GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Well, it's a start.
"Baby steps," is how fourth-junior forward
Anthony Duruji put it. "Whatever that might look like, we just got to take baby steps and start working our way back into things."
What it looked like Sunday afternoon was a handful of members of the University of Florida men's basketball team checking into their temporary housing situation at a southwest Gainesville hotel to begin the "Screen. Test. Protect" process of returning to campus and, in time, getting back in the gym.
The majority of UF's players showed up — a couple were due in later in the evening — and were greeted by masked-up
Mike White and his entire coaching staff. It marked the first time players and coaches had been together in person since the shuttering of all athletic facilities due to COVID-19 on March 13, as well as a first-arrival for a handful of newcomers.
Junior forward
Keyontae Johnson, who blossomed into a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection last season, made his way back from his home in Virginia, though he did some bouncing around the last few months. Johnson also spent a month in Alabama with his grandparents, and stopped back in town for about a week to train with sophomore guard
Tre Mann.
"My main problem coming back is going to be conditioning," Johnson said. "I've tried to get into the gym as much as I can, but it's harder in Virginia. The big public schools won't let you in."
He found ways to stay in tune, though, and came back at 231 pounds, his same listed weight of a season ago. Sophomore point guard
Ques Glover stopped to greet everyone, but had to hurry to his room for a quick meeting with a tutor. Glover has been in his hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., the last four months, running on high schools tracks and up grassy hills with friends, as well as "Working out in any gym I could get into," he said. Earlier this month, he took a week to train in Nashville with a friend.
With the point guard position open following the transfer of two-year starter
Andrew Nembhard, Glover did his diligence without taking anything for granted.
"I just really want to do whatever the team needs me to do and be the best player I can be," he said. "I want to learn from the mistakes I made last year and just help the team any way I can."
On Monday, players will report for mandatory COVID testing. A negative test result will allow them to move into their assigned dormitories. Strength and conditioning assessment will be late next week, with and the first organized weight-room session scheduled for Aug. 3. That's the same day players will be allowed to shoot in the gym with managers.
Individual instruction sessions with a masked and gloved member of the coaching staff begins Aug. 17, with three players at a time, one per goal.
But for now? Baby steps.
They're a good thing, given the alternative.
"This feels like a first step toward something," Glover said. "No one really knows what's going to happen next, but it's time to get back to work. Hopefully, we can start forming our team and pick up where we were last year. Hopefully, be even better."
