Sixth-year guard Zippy Broughton (4) celebrates in the post-game huddle Monday night after the Gators defeated North Florida 82-65 in her first taste of live game action in 20 months.
Four Meaningful Minutes For Zippy, Gators
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | Women's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During a dead-ball timeout, with just 4:12 left in Monday's night's 2023-24 Florida women's season opener, Kelly Rae Finley looked down the bench and made a call she hadn't made for 20 long months.
"Zip!" the UF coach shouted. "Let's go!" Zippy Broughton
The Gators were up big, but this was as big a moment as any in their 82-65 victory over North Florida at Exactech Arena. Zippy Broughton, the effervescent and energetic sixth-year senior, checked into her first game since March 19, 2022, officially tipping off her on-court comeback from a severe shoulder injury and lengthy, complicated and frustrating rehab.
But Broughton, the 5-foot-7 combo guard, never wavered from her ambitions play again. Whatever it took – the hours of rehab (oftentimes lonely) followed by hours of extra gym time playing catch-up (oftentimes by herself, also) – finally gave way to four-plus glorious minutes of live basketball against an opponent not wearing orange and blue.
She had two assists and two turnovers in those four-plus rusty minutes, but they were significant minutes for both herself and the Gators.
"We were all so happy when we saw her come off that chair," senior forward Leilani Correa said. "What it means is everything."
Added senior center Ra Shaya Kyle: "She brings a different kind of spark to our team.
Zippy Broughton (4) gets defensive in her brief but meaning comeback against the Ospreys.
Correa and Kyle are starters. They both transferred to UF in the spring of '22 (Correa from St. John's, Kyle from Purdue), but have gotten to play with Broughton in a real game. They arrived about the time Broughton, who aver transferring from Rutgers averaged 10.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.4 steals over her games 30 games. She did so for a 21-win NCAA Tournament team and projected as a lynchpin to carry over Finley's first-year success as an "interim" head coach to her first season with the full-time spot. But then Broughton suffered the shoulder injury that cost her the '22-23 season, which would have been her fifth-year senior season.
The rehab was brutal. Sometimes even depressing. At its worst, Broughton's one step forward was followed by two steps back.
A lot of dark days, both physically and emotionally, during those 20 months.
"That's something I can admit to," said Broughton, now in her second year taking graduate-level courses (she got her Food & Resource Economics degree in 2021) after being granted a sixth-year NCAA medical waiver for '23-24. "You hear people say 'Trust the process,' but it's easier said than done. It takes patience and it takes a lot of support. There is also a lot of down time, but when you look back and see how far you've gotten, how far you've come, you're like, 'Wow! I actually got through it.' But it was a very tough time."
Everyone in the program understood just how tough a time it was. They also knew just how tough Broughton was. Just how pivotal she was to the team. Kelly Rae Finley
"Her ability to fight through adversity when a lot of people might choose to hang it up … I'm just excited and happy she's chosen our team to chase her dreams. She's doing so fearlessly every day," Finley said. "It means a lot to our program that she is willing to have great determination to get back on the court."
That's why those four minutes probably felt like 40.
And the shoulder?
"I wasn't thinking about it at all. I was thinking about my conditioning and game pace," Broughton said. "The nerves? I got that out of my system, which means Kelly is now going to make me play like she knows I can play. She's going to tell me, 'If you're going to play, you need to be for real.' Well, it's go time now."
