UF’s White adds prized transfer Koulechov

UF basketball coach

Mike White once again has landed a prized graduate transfer to offset some key losses this offseason.

Egor Koulechov is leaving Rice to join the 2017-18 Gators for his final year after he averaged 18.2 points and 8.9 rebounds to earn All-Conference USA honors last season.

Koulechov announced on his Twitter account (@RussianGusta) he would join the Gators.

Koulechov, a 6-foot-5, 209-pound native of Russia, will arrive in Gainesville a year after small forward Canyon Barry left the College of Charleston to join the Gators as a graduate transfer.

Barry went on to become the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year and help UF reach the 2017 Elite Eight during White’s second season.

Koulechov might even be an upgrade over Barry and also should help offset the loss of forward Devin

Robinson, who is leaving school early for the NBA Draft.

Koulechov shot 47.4 percent from 3-point range and made 172 3s during the past three seasons, including his freshman year at Arizona State.

Koulechov, who visited UF last weekend, chose the Gators over Oklahoma.

Football attendance

Fans filled the seats in stadiums across the state of Florida as the average home attendance for programs like UCF, Miami and USF increased according to the latest figures released by the NCAA Monday.

Those numbers are based on announced attendance figures not actual tickets sold.

Mark Richt’s hiring helped Miami at the ticket window with the Hurricanes seeing an increase of more than 11,000 fans per home game. That’s up from 47,561 fans per home game in 2015 to 58,572 in 2016. A combination of a newly-renovated Hard Rock Stadium and a favorable schedule featuring quality opponents like Florida State, North Carolina and Pittsburgh helped as well.

Florida State may not have won the ACC Championship but that didn’t stop Seminoles fans from taking in games at the Doak. The team saw an increase in attendance figures from 2015 to 2016 — up nearly five percent — going from 73,219 to 76,800 fans.

FAU saw a dramatic drop in average attendance, more than 40 percent, as the Owls went 3-9 for the third straight season. The team went from averaging 17,617 spectators in 2015 to 10,073 in 2016.

Florida, meanwhile, also saw a small decrease in average home attendance but you need to remember that the Gators lost a home game thanks to Hurricane Matthew. Perhaps that accounts for the little more than two percent drop in attendance from 90,065 in 2015 to 87,846 in 2016.