Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Taurean Green was sprinting his team down court Friday afternoon at the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Complex for a transition opportunity when muscle-and-Billy-Donovan-memory took over. To his left, open on the wing, was Lee Humphrey. What was it Donovan used to tell those back-to-back national championship Florida teams about the Gators' best transition offense? 
 
"I want layups, dunks or Lee Humphrey."
 
Green hit Humphrey in stride and Humphrey hit a 3-pointer to draw their team within one. Now it was game point for both teams. Next bucket wins. At the other end, Corey Brewer drove baseline and elevated over his defender for the winner, then promptly walked off the floor, eyes straight ahead, wagging his right finger at the opposing bench and shaking his head. 
 
"He can still play a little bit," Green said of his former teammate and 2006 MVP of the Final Four. "And can still talk a lot!"
 
Yes, he can.

 

It's been pretty cool the last couple days to see 60 percent of the band – the greatest team in Southeastern Conference basketball history and one of the greatest in NCAA history -- back together again. Brewer (now an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans following a 13-year NBA career), Green (UF Director of Player Development) and Humphrey (global product manager in Jacksonville and color analyst for the Gators Radio Network) have temporarily reunited as part of UF's first venture into The Basketball Tournament (aka "TBT"), the ESPN creation – founded in 2014 – that every July stages a $1 million winner-take-all tournament played by former collegiate stars and professional players from around the world. 
 
The Florida team is called Gataverse and is being managed by Brian Klatsky, a UF grad-school product, and coached by UF alum and former Gators assistant coach Matt McCall, who has seven Division head-coaching seasons (two at Tennessee-Chattanooga, five at Massachusetts) on his resume. The players on the roster, 10 of whom once wore Florida uniforms, including Erving Walker, KeVaughn Allen, Egor Koulechov, Noah Locke and Phlandrous Fleming Jr., began trickling into town midweek for a mini-camp that began Thursday. 
 
On Saturday, the public can spend an afternoon with the Gataverse when it hosts the "Run It Back Classic" at Santa Fe College, featuring an autograph and photo fan fest – with student-athletes from a variety of UF sports also on hand – followed by a live scrimmage, complete with a TBT "Elam Ending."
 
"It's just so surreal to be back here," said McCall, who was manager of both NCAA title-winning teams and assistant coach from 2011-15. "This place was 11 years of my life. Eleven great years and, man, we had it going."
 

Nothing but JOY when generations of Gator Basketball get back together again. #gataverse pic.twitter.com/GMO4FUpy2P

— Gataverse (@gataverse_io) July 21, 2023

The Gataverse players, along with Todd Golden's current team and staff, gathered for a reception Thursday night in downtown Gainesville and got a surprise visit from Donovan, who went into full Billy-D practice banter by greeting Green with a playful, "Hello, Tommy Turnover. What flavor are you going to be today? Apple or cherry?"
 
Truth be told, the 36-year-old Green did have a few turnovers early in the team's first practice together Thursday, but everybody looked better as the action went on; and much better Friday as the eclectic mix of old and young Gators got more familiar with one another. 
 
After his first practice, Humphrey, now 39 and basically (and definitely temporarily) coming out of retirement, immediately hit the training room for duck into the cold tank and NormaTec treatment on a swollen right knee. 
 
How'd it go out there? 
 
"One-for-one from the floor and didn't turn the ball over, but they weren't exactly looking for me, either," Humphrey joked. "And now I'm sore." On Monday, the squad will fly to Louisville, one of four venues hosting TBT rounds 1-3, and begin tournament play Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Shell Shock, a squad of mostly Maryland alumni. 
 
The TBT field is made up of 32 teams. The format is single-elimination. The competition will be high level, for obviou$ reasons.
 

"There's a million dollars on the line," McCall said. "Guys are going to be out there competing and there to win."
 
The mix of UF coaches and players spanning nearly two decades – every team from 2005 to 2022 is represented with either a player or coach – has made for a truly unique and nostalgic experience, especially for those who have been around the program a long time. 
 
"It's like my Florida basketball life is passing before my eyes," said team trainer and associate athletic director Dave Werner, a program mainstay since 2004. "It's incredible."
 
Added Brewer: "The bond is still there." 
 
Of course, it is. 
 
The genesis of a Florida TBT squad was hatched through a conversation between Klatsky (whose son, Alex, is a senior walk-on guard) and Werner last year. It gained momentum over the summer of 2022 when McCall and Green were visiting Donovan at his home in Crescent Beach, Fla., and watching the tournament on TV. The two wondered: Why not the Gators? 
 
"We kind of spoke it into existence," Green said. 
 
Enter Klatsky, a couple of sponsors and voila! Gataverse was born. 
 
"With NIL kicking in the way it has this was a great way to tie the past and the present. To be able to connect the winning tradition here with the current program was a big deal for us," said Klatsky, who played Division III basketball at Skidmore (N.Y.) College and got his MBA at Florida in 1996. "Having these guys come back, share stories and build camaraderie with the current guys I think can go a long way to restoring the winning tradition here. That's obviously part of the mission, but so is winning." 
 
Brewer, Green and Humphrey are experts on that subject.