Noah Locke leaving Florida to enter transfer portal

The transfer market just got a big addition in the form of Florida Gators guard Noah Locke.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, Locke in entering the transfer portal after three years in Gainesville. The Baltimore native and Class of 2018 recruit was ranked 64th overall via Rivals and picked the Gators over Michigan, Providence and Ohio State among others.

Locke, who should have two seasons of eligibility remaining due to the NCAA giving everyone a free year, averaged 10.1 points and 2.4 rebounds in 92 career outings (79 starts) while playing 27.8 minutes per game with the Gators. He’s a career 40.3% 3-point shooter who got as high as 43.2% during the 2019-20 season (was at 40.4% this past season).

Locke is the kind of 3-point specialist Kentucky needs to find at least one of this offseason. Another great attribute of his is he shined in some of the Gators’ biggest games.

In Florida’s 85-80 road win over a West Virginia team that earned a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Locke went for 19 points on 5/10 shooting with five boards.

In two NCAA Tournament games vs. Virginia Tech and Oral Roberts, Locke averaged 13.5 points on 58% shooting. He went for 17 in that season-ending loss to the Golden Eagles.

Locke’s overall numbers may not look blue-blood caliber, but he’s frequently been in crowded backcourts since arriving in Gainesville. Look no further than his former teammate, Andrew Nembhard, who entered the portal last offseason after a so-so two-year stint in Gainesville. He’s now a key contributor to a Gonzaga team on pace to win a national title and finish as the first unbeaten champion since Indiana in 1976.

Seeing as how Kentucky is reaching out to a lot of guards this offseason, I would expect Locke to draw some level of interest from the Wildcats. As of now, I would have him ranked just inside the top 10 of all transfers for the 2021 offseason, but he’ll likely fall out as more transfers emerge.

Still, Locke would be a nice addition for Kentucky if John Calipari wants to pursue him.

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