Through seven games, Andrew Nembhard has 46 assists and just nine turnovers (including 18 and none, respectively, over the previous two games).
Freshman Nembhard Leads Gators Back to Broadway
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
NEW YORK — In the run-up to his AAU squad's game against juggernaut UPlay Canada a few years back, Noah Locke and his Team Melo teammates from Baltimore had heard one name over and over and over.
RJ Barrett.
The name was not unfamiliar to Locke. Barrett, a 6-foot-7 forward from Toronto, was ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect in of the 2018 recruiting class, with offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, UCLA, etc. So when the two clubs squared off in Neptune City, N.J., in the summer 2017, Locke was wowed by UPlay's best player that day. The guy had size, savvy, handles and ability to take over the game. This dude, Locke thought to himself, was really, really good.
Except for one thing.
"I thought Andrew was actually RJ Barrett," Locke said. "Seriously."
Turned out, of course, the guy he mistook for Barrett was actually Andrew Nembhard, who is now Locke's starting backcourt mate for the Florida Gators. Anyone who has watched UF through its seven games into the season won't be surprised to know that nothing Locke took away from that first look at Nembhard has changed since the two entered their collegiate careers as teammates and roommates.
Yes, Nembhard is still really, really good.
In fact, when the Gators (4-3) take on West Virginia (5-2) in the nightcap of Tuesday's Jimmy Classic, Nembhard may very well be the best player on the famed Madison Square Garden floor. He's certainly been the best of the guys wearing orange and blue through a rocky outset to the 2018-19 campaign. While a trio of proven upperclassmen scorers — KeVaughn Allen, Jalen Hudson and Keith Stone — have struggled to find their rhythm and confidence on offense, Nembhard, still two months shy of his 19th birthday, has kept the team afloat with poise and pace that may not overwhelm the casual fan but thoroughly impressed the NBA scouts on press row at the Battle 4 Atlantis over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Andrew Nembhard goes through the high-five Rowdy Reptile line after a home win over La Salle this season.
Nembhard, the 6-foot-5, 193-pounder out of Montverde (Fla.) Academy, is averaging just 7.3 points per game, but leads the team in 3-point shooting (50 percent on 16 attempts), minutes played (30.1 per game), steals (10) and has a remarkable 46 assists to just nine turnovers for a ratio of 5.10 that is tied for 12th in the country. Nembhard's last turnover came at the 9:25 mark of the second half against Stanford — three games ago. He went the entire Butler and North Florida games without a turnover, meaning he's played the last 67:05 and dished 20 assists without giving the ball away.
Now, if only the Gators, just 1-3 and hitting only 40.7 percent overall and 34 percent from distance against high-major opponents, can get some more perimeter shots to fall.
"I'm not too worried right now. We have lots of time, even though time is ticking," Nembhard said. "We have to all get on the same page, come together on both ends of the floor and care about winning — I mean, really care about winning — but also care about one another. Once we do all that, that's when we'll click."
This week would be an opportune time for all those boxes to be checked, considering the Gators will go up against the Mountaineers (aka "Press Virginia") and then return home to face No. 9 Michigan State on Saturday. Those are two elite-level programs that thrive on defense. Both will come after Nembhard like pigeons on peanuts.
He'll be ready for it. He can take it.
"I talk to our guys about not worrying about highlights and headlines," UF coach Mike White said. "Andrew doesn't deserve praise for his highlights. He deserves praise because of his accountability, his toughness, the winning plays he's trying to make, and his approach to practice every single day."
The kid was born for this.
BALLIN' NORTH OF THE BORDER
Nembhard's father is exaggerating only slightly when saying his oldest son had a basketball in his hand "right out of the womb." For Andrew's first birthday, parents Claude and Mary got their toddler one of those Fisher-Price basketball hoops for the basement. Three years later, another son, Ryan, came around and it was rinse, rebound and repeat.
"We went through about 10 of them," Claude said.
Andrew was playing in a 6-and-under league when he was just three. Dad's advice for fitting in with the older kids was very simple: Give them the ball. It was an easy way to be accepted and the baseline for his future as a point guard.
Young Andrew split his time between basketball and soccer, and was outstanding at both. In the latter, he played center back, which made him the soccer version of a playmaker. He dished a bunch of assists on the way to being chosen as one of the top 25 youth players in all of Canada. He loved the game and could have taken that track to national stardom.
But he loved basketball more.
"Playing both helped me in both sports, but I just felt I wanted to pursue one in the long term, and in order to get to the next level I had to pick," Nembhard said."I just had more passion to get better and do bigger things in basketball."
Canada had some NBA stars — Steve Nash, Jamaal Magliore, Bill Wennington, Samuel Delembert (with many more on the way) — that captured the nation's rooting interests. As more Canadians blossomed (Andrew Wiggins, Tristian Thompson, Nick Stauskas, Cory Joseph, Kelly Olinyk, Trey Lyles, Jamaal Murray), the Nembhard family made the difficult decision to send their child to the U.S., to the prestigious Montverde Academy, to further his development.
The Nembhard family (from left): Younger brother Ryan, father Claude, Andrew, and mother Mary.
It was after Nembhard's sophomore year of high school (he eventually re-classed up) and he was already ingrained with his age-group national team, a unit that included Barrett, who also made the trek to Montverde and eventually would sign with Duke. Barrett and Nembhard weren't the only hot shots there, either. The roster also featured guys like Filip Petrusev (now at Gonzaga), Michael DeVoe (Georgia Tech), 7-footer Balsa Koprivica (who signed last month with Florida State) and 6-9 twins Makhi and Makhel Mitchell (signed with Maryland).
"Because he'd played so long with older kids, he was just used to making plays for guys. It had become second nature to him because he was so used to passing the ball," Claude said. "When he got to Montverde, it was a bit of shock —everyone could play, so many great players — but he adjusted well."
Nembhard at Montverde
Until he hit a detour.
In March of his junior year, with Montverde on a beeline toward a possible national championship, Nembhard became ill and had local physicians baffled as to what was wrong. Symptoms included severe abdominal pain, vomiting and dehydration. He was taken from Lake County to Orlando, where doctors diagnosed him with volvulus, a rare disorder where intestines twist around each other and lead to bowel obstruction. Nembhard underwent emergency surgery and slipped into septic shock.
He even flat-lined at one point.
"We were all very scared," Claude said.
Doctors removed two-thirds of Nembhard's intestines. Over the next few weeks he lost 21 pounds. He left school and returned to Toronto to recuperate alongside his family. Montverde lost its bid for the national title and Nembhard lost about four months of basketball, but was back on the court in the summer.
During his time on the mend, the Florida staff was one of the few that came to Canada to check in.
After that?
"Dusty basically stalked me," Claude said.
That would be Dusty May, the former UF assistant (and now current Florida Atlantic head coach) who was at the forefront of Nembhard's recruiting. The Gators made him a priority and in the fall of 2017 and White got his first commitment from a five-star prospect. Nembhard signed with UF in November — choosing the Gators over Gonzaga, Ohio State, Stanford and Southern California — then embarked on a fabulous senior season that ended with a 35-0 record and mythical prep national championship. In the title game, Nembhard had 13 assists and no turnovers, while attempting zero field goals, yet another testament to his win-first mentality.
"There's very few people his age as mature and as thoughtful of other people than [Andrew], yet he really competes on the court," Montverde coach Kevin Boyle told SLAM magazine during his team's run to the crown. "He has no ego. He's a selfless person."
In the months that followed the prep title, Nembhard was named to the Canadian national team at the FIBA U18 Americas. During the six-game tournament, he averaged 15.7 points and 8.8 assists, with a 28-point, 17-assist performance in the semifinals against Argentina.
Andrew Nembhard (center) poses with his Canadian teammates after winning the silver medal at the 2018 FIBA Americas.
When FIBA wrapped, it was time to head to Gainesville and assume the daunting role of replacing Chris Chiozza, the all-time assists leader in UF history. For a kid who'd already been away from home for two years, played on four continents (and Hawaii), won championships as well as national and international acclaim, and overcome a near-fatal illness, all by the age of 18, this was not pressure.
"I never feel any pressure playing basketball," he said.
Instead, he makes it look easy.
"Andrew keeps the game very simple because he knows it so well," said UF assistant Jordan Mincy, who coaches the team's guards. "Sometimes, he'll make a flashy play where you're like, 'What?' But most of the time he keeps it simple. He does the small things. Shot goes up, he's our top block-out guy. Doesn't matter if it's a '5' man or a 5-8 point guard, the dude boxes him out. When we go through drills, he goes game speed. He never wastes reps. And when you call him out for something, you don't get a crazy rebuttal. He nods his head and says, 'OK, Coach.' Being coachable means a lot. Half the five-stars out there now aren't coachable."
A lot of two-, three- and four-stars aren't, either.
ONE-AND-DONE?
When it comes to young players, White has always been one to offer tepid praise. Sometimes the younger ones can't handle it. Sometimes older teammates get their noses out of joint. Sometimes it's best just to say a little versus a lot.
Yet, this was White after Nembhard scored just three points, but kicked 11 assists and did not commit a turnover in UF's last game, a 98-66 defeat of North Florida: "He's really good. He was as good defensively as he was offensively. He's starting to lead a little bit. He's a terrific communicator. He's tough, he cares, he's competitive, he's unselfish. He could have gotten 10 shots up, if he wanted to. Eleven assists, no turnovers and he takes three shots? He's about the right things."
And cares deeply about those things. Teammates included.
Locke sensed as much when he and Nembhard took their official visits to UF the same weekend last year. Locked remembers thinking at the time that he's struck up a relationship that would last for their lifetimes.
"He's a laid-back guy, but you can talk about anything with him and he'll sit there and listen," Locke said. "He makes talking about things seem so easy."
The season is only seven games old. Much can and will happen over the course of the next four months with the Gators, and Nembhard will be the middle of it all. He's already being talked about as a one-and-done candidate, which is unusual in UF circles — Florida has had just two (Donnell Harvey in 2000 and Bradley Beal in 2012) in the program's history — but such chatter is not distracting Nembhard, right now.
"Everything is wide open," he said. "If I'm here for four years, that would be great. If I'm lucky enough to put myself in position to be drafted next year, I would love that opportunity. Otherwise, I'll just come and hoop every day and whatever happens, happens. Just keep putting the work in."
RJ Barrett is off to a phenomenal start at Duke and figures to be playing in the Garden next year (maybe for the Knicks, but certainly for some other NBA team). Nembhard's future is to be determined. But when his time comes, there will be no mistaking him for someone else.
