Freshman forward Dontay Bassett reviews his moves with Coach Mike White during a recent workout.
Newest Gators in Hoops House
Wednesday, July 27, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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Two transfers, two freshmen showed up this summer.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When Eric Hester arrived on the University of Florida campus to start his freshman year (and college basketball career) earlier the month, he weighed 164 pounds.
Three weeks later, the rookie guard has bulked up to 178 pounds and, truth be told, actually looks a tad taller.
"We've got unlimited swipes at the dining hall," Hester said. "So I've been pigging out." Freshman Eric Hester during a workout with assistant coach Dusty May.
And working out. Hard. Same goes for his Gator brothers who have entered the Florida basketball fold. Hester, alongside forward and fellow Oldsmar (Fla.) Christian product Dontay Bassett, plus transfers Canyon Barry and Jalen Hudson for the last month have been getting indoctrinated into the UF, Gator and Coach Mike White way of doing things, both on and off the court. It's all part of the annual summer ritual for new arrivals.
Get here early. Get it going.
A fifth newcomer, 6-foot-11 freshman center Gorjok Gak, an Australian by way of Bradenton (Fla.) Victory Rock Prep, will report in August for the fall semester, but will be ineligible for competition during the 2016-17 season, though cleared for all practices and other basketball activities. Gak will have some catching up to do.
For Hester and Bassett, the transition has been a typical one for a first-year student-athlete, with a lot of happening at once; and fast. How individuals handle it initially can say a lot about how they'll take to the rigors of melding college life and college athletics down the line.
"Just being honest, it's sometimes tough just waking up early to get to class, but my coaches talk about accountability," the 6-9 Bassett said. "Besides, if you're not where you're supposed to be, you're going to get in trouble."
True that. Punctuality, obviously, applies to basketball responsibilities, also. NCAA rules allow players to be on the floor and supervised by coaches two hours per week during the offseason, but players can work out and shoot on their own any time. They also have mandatory time with strength and conditioning coordinator Preston Greene. And that element of the transition is an adjustment in itself.
"Yeah," Bassett said, with a shake of the head. "That's been different."
That's what all the new guys say. Even ones with Division I stripes.
"Every Friday I wake up and think I'm going to die," Barry said.
Friday, is UF's "strongman" workout day, which sends the players into the weekend completely spent before 9 a.m. They have their assigned times for training during the week also, the combination of which is intended not to just get the guys bigger and stronger, but to foster some unity, as well.
And then there's the basketball.
Canyon Barry was leading the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring at 19.7 points per game when he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury last January.
Barry can do individual drills, but the 6-6, 215-pound guard is coming off shoulder surgery in January that ended his junior season at College of Charleston, where at the time he was leading the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring at 19.7 points while shooting 33 percent from the 3-point line and 84.5 percent on free throws. Though Barry is cleared physically for all basketball activities, the medical staff opted to hold him out of contact until the fall semester begins just to play it safe. Barry graduated from CofC (where current UF assistant Jordan Mincy was once on the staff) and is eligible to play this season. He figures to give the Gators a boost offensively as a threat from the 3-point arc and with his basketball savvy.
"At the end of the day, this was the best fit for me," said Barry, who chose UF after taking visits to Northwestern and Miami, where his father, Basketball Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry, was an All-American. "I like the style of play, the way he wants to get out and push in transition. I had a previous relationship with Coach Mincy, so it all just kind of fit. And academically, they had exactly what I was looking for."
A nuclear engineering master's degree program, that is.
Hudson, meanwhile, transferred from Virginia Tech and will have to sit out the 2016-17 season. The 6-6 wing averaged 8.4 points as a sophomore and during his first two seasons hung 32 on Wake Forest, 27 on Louisville and 23 on both Duke and North Carolina State while starting 27 of 67 games. He is a scorer more than a shooter and, by all accounts, might be the best all-around player on the team right now.
But he'll have to wait a year to show his stuff.
"I just want to work on all aspects of my game, but I'm going to come after these guys every day, be super-competitive and try to make [my teammates] better," Hudson said. "I'm going to take advantage of this season to improve, but my first thing is to help these guys out."
Hudson has been a really good influence on the freshman, neither of whom has any clue just what their roles will be in this first year.
"I just want to do whatever I can to get on the court," said Basset, a little rough on the skill edges, but with a body (6-9, 222) and work ethic that encourages his coaches. "Offense, defense, rebounding, diving on the ground — whatever I can do to help impact the team in a positive way, that's what I want to do."
Hester is a long-armed, athletic guard who White and his staff envision as a defensive difference-maker. That and his pack-dog, play-hard mentality figure to serve him well as the Gators morph more toward White's all-out, all-pressing way for doing things. That's exactly the kind of game Hester is suited for, which was why he was the first player to commit to White in the months after the UF coach replaced icon Billy Donovan.
"They believed in me when a lot people were doubters and now it's up to me to come in here and compete with the rest of these guys and make a name of myself," Hester said. "Coach White recruited me here because they thought I was one of the best defenders in my high-school class, so I'm going to bring that intensity on defense and try to build my offensive game."
If it grows at the rate of his body, the Gators should be very pleased.
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