Florida Gators
Alabama
Justin Leon has big-time smile to go with big-time motor
Monday, August 24, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Women's Swimming & Diving, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Asked to relive his greatest basketball memory, Justin Leon didn't hesitate.
“My high school Senior Night,” he said.
Leon then told of how his father made a rare appearance at one of his son's basketball games at Conway (Ark.) High. The coaches drew up a play with higlight-reel potential they intended to run for their star player; that they intended for him to bring the fans -- and his father -- to their feet.
That play is still in Leon's cell phone. Check out No. 11 below. It's a little grainy, but you'll get the picture (and, yes, that's him on the back end of the video, 94 feet away from the previous play, racing back to block a shot).
Leon smiles as he watches the play. He smiles when he talks about basketball. He probably smiles when he's asleep at night.
“That's just the kind of kid he is,” UF coach Mike White said of the newest Gators basketball player on the block. “And he's happy as can be to be here.”
Again, the smile confirms that. 
Leon, the 6-foot-8, 200-pound transfer forward from Shawnee (Ill.) Community College, has been in perpetual glee mode since arriving for orientation last week while strolling the campus and watched the students file in as UF summer turned to bustling fall. It was all quite the sight when you consider Leon, a junior college All-American, came to Gainesville from a Southern Illinois city of just 449 people, per the 2010 Census. He met his new teammates for the first time Sunday night, attended his first classes Monday and was then get indoctrinated into strength and conditioning coordinator Preston Greene's offseason methods.
It's all new. It's all great.
“It's crazy how it's all come together,” said Leon, a rare lefty on the wing. “I truly believe God had a plan for me. I don't know how else you can explain it.”
Leon averaged 21.5 points and 10 rebounds a game, one of just four JuCo players in the country to rank among the top 10 nationally in both scoring and rebounding while shooting 50.4 percent from the floor. White and his staff at Louisiana Tech saw Leon as an ideal fit for their full-court pressing and trapping ways.
When White left LaTech to take the UF job in the spring, Leon had every intention of honoring his letter of intent, assuming assistant coach Dusty May was promoted to the head job. But the Bulldogs went in a different direction, May joined the rest of White's staff at Florida, and Leon asked for and was granted a release.
Arkansas, Ole Miss, Indiana and Kansas State all were in pursuit, but Leon already had a comfort level with the new Gators staff. The decision was an easy one.
For both sides.
“Great athlete, high motor,” UF assistant Darris Nichols said of Leon. “And I mean a really high motor.”
Just where Leon fits into the 2015-16 plan is something that will play out during preseason practice and beyond. He projects primarily at the "4" position, where seniors Dorian Finney-Smith and Alex Murphy alreadyb figure prominently. The coaches expect Finney-Smith to have an All-Southeastern Conference type of campaign and are hopeful Murphy can build on an encouraging offseason that he capped playing for Finland in the World University Games where he was the team's leading scorer.
Leon, meanwhile, is placing no expectations on himself. In fact, he's open to anything.
“I believe I belong on this level. I'm a player who is full of energy. I can go and keep going. I will run all day,” Leon said. “If the coaches want me to go try and get 10 rebounds, I will do that. If they want me to be a vocal guy and cheer on the team, I will do that to. Whatever it is they need, that's what I will do.”
When he says so you, you believe it.
He says it, of course, with a smile.
