UF transfers Tyree Appleby (left) and Anthony Duruji (right) will share their 2019-20 sit-out seasons as roommates and scout-team mates committed to help a talented UF squad with sky-high expectations.
Duruji & Appleby Won't Sit Idly During Sit-out Seasons
Tuesday, August 27, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The first official practice of the 2019-20 season is just a month away, but the Florida basketball team — remade, retooled and refurbished with nine new players — has been hard at work during summer workouts for weeks. The ninth player, point guard Tyree Appleby, arrived just two weeks ago for the start of the "B" semester and moved in with another newbie: forward Anthony Duruji.
The two hit it off immediately. Good thing, too, because neither will suit up or take the floor until the '20-21 season and thus will have a lot of time on their hands when the team is out of town.
And that's OK.
"I most definitely feel like a Gator," Appleby said.
Added Duruji: "It still seems a little bit mind-blowing that I'm here at Florida, but it's part of the journey I've taken."
For a team that in June added the No. 1 graduate transfer prospect in the nation (center/forward Kerry Blackshear) and a top-five incoming freshman class (led by forward Scott Lewis and combo guard Tre Mann, a pair of McDonald's All Americans), the status of a couple transfers facing an NCAA-required sit-out season probably doesn't seem very topical. One might ask exactly what Appleby and Duruji, with their mid-major backgrounds, have to do with a '19-20 UF team expected to debut in the preseason Top 25?
Answer: Plenty.
"This season is really going to be good for those two," assistant coach Jordan Mincy said. "They have a chance to get better and make our guys better."
While the Gators return three starters — point guard Andrew Nembhard, forward Keyontae Johnson and shooting guard Noah Locke — and added instant impact in Blackshear, the team's lone senior, plus that star-studded freshman class, what the team does between games, both on and off the floor, will have everything to do with how they compete between the lines when it counts. On that front, both Duruji and Appleby, who will be two of the oldest players on the team, will take their respective missions very seriously.
"We talk about it every day," Appleby said. "We would love to play, but our jobs will be to push these guys in practice every day. I'm not going to cut them any slack. We're going to hold everyone accountable, and since I have to sit out and work hard I'm going to make sure everyone else is working as hard as hard as I am."
Duruji, citing the youth on the team, echoed his new buddy's sentiments.
"I will take this very personally," he said. "I'm a little bit older than these guys, so I think it's my duty to push them to the limit. I have to. What is it they say? Iron sharpens iron, right?"
Right.
In two seasons at Louisiana Tech, Anthony Duruji averaged 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, blocked 85 blocked shots, and also was 2018 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
Not that either player needs a sharper edge. Duruji and Appleby had comparable recruiting experiences in high school that helped put chips on their shoulders, followed by enough success at the mid-major level to scratch their next-level itch.
Duruji, a 6-foot-7, 211-pound junior out of Germantown, Md., was a two-sport standout in high school. He was a nationally ranked triple-jumper, with a personal-best of 48 feet, 10 inches, which was good enough place him among the top 30 in the country and receive a bid for the junior nationals. Duruji, though, chose to focus on basketball. He had offers from VCU, Dayton, UCF and St. Joseph's, but opted for Louisiana Tech, where over two seasons he made 52 starts, garnered 2018 Conference USA Freshman of the Year honors, and averaged 12.2 points and 6.2 rebounds as a sophomore.
"I was playing a lot there and I was a very productive player," Duruji said. "At some point in time, though, you might just want something better for yourself. And really that's what this decision was about. Why not challenge myself and take that leap of faith?"
Why not?
Appleby basically did the same thing.
Just 6-1 and 165 pounds, the Jacksonville, Ark., product got nibbles from the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Troy, Mississippi Valley State and Missouri State before Cleveland State came calling. In two seasons in the Horizon League, Appleby started all but one game and totaled 899 points. As a sophomore, he averaged 17.2 points, 5.6 assists and shot nearly 39 percent from the 3-point line, along the way carding the first triple-double in school history when he went for 19-11-11 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
He knew he was good enough to play elsewhere. Like in the Southeastern Conference, for example.
"I wanted another opportunity, a fresh start," Appleby said. "I had two great years there and it made me think I wanted to try and go high-major and help myself get better and develop more as a player."
Both had options. Duruji toyed with Southern Cal, Marquette, Seton Hall, Syracuse and Baylor. Appleby was romanced by Texas Tech and made an official visit to Texas A&M. In the end, they liked the fit and future of Florida basketball under Mike White. The UF coach pitched to Duruji the idea of taking a year to hone his overall game, especially his jump shot, against a bunch of really good players. To Appleby, whose older brother, Raheem, started four seasons and was an 1,800-point scorer for White at La Tech, the Florida staff emphasized the necessity to build up his strength so he could match up with the physical guards of the SEC and beyond.
They liked what they heard and have done everything asked since joining the program as part of a roster overhaul that saw five '18-19 players transfer (one in December, four after the season) and the culture in the building make a seismic shift through the attrition.
"I like the fact they have individual aspirations in terms of trying to produce at this level," White said. "More importantly, they have mindsets of being winners at the highest level."
The additions of Duruji and Appleby bring another dynamic in that they reduce UF's available scholarship players this season to 11. That number becomes 10 if freshman center Jason Jitoboh and the staff opt for a developmental redshirt year. Simply put, that's less guys vying against one another for minutes, which leads to better all around chemistry.
"I still think we're still going to be deep," White said. "I mean, we've not really been in this position before, so we'll find out."
Point guard Tyree Applebyaveraged better than 14 points and nearly five assists in his two seasons at Cleveland State.
So far, Duruji has been a warrior on the conditioning front. Appleby, having arrived a semester later, is being indoctrinated on that front.
And both are heard from — Duruji with his dunks, Appleby with his defense — on the court in pick-up games and during practices.
"I'm a dog out there," Appleby said.
That's a good thing.
It'll be a better thing in a month when the practices get real, longer and daily. That's when Duruji will be matched against Johnson and Lewis, while Appleby is guarding Nembhard and freshman Quez Glover, with everyone out to win their individual battles and thus make their teammates better.
Iron vs. Iron.
"When you're sitting out, you have to make those guys feel like the next practice is their next game," assistant coach Darris Nichols said. "Challenge them. See how many points they can hold their man to, how many rebounds they can get, or how else they can contribute to the team that day."
A sit-out season can be long, but they all eventually give way to the real thing. For Duruji and Appleby, that's a ways away, but they'll take the journey there together.
"I think it's going to make us hungrier for next year," Appleby said. "We're here now, and we both know we can play at this level."
