Florida basketball is likely to get center [autotag]Micah Handlogten[/autotag] back Tuesday night against Merrimack College, according to a report from Jacob Rudner of 247Sports.
After missing most of three games with an ankle injury, Handlogten should return to the rotation after shooting around on Tuesday. Just one day ago, Florida head coach Todd Golden said that Handlogten had an “outside chance” to play on Tuesday, but he seemed far more confident about the sophomore’s minutes increasing over the weekend.
If Handlogten does return, it will be Florida’s second game of the year with a complete roster. Guard Zyon Pullin missed the first three games of the season serving a suspension, and then Handlogten went down.
Forward Tyrese Samuel earned SEC Player of the Week honors during Handlogten’s absence. He should see fewer scoring opportunities with Handlogten back on the court, but Florida will be better overall with the big man back in the lineup.
Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh will also play less after seeing an increase in minutes with Handlogten out. Golden noted that their increased playing time was a silver lining of sorts to Handlogten’s absence, but this is the role they are best served in.
“Those are guys that we knew were going to play a lot for us as we got in the season, but I think for them to be the best they can be this year — at least early on in the year — it’s going to be more of a coming off the bench, supplemental 15, 20, 25 minutes depending on the night type game.
“Not necessarily starting these guys and throwing them into the wolves against Baylor and against Wake Forest and seeing what happens. But both those guys are studs, man. Both those freshmen are studs. They’re further along than we anticipated. You want to have a little more maturity, a little more older guys in those games. But if we’re going to have young guys out there, those are the two that we want.”
Florida and Merrimack tip off at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday night.
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