Open Practice 8/31/24

What exactly were they allowed to do today?

 

Deep team tall team, like the portal players. Any reason we can't win the SEC?
Clayton could be SEC player of the year.

 

Drills and some 5 on 5 but not free run. It was controlled and they would stop and huddle with the coaches after a series. Maybe 1-1:30 minutes each iteration. Pretty vanilla stuff but you could see the individual players styles.

 

It’s a shame we couldn’t perform better but he’ll love the experience

 

Awesome, I would have thought so.

 

Nice, thanks for sharing. Wish I was there

 

Basketball season can’t get here soon enough

 

I sure didn't.

 

Any update on Handlogten?

 

I said it earlier in the thread. He looked great. Wasn’t part of the practice, but he was taking shots in the warmup and casually moving around. No limp. Talked to him and he said the leg is doing great.

 

Insider Notes From Florida Basketball’s Open Practice | GatorCountry.com

 

Good stuff. Interesting but not unexpected re Clayton’s learning curve. I just hope we get the best out of him whether he’s playing on or off the ball. We need his offense. Glad to hear Martin is as good as advertised and that Chinyelu is a real beast inside

 

FWIW, Alijah was very unselfish in practice and looked like a playmaker. I took an opportunity to shake the young man’s hand and give him a sincere thank you for choosing to play for the Gators.

Also had a laugh with Clayton Jr and Sr over Sr’s showing up to the practice covered head-to-toe in a University of Miami outfit.

BTW, in all these player interactions I feel like an idiot who is bothering them, but honestly I don’t care. I’m just glad to meet the guys who represent my school!

 

exactly, when are you ever going to get that opportunity again...and I'm sure they actually liked meeting fans

 

Maaaan, I hope so. Maybe I’m just paranoid. I never used to do stuff like that in the past, but in the past couple years, I’ve been able to have at least a few quick words with most of the players. I feel like a groupie.

 

Back in the day when I played noon time pick-up at Florida Gym I got to meet and talk to a lot of players because ballroom dance met just after. It was a very popular course with football and basketball players. Taught them footwork?

I never had a bad interaction.

I remember Clifford Lett came back to school to finish up and played in our regular noon time pick-up game for a bit. Great guy. During an intramural game at the SW REc Center I hit a three and I heard him yell "Go Gators" from an adjoining court. LOL.

We had a lot of former college basketball players in our noon game. A few from Clemson and one from South Carolina. One from UT IIRC. Even one from Chaminade in Hawaii. Illinois State and Northern Iowa were two other schools. Probably missing a few. Should I count Willie Jackson that played football at UF but also played some hoops? And of course John Pelphrey from UK when he was an assistant coach at UF. Dwayne Dixon was a regular and played on our intramural team but he was a football player/coach but a very good hoopster. I think that one guy played on the MIT varsity team. LOL.

Added in edit: One guy played some at Vandy as well.

 

Jason Williams came back to UF the summer after he got drafted and I played against him in pickup at the Southwest Rec. I knew a lot of football and basketball players while I was a student.

 

I played against Willie Jackson at Florida Gym too...posted him up and dunked on him, one of my fondest memories at UF lol.
Definitely some great pickup games there

 

Another thing I meant to tell you all… the players were going AT each other. They were defending very hard, like as in pushing, shoving, hand-checking, slapping… you name it. I don’t know if Golden teaches them to do that in practice to simulate not getting calls during a real game, but he definitely didn’t stop it or call any fouls. The players were not giving up an inch to each other… they were trying to dunk on each other and generally very physical. That doesn’t mean they were disrespectful to their teammates. Looked like they got along well. It was just a physical competitive environment.

 

Link?