No Handlogten, No Title: Meet Florida’s Comeback Kid

Handlogten had suffered a compound fracture. He was immediately swarmed by Florida’s medical staff and his teammates, some of whom were crying, others shaking their heads in disbelief. Gator coach Todd Golden rushed to the big man’s side. Auburn players formed a prayer circle. Florida’s Walter Clayton, Jr., who a year later would become Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, walked to the bench to deliver startling news.

“Walter says, ‘Coach, his leg snapped,’” Florida associate head coach Carlin Hartman says. “I looked into the crowd to call his mom and dad down. It was one of those surreal moments you never want to experience.”

Ben Handlogten struggles to put into words the thoughts that were swirling through his head as he and wife Danielle hurried to the court.

“It was super emotional,” the elder Handlogten says. “Michah knows what’s going on. He’s playing what for him at that time was the biggest game of his life. He knows his season’s done. He doesn’t know what the future holds.”

When Ben Handlogten reached his son, his response was typical. He was thinking about others, not himself. “Micah just said, ‘Don’t let Mom see me like this,’” Ben says. 

Handlogten was rushed to Vanderbilt hospital, where surgeons immediately repaired his leg. Just before the procedure, Ben Handlogten had a chance to comfort and counsel Micah. In the mid-1990s, he was a promising big man who earned a spot on the Utah Jazz roster after a solid career at Western Michigan. But a torn ACL ended his NBA career before it began.

“It was a quiet time he and I were finally able to have when he was getting prepped for surgery,” Ben says. “He was asking questions, like, ‘What’s it going to be like?’ So I was able to tell him things based on my experience. This is what surgery’s going to be like. This is how rehab’s going to go. There will be challenges and frustrations, good days and bad days.”

Without Handlogten, the visibly shaken Gators lost the SEC title game, then lost 102-100 to Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Could the big man have made a difference in either of those outcomes? No one will ever know.

After the NCAA Tournament loss, the Florida staff began recruiting the transfer portal as though Handlogten wouldn’t be available in 2024-25. But with the possibility he could return, the coaches were having a difficult time finding his potential replacement.

Enter selfless gesture No. 1. Golden was honest with Handlogten about his recruiting quandary, so Handlogten quickly announced he was taking a medical redshirt. That allowed Florida to sign Washington State transfer Rueben Chinyelu, a 6-foot-10, 265-pound center who would become a key cog in Florida’s run to the 2025 national championship. After Chinyelu signed, Golden and his assistants thought that, along with Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Chattanooga transfer Sam Alexis, they were set at the post positions.

That was true until February, when injuries cut the Gators’ frontcourt rotation in half. Once again, Handlogten would provide a solution. Call it selfless gesture No. 2.

Handlogten singles out Florida’s training staff and doctors, but more because of his own drive and determination, he worked his way back to full strength by December 2024. He was able to practice with the team, and though he suffered through some residual soreness in his leg, he seriously considered burning his redshirt. “My dad helped me out a lot with that,” Handlogten says. “He’d blown his knee apart. He told me my injury could mess me up mentally… if I allowed that to happen. The only way past it was through it. You just can’t think about it.”

The fact Handlogten was considering a return leaked to the press, forcing him to make up his mind and announce his decision. “If I came back, I wanted to be 100 percent with no regrets,” Handlogten says. “I initially said yes, but I began to have second thoughts. I either wanted to be all in or keep my redshirt.”

Handlogten eventually decided he wasn’t ready for a comeback and wanted to preserve an entire year of eligibility. But a Feb. 11 game against Mississippi State changed Handlogten’s mind, the course of the Gators’ season, and the way Golden tells it, college basketball history. Against the Bulldogs, first starting center Condon and then reserve power forward Alexis went down with injuries, reducing the country’s deepest frontcourt to Chinyelu and Haugh.

Women’s Top 25: A New Power Enters the Top 5

Nov 30: UConn finally has some competition for the top spot in Players Era champion, Texas. Ohio State joins the fray while Tennessee struggles with identity.

The next day, Golden and his staff approached Handlogten, who was way ahead of them. “After the Mississippi State game, I was like, ‘Give me my jersey,’” Handlogten says. “The injuries made me think about my decision from a team perspective. We had three of the best guards in the country. We had a solid group of bigs without me. If we were this good without me, how good could we be if I came back?”

Suffice it to say the Florida coaches were thrilled about Handlogten’s decision.

“I don’t think there’s any question that of 365 Division-I schools, Micah could probably start at 350 of them,” Hartman says. “So to have an All-SEC caliber back up another All-SEC caliber center (Condon). When he came back, it just struck a chord. Everybody began to realize we had a special team.”

In the first game of his abbreviated season, a home victory over South Carolina, Handlogten, always a crafty high-post passer, handed out a career-high five assists, a sign he was back — maybe not yet to his old self, but reasonably close. He played 16 games and averaged 13.1 minutes as the Gators won the SEC regular-season championship, the tournament title, and then fought their way through six games to win the national championship. Handlogten’s stats (2.6 points and 4.9 rebounds a game) might appear inconsequential to anybody outside the Florida program, but not to Golden.

“We don’t win the national championship without Micah Handlogten,” Golden says.

Handlogten’s offensive rebound percentage of 18.1 would have led the nation had he grabbed enough boards to qualify. He blocked 10 shots and made 10 steals. He took just 29 shots but made 20 of them (69.0 percent).

“Those 10 to 12 minutes he played were valued,” Hartman says. “Not only did Micah give Chinyelu a rest, but it allowed Haugh and Condo to be as fresh as they could be for closing games. Against UConn, Texas Tech, Auburn and Houston (four of the Gators’ six opponents in the NCAA Tournament), we were able to wear them down with the size and depth of our front line.”

The national championship more than validated Handlogten’s decision to return to the court. “It was one of the biggest gambles I’ve taken in my life,” he says. “But it paid off. (Winning the national championship) is something you dream of as a kid, growing up watching March Madness, sneaking your phone into class to watch the games. To be a part of all that was incredible.”

The injury long past him, Handlogten committed himself to offseason conditioning and workouts. He returned this fall with just eight percent body fat on his long frame and was playing better than ever until a bump on the noggin kept him out of the Gators’ fifth game of the season, against Merrimack. But in the first four games, he missed just two shots (13 of 15, 86.7 percent) and averaged 8.8 rebounds.

So far, Handlogten is playing so well Hartman thinks there could be a place for him at the next level.

“He’s one of the best offensive rebounders I’ve ever been around,” Hartman says. “He’s relentless and his timing is tremendous. I really think that young man is going to play in the NBA. There are not a lot of 7-foot-1 dudes walking around with his brain, his feel, his skill set. He’s not a dynamic scorer, but he could be a very good connector.”

Told what Hartman said, Handlogten responded in his usual unselfish fashion. He’s more concerned about his team, and this season. “I like my trajectory right now,” he says. “But I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself. I’m just going to work just as hard if not harder to help this team win.”

Handlogten’s size and basketball ability comes from his father, but putting others before himself is his mother’s doing. Every year after Handlogten and his two sisters Hailey and Mia turned 10, Danielle insisted they serve some sort of mission.

“Maybe it was going to Mexico,” Ben Handlogten says. “Maybe it was the food kitchen down the street. It didn’t matter. It was not negotiable. That’s when you start realizing the world is bigger than just yourself.”