Friday, November 10, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Here at ground zero of Atlantic Coast Conference country you are required to pick when it comes to basketball. No middle ground.
North Carolina or Duke?
"I was a UNC fan," Florida center Micah Handlogten declared. "I hated the Blue Devils."
Outside of those two teams, Handlogten was mostly lukewarm on the rest of the ACC. As it turned out, the ACC was lukewarm on him, also. Cooler than that, actually.
Handlogten starred at SunLake Christian at Lake Norman, N.C. That's about 20 miles from the Spectrum Centre, site of Friday night's game between the Gators (1-0) and Virginia (1-0), another one of those ACC teams that – along with basically the rest of the nation's Division I programs – did not recruit the Charlotte area 7-footer.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
For Handlogten, who averaged 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks his senior year of high school, his choices eventually came down to Jacksonville, Presbyterian, Youngstown State and Marshall. He chose the latter. As a collegiate rookie for the Thundering Herd, Handlogten acquitted himself quite well for someone with no high-major offers: 7.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.3 blocked shots, 1.3 steals and 1.2 assists per game while shooting .662 from the floor. Those digits earned him 2023 Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year honors.
Unlike his prep days, Handlogten had a multitude of D-1 offers when he hit the transfer portal last spring, but he didn't spend a lot of time weighing them after Todd Golden and the Gators came calling.
The 7-1, 229-pounder was going to be the center – literally – of Florida's front court rebuild, Golden pitched, and my how things have come full circle. Handlogten's UF debut Monday – 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting, including 2-for-2 from the 3-point line, plus six rebounds in the season-opening home win over Loyola Maryland – will launch him into a Tobacco Road homecoming (against an ACC power, no less) in front of a heavy contingent of family and friends.
"I'm a firm believer in God," Handlogten said Thursday. "I think He had my path set and it ended up [in Gainesville]. I'm so happy."
Micah Handlogten (right) goes 7-1 and Tyrese Samuel(4) is 6-10 with a 7-4 wingspan. Those two, plus 6-11 freshmanAlex Condon have turned what was a weakness last season (low-post depth and skill) into a strength for the Gators this season.
So are Golden and the Gators. In addition to landing Handlogten, they retooled the front court with 6-10 Tyrese Samuel and 6-11 freshman Alex Condon. If that game was any indication, UF is not going to be the worst rebounding team in the Southeastern Conference (or one of the one worst nationally, like in '22-23) this season. All three scored and crashed the glass – a combined 44 points and 17 boards – in the Loyola win, but a neutral-site matchup against Virginia, one of the nation's elite, name-brand programs and armed with deliberate style of play, will be a different animal.
How Handlogten fares will be a mere sub-plot to Florida's bigger picture. Todd Golden
"I think it's more of just the matchup, right?" Golden said Thursday. "You get Virginia, a team that's been really good for a really long time, and it will be a great barometer for us to see where we're at early in the season."
Florida wasn't seriously challenged in its opener. The Gators scored the game's first 16 points, led by as many as 26 and shot 56 percent for the game. That doesn't mean they were happy about the totality of the results, especially on defense (Loyola shot nearly 46 percent and made nine 3s) and at the free-throw line (15 of 30).
"In spurts, I think we looked really good, but I also think in spurts we looked really bad," junior point guard and Iona transfer Walter Clayton said. "They were a lot of defensive breakdowns we have to solve, especially going into a game like this one."
The Gators will want to play fast, something they didn't do last season; something they really haven't done well in several seasons. The Cavaliers, who blew out Tarleton State in their Monday opener, will want to slow the game down and Coach Tony Bennett's teams have excelled at those tactics over his 15 seasons. Bennett has led UVA to 11 straight 20-win seasons (save the shuttered COVID year), six ACC titles, nine NCAA tournaments and, of course, the 2019 national championship.
Senior guard Reece Beekman was 2023 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and sophomore guard Isaac McNeely is an outstanding 3-point shooter. The Cavs, similar to the Gators, had to retool their roster, so they'll be doing some fact-finding, also. But how they play on both ends (patient on offense and that vaunted pack-line defense) will look deadly similar to how past Bennett teams have played.
"It'll be a contrast in styles, for sure. They do play deliberately," Golden said. "They like to play in the half-court style offensively and we're trying to put more tempo and pace into the game, so that's going to be a battle of wills a little bit. That's something we're mindful of and something we're trying to do."
The Gators have the horses to play that style, including with those new low-post thoroughbreds in the front court that also includes 6-9 freshman Thomas Haugh. They'll be bigger, faster and more athletic than the Cavaliers, but UVA just has a way to pace the game to its liking.
Clayton acknowledged as much with a back-handed compliment.
"The way they play basketball is actually kind of annoying, especially for guys who like to play fast," he said. "But we're just going to have to try to play to our pace and do what we have to do."
Junior point guard Walter Clayton Jr. had an all-around floor game against Loyola, finishing with nine points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals in the 93-73 season-opening win Monday night.
That will include being more connected on the defensive end, especially when it comes to UVA's disciplined and crisp ball-screen actions. Florida needs to be much more on point in that area than it was against Loyola.
That includes Handlogton.
"I was a little bit too quiet when I was talking on the court, like calling out what coverage we wanted to play," he said. "That's something I could improve on. Being louder, being more vocal, stuff like that."
Ideally, Handlogten will be screaming louder than the collection of his hometown Lake Norman, N.C., fans screaming for him. A year ago, Marshall opened its season att Queens College, right here in Charlotte (and another team that did not recruit him). He had six points, eight rebounds and an enthusiastic following for that one, too.
Now, a year later, he'll be playing in the NBA Charlotte Hornets' arena.
"Micah's only a sophomore, so he's kind of coming into his own and I think he's only going to just keep on getting better and better," Golden said. "It was exciting to see him play so well on his first night."
It will be even more exciting (and even more beneficial to his team) to do so on his second night. In ACC country. At home.
