Nashville–One second Florida center Micah Handlogten was standing on the dunker’s post at the south end of Bridgestone Arena, the next he was sprawled on the ground with his hand covering his mouth as if he’d just seen a ghost. Everyone in the sold out arena was dead silent as if they’d just seen one, too.
It seemed as if there wasn’t a soul inside the place that didn’t know it shortly after it happened, but if they didn’t already; they quickly learned as Handlogten’s family and a stretcher rushed to the court. Handlogten had just suffered a compound fracture. Not just that, it was visible and graphic.
“I’ve never seen an injury like that before,” Florida strength and conditioning coach Victor Lopez told Southeastern 16.
As he skied past Auburn wings Chad Baker-Mazara and Denver Jones less than three minutes into the SEC Championship game to grab an offensive rebound, his leg bent in a way that legs aren’t supposed to bend. Handlogten’s bone was visible to everyone with a close-up vantage point of the scene.
For a moment, everything in the previously raucous gym stopped. It felt like basketball didn’t matter. It felt like something was off for the rest of the day.
“It scared me a little bit,” Florida guard Walter Clayton, whose mom is a registered nurse, told Southeastern 16. “I’m the only one who saw it so whenever he went down and everybody thought he kind of rolled it, I had to tell them ‘it snapped.”’
It just seemed unfathomable something like that could happen on a day that would eventually see someone crowned as the SEC champion. It was cruel and unfair in every sense of those words.
It didn’t end things for Handlogten, though.
Handlogten took the floor in a Friday night win–less than a year after Handlogten’s injury–over Missouri as the veteran big man returned to the floor that altered his career and life forever. The senior big man went for five points on 2-for-2 shooting while grabbing three rebounds, but that wasn’t the story.
Florida’s big man was playing basketball again instead of being carted off on a stretcher. He was going through the game full speed in a place where everyone questioned if he ever would again. The old ‘everything came full circle’ cliche felt as applicable as ever on Friday.
“Where I normally warm up on the court is exactly where I got hurt,” Handlogten told Southeastern 16. “Just stretching there and warming up, it brought back some memories. But, I got those out of the way and I just started playing.”
“It was weird coming here and shooting around and seeing ‘damn, last time I was here I was on a stretcher.’”
As Handlogten left the arena with his family that night and was told he wouldn’t be able to travel with Florida to its NCAA Tournament games in Indianapolis, he began to doubt.
Everything in that period just seemed so dark. In Handlogten’s mind his future did, too. Telling him back then that he played 11 minutes in an SEC Tournament game just a year after the injury might’ve blown his mind.
“I can’t lie,” Handlogten said when asked if he thought he’d be back to playing so quickly, “I did not think so at all.”
7-foot-1 bodies aren’t like every other body. They’re often more complex and more difficult to properly rehab.
A thought like that could’ve stuck with Handlogten throughout his rehab process. It could’ve put a fog over him as he thought about the uncertainty he and his career faced as well as the overwhelmingly long road ahead. Instead, he did the only thing he knew how to do at that point.
“Throughout every step back I just tried to take steps forward,” Handlogten said. “I never let myself get down on myself. I just try to take it day by day and see the good things that happen throughout the day, even if it’s just a tiny thing. I always said learning how to walk, that’s my number one example; learning how to walk without a boot or crutches. It took me a good month or two, but just being able to get back to that and all of these small advances like learning to squat and learning to do calf raises and all this stuff, it really taught me a lot about myself and that I don’t want to give up.”
“I learned a lot about my resiliency.”
Handlogten also did the improbable for someone his size. He recovered on schedule. There were setbacks, but he just continued to progress. He worked with Lopez and athletic trainer Jon Michelini. He did all the things he had to do in order to stay on schedule. He also got a little lucky.
As a result, he’s found his way back on the floor ahead of schedule.
“He’s done everything we could ever ask for in terms of his rehab,” Florida coach Todd Golden told Southeastern 16. “I’m just really grateful that he’s playing for us right now.”
“Incredible amount of resiliency,” Lopez added. “I didn’t know how he would respond to it, but then three or four months down the road after the surgery happened there was an incredible shift in his mindset and his willingness to get better and keep going. I kind of thought ‘man, this guy might have a chance to come back a lot sooner [than expected].”
Even as Handlogten’s rehab was trending upward, the plan was never for him to be running and jumping around on the floor like he was on Friday night. He wasn’t supposed to be banging inside battling for rebounds like he was. He wasn’t supposed to be playing like a guy that often appears to have never been injured in the first place.
Those responsibilities were reserved for Florida’s other bigs like Alex Condon, Sam Alexis and Rueben Chinyelu. They were supposed to be the ones doing all the dirty work and leading Florida’s push for a one seed in the NCAA Tournament. They were supposed to be the ones running the show.
As Alexis went down for an extended period of time in early Feburary and Condon missed a Feburary stretch, things changed.
“Initially I was planning on redshirting and not playing at all, but I kinda advanced and got ahead of recovery and I saw an opportunity to come back once a couple of our big men got injured,” Handlogten said. “I kinda was like ‘let’s do it’ I don’t regret it at all. I love playing on this team.”
The 7-footer burned his opportunity at a medical redshirt on Feb. 15, he’s since played in eight games. Each appearance for Hanlogten has consisted of him playing 10 or more minutes.
Handlogten is averaging 2.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 80% from the field since his return. Those numbers are a significant step back from his 5.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game last season, but that’s not something Florida is worried about.
In their minds, the presence that the senior big man brings is enough.
“He really completes our team,” Golden said. “He’s obviously a starter level player, a fantastic player. To have him be unselfish enough and willing to come off the bench and impact the team however is needed says all you need to know about him. He’s got a lot of basketball in front of him. He’s going to be playing for a long, long time.”
Handlogten isn’t letting his potential future in basketball dominate his mindset despite what his coach says. He’s just doing his job while doing some occasional dancing on the bench.
“That’s been my motto this entire season; ‘just go out there and have fun,” he said.
At this stage, how could Handlogten not have fun?
He’s on the best team he’s ever been on. He’s gained loads of perspective since he walked into Bridgestone Arena for the first time a year ago. He’s healthy in a way he couldn’t have dreamed of at that time. He’s doing things that the guy who laid on the floor would envy.
Maybe his stats aren’t as wowing as they were a year ago, but Handlogten is just taking it one step at a time. Turns out this step is pretty good, though.
“I think he’ll always look back at this opportunity to play with this group as a special moment in his life,” Golden said.
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