Micah Handlogten, both pensive and anxious, awaits to check into his first game last February after recovering from a horrific compound fracture to his left leg.
'You can only imagine the emotional roller coaster we've been on'
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During a break in scrimmage action last week, the sound of squeaking sneakers and idle on-court chatter gave way to Carlin Hartman's booming voice.
Florida's associate head coach was mad (not halftime-vs-Auburn-at-the-Final-Four-mad, but pretty damn irritated) and the target of his anger was Micah Handlogten. The 7-foot-1 senior center hadn't just missed a box-out, he appeared to have opted out of one. Hartman's subsequent take-down was loud, to the point, even a tad profane.
"He started cussing me out … and he was right," Handlogten said later, recounting the exchange. "I was like, 'I got you, Coach.' It was an effort play and that's on me. Effort is non-negotiable." Senior center Micah Handlogten
Hartman was merely making good on the promise he made to Handlogten and his parents on their official visit to campus more than two years ago. Hartman tutors UF's front-court players and vowed to coach Handlogten harder than at any time in his basketball life. The promise has been kept since Handlogten officially arrived, even though the lengthy and gifted post man's career was famously – infamously, actually – put on hold.
On Monday, though, Handlogten was sprinting the floor, crashing the glass and pitching passes off the block to open teammates, as the reigning national-champion Gators opened fall practices.
It all looked so normal.
For context, contrast that scene to the one that played out 12 months ago, when Handlogten began the 2024-25 campaign standing on the sidelines during practice and playing cheerleader. Or, for even more context, the scene from 18 months ago when Handlogten lay prone on the court at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, his leg broken, the bone piercing the skin and blood pooling on the floor.
"There was a time where we didn't know if Micah would walk again," mother Danielle Handlogten said. "You can only imagine the emotional roller coaster we've been on."
Which makes the current stop on the ride so richly satisfying.
Only Handlogten and his family (both real and extended) truly know, but Gator Nation certainly can (and did) appreciate last season's feel-good, fairy tale story-within-the-story that ended with Handlogten – weeping uncontrollable tears of joy – in the arms of his teammates, then coaches, then mother and father, as the Gators climbed onto one podium after another en route to their improbable NCAA championship.
The hope now – for the Handlogtens and the Gators – is for a more conventional and routine 2025-26 college basketball season, as much as that is possible given the sky-high expectations for a team that will be ranked in The Associated Press preseason top five (maybe even No. 1) and likely picked to win the program's first Southeastern Conference championship since 2014.
Handlogten, bigger, stronger and in the best shape of his life will be in the middle of it all from the jump.
Micah Handogten (3) on defense against Auburn in the Final Four last April.
"It feels so different," said Handlogten, who has filled out to a solid 260 pounds that figures to serve him well, compared to the 225 or 230 he threw around against some of the best athletes in the country during his 2023-24 debut season in the SEC. "Learning to play at this weight and being able to still move around at 30 pounds heavier is definitely an adjustment, but I'm starting to get more agile with it."
Added UF coach Todd Golden: "He's as confident, as strong and as fit as he's ever been, and I couldn't be happier for him."
If anyone deserves a healthy and fun run through the 2025-26 campaign, it's Handlogten. He gave everything he had during a grueling rehab from the gruesome injury, then made the utterly selfless decision to forfeit the agreed-upon medical redshirt season in order to be a role-player on a team dealing with front-court injuries during a season of generational potential.
"He burned a year and showed us all that what we were trying to do was bigger than one person," junior forward Alex Condon said. "Micah knew we needed him at the time. Once he came back, we played a different – even more unselfish – brand of basketball, and there was no looking back."
To fully appreciate Handlogten's plight requires looking back.
And not just to the last couple years.
CHIP OFF THE "BIG BEN" BLOCK
Ben Handlogten was a 6-10 center from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who went on to score 1,167 points and grab 833 rebounds at Western Michigan, where he finished in 1996 and took off on a nine-year professional career with stops in Turkey, Italy and Greece before signing with the Utah Jazz in 2003. He was in the NBA for two seasons, one of which was cut short by a knee injury.
Big Ben played a final season in Korea before calling it quits in 2006. By then, he and Danielle had three young children. Micah, 3, was the baby.
In age only.
"By fourth grade, he was taller than his teachers," Danielle said.
Micah was very good at both soccer and lacrosse, which he played into high school – think of a giraffe sprinting across the Serengeti – but his place on the basketball court was probably a foregone conclusion, given his father's background. Ben coached his son in youth leagues and later at SouthLake Christian Academy, a K-12 school, in Huntersville, North Carolina. He had taken a job in the medical supply field by the time Micah was playing varsity.
Top row: Handlogten as a lacrosse player at SouthLake Christian
Bottom (left to right) With a sizeable reach advantage on the youth comp; younger but as tall as sisters Mia (left) and Hailey (right); as a soccer player
Though Handlogten sprouted to 7 feet, recruiters weren't exactly flocking to a private Presbyterian school playing in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association. And, like so many current collegiate athletes, his recruitment was undermined by the Covid pandemic.
Handlogten, who averaged 17 points and 13 rebounds as a senior, eventually signed with Marshall, which was his best Division I offer.
"Micah was a late-bloomer," Danielle said. "I'm a believer that God has a plan. If Micah had gone to a big school he probably would have sat on the bench."
At Marshall, Handlogten started every game, averaged 7.6 points on 71.1% from the floor to go with a league-best 9.8 rebounds per game on his way to being named 2023 Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year. The instant Handlogten's name popped in the transfer portal that spring he was one of the most coveted big men available, with 36 schools reaching out the first two days.
Handlogten's parents set up a handful of visits, with Florida first. He came to Gainesville prepared. With help from his father, Micah scratched out a list of questions for Golden and his staff, who were coming off their first UF season and a disappointing 16-17 record. Was he a need or a want? Where did he fall on the depth chart. What were his teammates like? Could he develop a close relationship with his coach?
Regarding the former, "Carlin was the one Micah needed in his life," Danielle said.
Everything felt right from the start. On the first night of the visit, Handlogten sent his mother a text at their hotel telling her to cancel the rest of his trips.
"This is where I'm going."
IMPACT SEC PLAYER
Handlogten was a SEC starting center the moment he arrived. Though he averaged just 5.3 points per game and sometimes was shoved around by bigger, stronger guys on the block, Handlogten grabbed 6.9 rebounds per game – he had a double-double of 23 points and 17 boards in a win over Georgia – with nearly half coming on the offensive end. His 17.9% offensive-rebound rate led the league and was fourth in the country.
By the time the Gators reached the SEC Tournament they'd forged an identity of a high-scoring, elite offensive-rebounding team, but one that did not defend very well. That was good enough, however, to stockpile 24 wins and go on a three-game heater to reach the SEC Tournament title game for the first time since 2014.
Handlogten (3) played his sophomore season with Florida at around 230 pounds.
The opponent was 12th-ranked Auburn, which UF had stomped five weeks earlier in Gainesville. The joint was jumping … for not quite two minutes.
Away from the action, Handlogten collapsed to the floor in pain. Before Danielle even knew what had happened, her husband was running down the arena steps and making his way onto the court. She quickly followed and bent over to give her son a kiss.
"You can't be here now, Mom," Micah said. "You can't see this."
Before the game, an eventual 86-67 Auburn win over their shell-shocked opponent, was over Handlogten was being prepped for surgery. Vanderbilt Medical Center, about two miles up the road, had one of the nation's best orthopedic surgeons on hand to perform the procedure and insert the titanium rod that was helicoptered in that afternoon.
Gators coach Todd Goldencomforts Handlogten after his injury. USA Today photo
The Gators returned to Gainesville that night, but Handlogten stayed In Nashville to convalesce. A million thoughts went through his mind (mostly of the dark days ahead and uncertainty beyond them), with Handlogten at one point breaking down and taking his mother with him.
"I'll never be able to unsee, unhear or unfeel it," he told her.
That may have been the low point.
Later that week, Handlogten joined his teammates for their first-round NCAA Tournament game at Indianapolis, where UF's players took the floor wearing T-shirts with "Handlogten" and his number 3 on the back. The Gators, with their fallen friend in a wheelchair behind the bench, lost a 102-100 buzzer-beater against Colorado. The offseason was on.
Handlogten's would be different. Lonely at times, too.
LONG ROAD BACK
All parties were in agreement. Handlogten would sit out the season as a medical redshirt and focus on his rehabilitation and development. No pressure to rush back. The thought of any other avenue never entered anyone's mind.
The rehab sessions were mostly solo and restricted to upper body work. Anything lower body was no- to low-impact. That was Handlogten's spring, summer and early fall. When UF took the floor for its first official 2024-25 practice, he strolled the sidelines, encouraged teammates and took random shots during dead balls to pass the time.
Handlogten took his role as a spirited and passionate cheerleader for his teammates very seriously.
Handlogten's first running came on an anti-gravity treadmill. Then came straight-line sprints in early October, with cutting and conditioning rolled in a few weeks later.
The Gators were three weeks into the season when they went to Orlando for a Thanksgiving Tournament. Handlogten was further along in his rehab and during pregame warm-ups got an optimistic jolt of confidence.
"I couldn't do a lot, but I remember thinking I felt really, really good," he said. "That was different."
The plan, however, was not.
"Our goal all along was to have him be a full practice player by the time the conference games started in January," UF head trainer Jon Michelini said. "We pushed him pretty hard."
Eventually, a consortium of trainer, strength coach, physical therapist and orthopedist – following a battery of tests – cleared Handlogten for full contact. No restrictions. Condon and his front court friends had a worthy adversary on the scout team.
In late January, after watching the Gators get out-rebounded in a second-half comeback win at South Carolina, Handlogten met with the staff about possibly playing. Both sides were enthusiastic about it; the ones inside the building, that is. Back in North Carolina, Handlogten's parents were not on board.
"It's your life and your decision, but I do not support this," his father told him.
That was Wednesday. Friday afternoon, Handlogten practiced with the blue-shirt starters for the first time. He was all in.
Friday night he was all out.
"I definitely got cold feet," Handlogten recalled. "My dad has always been my voice of reason. He sensed I wanted to do it, but he didn't think I was mentally there – and he was right. It was kind of a want-versus-need scenario. I wanted to play, but I needed to know that I was comfortable playing. I had been through practices, but the thought of playing in games – live, full speed, in front of 12,000 fans – honestly, it scared me. Fear of myself, fear of failure, fear of what might happen. I had doubts, and I didn't want any doubts."
Handlogten did not play against Georgia. That was Jan. 28. On Feb. 11, in a road game at Mississippi State, Condon fell to the floor after rolling his ankle 30 seconds into the game and could not return. In the second half, backup forward Sam Alexis suffered foot and ankle injuries in a scrum under the basket.
Just like that, the Gators – 21-3 at the time and ranked third in the country – were minus half their front court rotation, for a couple weeks, at least.
Handlogten, who'd prayed more over the previous nine months than maybe any time in his life, leaned hard into his faith for the right answer. Seeing Condon and Alexis in treatment and riding stationary bikes during practice every day weighed on him.
Handlogten was all smiles on his first retreat up the court in his first appearance of the season, a home win over South Carolina.
"It just got to a tipping point. Those guys were hurt, and the team needed me," Handlogten said of his from-the-heart change-of-heart. "I mean, I was running up and down, feeling good and was like, 'What am I doing?' Those guys had been with me through it all, surrounding me and supporting me 24/7. Their love carried me through one of the hardest times of my life. If they were willing to do that for me – push me when I'm down, tell me not to give up – I had to do something for them."
On Feb. 14, with media gathered for the regular day-before-game session with Golden, Handlogten surprised the group by strolling in with the coach, stepping in front of the microphones calmly stating he was back. For sure, this time.
The team, he said, had a chance to win a national championship and needed him.
Bold step. Bold words.
TRIUMPHANT, TITLE-WINNING RETURN
Before the Feb. 15 home date against South Carolina, Handlogten went into the stands for a collective pre-game hug and prayer with his family.
"It was scary," Danielle said. "I spent most of that time crying tears of worry, but when he got into the game it was tears of joy."
Her son got the call barely four minutes in and took a seat in front of the scorer's table. A thousand thoughts went through Handlogten's mind as he waited for a stoppage to check in. When the PA announcer called Handlogten's name, the standing ovation sent chills up his spine and nearly sent tears from his eyes.
Just 21 seconds in, Handlogten took a pass in the low post and whipped a kick-out to Denzel Aberdeen, who nailed a 3-pointer. He was back, all right. Handlogten finished with two points, four rebounds and a career-high five assists over 20 minutes, probably twice as many as he expected to play.
"We already had a high ceiling," Hartman said. "He raised it even higher."
UF associate head coach Carlin Hartman and Handlogten share a special moment after winning the 2025 SEC Tournament just one year and a day to Handlogten's tragic injury on the very same floor in Nashville.
Especially when Condon returned a couple weeks later. The Gators won their last four regular-season games and went to the SEC Tournament as the No. 2 seed. Over three days, UF whipped No. 15 Missouri, No. 5 Alabama and No. 8 Tennessee, the latter coming in the tournament championship game on the very same floor where Handlogten went down 366 days before.
The hugs and tears were an emotional 12 months in the making. And that was just the warm-up act. The same scenarios played out in podium poses after winning the NCAA West Region at San Francisco and, of course, the national championship against Houston in San Antonio, where superstar and Final Four hero Walter Clayton Jr., as the final horn sounded, leapt into Handlogten's arms for one of the most enduring images of the tournament.
"Total validation," Hartman said.
Handlogten, flanked by mother Danielle and father Ben, after defeating Texas Tech in the NCAA West Region title game to advance to the Final Four.
One shining moment, if ever there was one.
"Micah got the ultimate reward," Golden said. "Just calling it like it is, playing for a national championship would have been the only reason I would have come back. He saw it and took a leap of faith, trusted in his teammates, and we did it. And, honestly, I'm not sure we win it without him. He was impactful every step of the way and gave us a big lift on and off the floor."
THE NEXT STEP
That chapter is chronicled and in the books. It's over. There are, however, residual elements from that NCAA championship team and Handlogten's senior-season squad.
Starting with the front court.
A slam versus Texas Tech in the Elite Eight.
[NCAA photo]
Center Rueben Chinyelu, who started all 40 games, is back and better than ever. Condon, a third-team All-SEC selection and the team's leading rebounder, flirted with the NBA evaluation process, but opted to return. So did forward Thomas Haugh, arguably the best sixth man in the country last season and poised for a potential All-America type junior year. And Handlogten, who has reshaped his frame and is under 10% body fat for the first time. He will come off the bench, but play starter's minutes and be a backup in name only.
There is not a front court in the nation that can match Florida's embarrassment of riches, as far talent, experience and competitiveness. They were No. 5 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage (38.5) last season while playing no more than two "bigs" at any time. In 2025-26, with Haugh moving outside to start on the wing, UF will have three bigs on the court the majority of minutes, meaning more offensive rebounds, extended possessions and extra shots. A case can be made (with pushback, no doubt, from Kentucky and elsewhere in the league) that Florida has the two best centers in the SEC.
"It's going to be a scary sight," Handlogten said.
That comes from a young man who knows all too well about scary sights.
Micah Handlogten, 2025 national champion (with trophy to prove it)
Handlogten, however, stared down the adversity. A season that brought so much fulfilment now flips to one of incredible (maybe even unrealistic) expectation in the quest to repeat as national champions – "from hunters to hunted," Handlogten said – but that's a long way from being flat on his back in Nashville.
And it's exactly the kind of challenge he came to Florida for. And now, in the best shape of his life, Micah Handlogten has immersed himself in the joy of it all.
With Hartman still very much in his ear. Every day.
"I'm a Florida Gator – and there is so much joy in that – but now I wake up every day as a national champion and they can never take that away from me," he said. "You know how many people dream to be in the position I'm in right now?"
He answered the question.
"Countless," Handlogten said. "And I count my blessings every day."
