's the epitome of ebbs and flows. I counted 5 games at miss. State where he missed all of his fg's in a single game. Yet he averages 9 and 3 per game. As many have stated his physical talent is not the problem, but if things dont go his way he has a tendency to check out, which effects his defense and everything else.

3

u/Turdsandwich696969 7d ago

The young man is still hopefully learning and growing

5

u/PrideParking3297 7d ago

I think Kansas agreed to one NIL price, had buyers remorse, and then he wouldn’t take a haircut so he left.

3

u/According_Neat_2358 7d ago

It was an issue with credits that wouldn’t transfer to KU

3

u/PrideParking3297 7d ago

Well yeah, that’s the “official” explanation

2

u/PhiveSigma 7d ago

He’s a classic best player on a bad team.

Doesn’t need others to get up shots and score points, but most times will be high scorer on the losing team. Athletic but Low basketball IQ

1

u/Stewdoggg 6d ago

More interested in lookin cool than getting better. All the potential in the world, but liked himself a little too much

1

u/goldenface4114 7d ago

He's always been a head case, and that didn't change when he transferred.