Canyon Barry does the Gator chomp as he walks across the Exactech Arena stage Monday.
Barry Walks to Master's in Nuclear Engineering
Monday, May 6, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The tweet came from the account of ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale nearly a month ago, as the waves of names poured into the so-called "transfer portal," including a high volume of players within weeks of graduating and looking for new landing spots to finish their careers.
Recruiting grad transfers has become bigger than ever : u will see many of the elite conf .schools adding them to their rosters . Do u really believe they are making the moves in many cases for the academics ?
On Monday, former University of Florida standout Canyon Barry, two years removed from his 2017 Southeastern Conference Sixth Man of the Year season, walked the across the commencement stage at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center to a master's degree in nuclear engineering. Though Barry's two-year post-UF career has taken him to an NBA summer league, three countries and a stop in the G-League, in between he completed the final nine course hours (some on-line, some during his visits back to town) and finished a 30-page capstone paper titled — get this — "Neutron Multiplicity Using Helium-4."
Anyone else picked that topic?
"I always knew I'd do it, [but] it was just a matter of how long it would take," Barry said Monday. "The department was small enough that they could work with me and my schedule and allow me to finish it up. It feels great."
When last seen in the O'Dome, the 6-foot-6 small forward and grad transfer from College of Charleston was exiting the floor on "Senior Night" following a 78-65 defeat of Arkansas on March 1, 2017, and doing the Gator chomp to the Rowdy Reptiles. He scored 14 points that night and would go on to average 11.4 per game in his lone UF season, while shooting 42.2 percent from the floor, 33.6 from the 3-point line and 88.3 percent from the free-throw line (underhanded, of course). That Gators team finished 27-9 and reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Barry, an Academic All-American, was the second UF player to be named SEC Sixth Man of the Year.
Fittingly, Barry's first time back in the O'Dome spotlight, he was doing the Gator chomp again; this time as he crossed the stage.
Canyon Barry's career game at UF came when he erupted for 30 points in a 114-95 road blowout of Auburn on Feb. 14, 2017, on a night he went 8-for-17 from the floor, 3-for-5 from the 3-point line and made 11 of 12 free throws.
"It hasn't really sunk in yet, but I never have to do another assignment during summer league or take a test on the road between practices and games," he said. "It's hard to get motivated sometimes when your teammates are watching Netflix, hanging out playing video games or making plans and to go out somewhere. Now, it'll be great to focus on basketball, but also great to have a degree that will help me get a job in the real world one day."
For now, basketball is still the real world. Barry has been back training in Gainesville for a while. Two years ago, he played for the New York Knicks summer league squad, then took off for professional tours in Finland, Czech Republic and China, plus a G-League run in Des Moines, Iowa, which allowed him to take advantage of that league's continuing education program. He recently took part in USA Basketball's 3-on-3 tryouts and tournament in Colorado.
He did it all without sacrificing the academic goal that made him pick Florida — which offered a nuclear engineer masters program, where as CoC did not — as his grad-transfer option in the first place.
"The grad-transfer is always going to be a highly debatable topic," Barry said. "I'm always going to side with whatever helps student athletes to further their education and benefit them sports-wise. You shouldn't penalize a student-athlete for taking advantage of a rule that actually helps them both now and with what they may want to do in the future."
Next up: Summer league with the Minnesota Timberwolves and, hopefully, more basketball somewhere after that.
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