Hudson Huge in Gators' Resurgence

Saturday, March 23

Des Moines, IA

5:15 PM

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Jalen Hudson (3) scored 15 points in Florida's first-round NCAA West Region upset of Nevada Thursday night.

Hudson Huge in Gators' Resurgence

Saturday, March 23, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa — The day before facing Florida to open the NCAA Tournament West Region, Nevada guard Caleb Martin was at the podium and got asked about his friend, Florida guard Jalen Hudson, and their days playing club basketball together in Richmond, Va. Martin recalled the thoughts of their coach from those days.

"He used to call him a prima donna all the time," Martin said of his former teammate. "He was a relaxed, chill dude and it would take him a few minutes to get going."

Hudson learned of the remarks later, well after his turn on the pre-game dais, when he had shared some interesting thoughts of his own about facing the Wolf Park.

"They're a very experienced team and obviously has had a lot of success. They're a mid-major, though. I don't think they've seen a team like us in a long time," UF's fifth-year senior swingman stated boldly. "I'm excited to bring our [Southeastern Conference] vibe to the game and see how they match up with that."

Hudson, as it turned out, started hot on his way to 15 points and helped pave the way Thursday night for the Gators to upset the No. 7-seed Pack. And, as it turned out, Hudson wasn't bothered in the least about Martin's assessment. Nevada coach Eric Musselman apparently tried to use Hudson's words as bulletin-board material, but UF still raced to an 18-point second-half lead, then had to hold on for dear life in the face of a furious rally before finishing a 70-61 victory.

Bottom line?

"That's just kind of the emotional part of the game that goes away after two or three minutes. It's over with," Hudson said. "None of it matters during the game."

**Jalen Hudson** throws down Thursday against Nevada.

Spoken like a seasoned collegiate veteran who knows a little something about compartmentalizing. Maybe the ability to do so has something to do with Hudson's return from a basketball abyss he inexplicably found himself earlier this season when his shot was hovering in the 25-percent range (his 3-pointers even worse than that), when a freshman took his place in the starting lineup just five games into the season, all of it coming six months after opting to bypass professional opportunities and return for a last college go-round.

UF assistant coach Darris Nichols, in fact, made the case that the seventh-seeded Gators (20-15), who face 10th-ranked and second-seeded Michigan (29-6) in Saturday's West Region second-round play at Wells Fargo Arena, were one of the tournament field's most under-seeded because of Hudson's struggles early in the season.

"You heard Nevada talking about us not being a normal 10-seed — and we're not," Nichols said. "If Jalen had played all season like he's played lately, we're probably a 5-seed."

Better late than never.

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's comprehensive "Pregame Stuff" setup here]

Fifth-year senior Jalen Hudson does the honors of Thursday night of taping "Florida" into the second round of the NCAA Tournament during the team's post-game locker room celebration following the win over Nevada.

Hudson, the 6-foot-6 transfer from Virginia Tech, led UF in scoring last season at 15.5 points per game, shot 45.5 percent from the floor and 40.4 from the 3-point line. Ten games into this season, Hudson had been replaced in the starting lineup by freshman Noah Locke and was scoring 5.4 points, hitting 28 percent of his shots and had made only six of 34 from distance (17.6 percent), with body language that seemed to echo an obvious lack of confidence.

"That was a low point for me," Hudson said.

Yet, he did his best to hide it.

"He wasn't playing at the same level of a year ago," senior center Kevarrius Hayes said. "But as far as off the court, he seemed like he was the same guy. I never really understood what was going on."

In a meeting with assistant coach Jordan Mincy, Hudson came clean about some family issues that were weighing on him; private things he preferred not to flush out.

"You have to get to know Jalen to understand the kind of person he is," Mincy said. "He can be very emotional at times and you know some things are affecting him. He may not always talk with about it. He may tell you everything is smooth. But get him alone and he can be a fairly open person."

He assured the coaches things would be OK.

They weren't. Not for a while.

The Florida staff respected Hudson's privacy and went about the task of trying to work through a very trying dilemma: What do you do with a preseason All-SEC player and best all-around scorer on the team when he's unable to score? The results, obviously, manifested themselves in the Gators' won-loss record, as UF sat at 12-11 overall and 4-6 in conference play on the last day of January.

Hudson, who scored in double figures in all but six games last season, including a career-high 35 in an epic double-overtime defeat of Gonzaga in the PK80 Invitational at Portland, Ore., went through an eight-game funk of failing to reach double digits, including a run of three games where he totaled eight points.

"It's a story of perseverance," Florida coach Mike White said. "The adversity Jalen Hudson had earlier in the season was very unique. I can't imagine the things that were going through his head and the things he was struggling with."

Hudson's minutes were cut significantly (10 in a one-possession loss at Mississippi State; 11 in a win at Georgia on a day the Gators lost forward Keith Stone to a season-ending knee injury). White got the question repeatedly: What's wrong with Jalen Hudson. The answer was always the same.

No clue.

Then came a breakthrough.

Hudson put together two of his best practices of the season, and the coaches decided he was going to get more minutes next time out. The Gators went to Auburn, got thumped and Hudson finished with just four minutes.

"He didn't play great, but he played really hard and with a renewed level of intensity and urgency," White said. "From that point on, he brought it in practice every day. You could hear him in practice and film sessions. He took more ownership and started trying to help Kevarrius lead a little bit."

Slowly, Hudson's scoring touch returned commensurate with his overall focus. He had 15 points and hit a trio of 3s in UF's big road upset at LSU, then a season-high 17 at Vanderbilt. It was on his "Senior Night," in a rematch with LSU, that Hudson erupted for 33 points, hitting 11 of 20 shots and four 3-balls, and at one point scoring 27 of his team's 30 points during a late stretch in regulation and overtime.

**Jalen Hudson** scored a season-high 33 points on "Senior Night," in an overtime home loss to No. 9 LSU.

He's now at 14.1 points per game over his last 13 games, with double figures in all but one of those contests. Hudson's overall shooting percentage during that span is 43.5 percent, including 33.3 from deep.

Oh, and he's defending (doing so at four positions) better than at any time in his career.

"I'm the same guy, just getting a little more of an opportunity than I was maybe earlier in the year," he said. "I want this to last as long as we can make it last, and leave it all on the floor. But I'm still the same player I was early in the year.."

Nichols respectfully disagreed.

"No, he's not the same," he said. "He's more engaged with everything we do; with the scouting report and with people. He's now one of our most vocal guys at practice. You know, sometimes the season is so long and maybe there comes a time when you think, 'Oh man,' and you see the light at the end of the tunnel. You stop thinking about things and you just go play."

And Hudson, like the Gators in microcosm, is playing his best basketball of the season. Deep into March, no less.

A story of perseverance, to be sure.

"I was tested," Hudson said. "But I made it through."

Still standing. Better yet, still playing.