Lee Humphrey, letting a 3-ball fly over UCLA guard Darren Collinson, had 15 points in UF's win in the 2006 NCAA national title game at Indianapolis.
Lee for 3! Humphrey Joins Broadcast Crew for Battle 4 Atlantis
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Lee Humphrey doesn't get to see his former Florida teammates very often. They're all too spread out these days.
But he may just hit Jo, Al, Corey and Taurean with a text Tuesday.
"Hey guys! Don't watch the Gators on ESPN this week. Stream the games on radio. That's the way to go!"
And that would be the way to reconnect with Humphrey during the Thanksgiving holidays, as the former superstar shooting guard takes a seat next to "The Voice," Mick Hubert, as color analyst during the Gator Radio Network broadcasts from the Battle 4 Atlantis, starting with Wednesday's noon showdown against Oklahoma.
"It's a chance to be around the team, be a part of the action, see the game up close, see it kind of as a coach, and make some observations," Humphrey said Monday. "I'm excited about it."
Lee Humphrey cuts down the net in 2007.
The opportunity came up because regular GRN sidekicks, Mark Wise and Bill Koss, were unavailable for the exotic excursion. Humphrey has worked some IMG-sponsored events in recent years, so a call his way made sense.
That UF pedigree was a factor, too.
Humphrey, in case anyone with orange-and-blue blood running through their veins has forgotten, was the long-distance assassin for Florida's back-to-back NCAA title teams of 2006 and '07. In those two championship seasons, when the Gators went 12-0 in the tournament (plus 6-0 in the Southeastern Conference tournaments), Humphrey combined to go 113-for-246 from the arc — that's 45.9 percent — with his 47 career treys a tournament record.
He was at his best when the games mattered most, with 18 made 3-pointers in the two Final Fours (10 in '06, eight in '07), as well as a school-record seven in the '07 Elite Eight against Oregon.
"As good as those teams were, they don't win those championships without Lee Humphrey," Hubert said.
Humphrey, by way of Maryville, Tenn., left UF with 1,080 career points (currently 49th on the all-time scoring list), then embarked on an eight-year overseas basketball odyssey where he played in Greece, Poland, Germany, France, Ukraine, Hungary and Lithuania, with a brief stop in the D-League tucked somewhere in between.
Now 34, married to his college sweetheart Chelsea, and father to sons Oliver (4) and Jude (18 months), Humphrey is a global product manager for Pontoon Solutions in Jacksonville, Fla., where he's kept a close eye on the Gators the last few years, making it to four or five home games per season. He's watched them a little closer this season, knowing his debut as media "talent" could be on the horizon.
Sure enough, he got the call.
"I watched the first two games on TV and came to the last one. I've listened to the radio broadcasts as part of my prep, and I watched the Oklahoma game last night," Humphrey said. "I've tried to get familiar with everything."
How the homework has prepared him for a debut on the headset remains to be seen. Humphrey remembers growing up in East Tennessee and, alongside his father, listening to games, talk radio, anything that had to do with sports. Maybe some of it rubbed off.
But he also played the game and did so with a remarkably high basketball IQ, a trait that extended beyond the court. Humphrey was twice named SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year.
"He's going to see the game differently than I'm going to see the game. I'm going to see the game like it's checkers, he'll probably see the game like it's chess," Hubert said. "The advice I might give him for the first time? Quality over quantity. You might not talk as much as you think you're going to talk, but when you say something, make it good. I'm hoping Lee is a natural, but if he's not I'm not going to be too worried because he's so smart. He'll figure it out."
And he'll have three games to find his timing and voice.
Former UF standout Lee Humphrey and play-by-play man Mick Hubert watch the practice during Tuesday morning's workout at the Imperial Ballroom at Atlantis.
Make no mistake, Humphrey will go in prepared.
"I think they're a talented team with some good, young players," Humphrey said of the current Gators, who he addressed after their Tuesday morning practice. "Losing [Chris] Chiozza and [Egor] Koulechov] was going to hurt, but I think they've got a lot of upside, especially once they get some experience. They're athletic on the wings, not big in the post, but with a little bit of size. I think they can be good."
Tune in this week to see what he thinks about the Gators in real time.
