Tag: All-time Greats

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Brett Nelson (1999-03)

Brett Nelson was a key member of the turn-of-the-millennium squad that reached the 2000 NCAA Tournament Finals while collecting 100 wins.

Brett Nelson (1999-03) – Guard

Brett Nelson was a key member of Billy Donovan’s turn-of-the-millennium squad that reached the 2000 NCAA Tournament Finals while collecting 100 wins during his four years in school.

Hailing from St. Albans, West Virginia, Nelson was a 1999 McDonald’s All-American standout and the state’s player of the year his senior season. His efforts earned him a spot on Donovan’s team, which had reached the Sweet 16 the season before he arrived and almost won it all his freshman year.

Nelson’s most productive years at Florida came during his sophomore and junior seasons when he averaged 15.3 and 14.6 points per game while dishing out 4.3 and 3.3 assists per game, respectively. He also sported three-point percentages of 43.4, 45.3 and 39.5 in his first three seasons, respectively, with a career-high eight attempts per game his junior year, proving Nelson a significant threat from beyond the arc. Despite entering his senior season a Preseason Naismith Award Semifinalist, his final year saw a dramatic drop-off in games started and minutes played along with overall production.

Going undrafted in 2003, Nelson briefly played professional ball in Sweden but quickly decided that sports management and coaching was his career path. He took a job as director of basketball operations at Colorado State and then at VCU for a season each from 2005 to 2007 before embarking on his coaching career. Nelson is currently the head coach at Holy Cross — his first head coach gig — where in his first season on the bench his Crusaders went 3-29.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Richard Glasper (1976-78)

Richard Glasper was a great guard on a very mediocre Florida squad in the mid-to-late 70s known for his elite vertical leap and quick hands.

Richard Glasper (1976-78) – Guard

Richard Glasper was a great guard on a very mediocre Florida squad in the mid-to-late 70s known for his elite vertical leap and quick hands.

Perhaps one of the greatest JUCO transfers in program history, he played in Gainesville for two seasons averaging double digits in points both years while setting a still-standing school career record for steals per game (1.83). He earned All-SEC honors in 1978 when he led the team in both steals and assists and his career average of 4.26 assists a game still stands as second-best in school history.

During the 1976-77 season, Glasper averaged 11.9 points per game making 53.5 percent of his shots, along with 2.1 rebounds; the following year, he averaged 13 points on 48.5 percent shooting from the field, along with 3.1 rebounds.

Despite Glasper’s innate athletic ability, his 6-foot frame limited his prospects in the professional ranks and he went undrafted after leaving school, never playing in the NBA.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Chandler Parsons (2007-2011)

A four-star recruit, Parsons committed to back-to-back defending national champion Florida, giving his all in his 4 years in Gainesville.

Chandler Parsons (2007-2011) – Small Forward

Chandler Parsons was one of the best players from the late Billy Donovan era, leading the Gators to an Elite Eight his senior year for the first time since the back-to-back national championship seasons. He leveraged that college success into an NBA career that lasted nine years before being jeopardized earlier this year by injuries he sustained in a car accident.

Parsons was born in Casselberry, Florida, before moving to Winter Park, where he attended Lake Howell High School with future Gators teammate Nick Calathes. The pair led Lake Howell to three-straight Florida 5A final fours, winning the championship their senior year in 2007. That season, Parsons was a first team all-state selection and was the MVP of the state championship game with a 30-point, 10-rebound double-double.

A four-star recruit, Parsons committed to back-to-back defending national champion Florida and coach Billy Donovan. His first season in 2007-08, he wasn’t a starter but averaged 20.7 minutes in 36 games with 8.1 points and four rebounds as UF missed the NCAA Tournament.

The Gators missed the tournament again his sophomore year, though he was more productive, starting 28 of 36 games with 9.2 points and 5.7 rebounds a game. Though he only started 18 games his junior season, he still managed a career-best in points with 12.4 a game as well as 6.9 rebounds. That season, he hit a 75-foot buzzer-beater shot on the road to stun North Carolina State on its home floor, and Florida made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed, losing in the first round to BYU.

But Parsons saved his all-around best season for his senior year. He started 35 of 36 games that season, averaging 11.3 points and career-highs in assists and rebounds with 3.8 and 7.8, respectively. He hit another buzzer-beater shot, this time a three to beat South Carolina, and he was named the 2011 SEC Player of the Year, the first UF player ever to receive that honor.

Florida made the NCAA Tournament again that year, winning games in the first three rounds against UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and BYU before stumbling against Butler in the Elite Eight.

Despite his collegiate success, Parsons fell to the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft and was selected by the Rockets with the 38th pick. During the 2011 NBA lockout, he played for French team Cholet Basket before debuting with Houston, with which he started 57 of 63 games as a rookie and was named to the All-Rookie Second Team.

He started every game he played in for the next two seasons with the Rockets, averaging double-figure scoring in both (15.5 in 2012-13 and 16.6 in 2013-14).

He became a restricted free agent in the summer of 2014, and when he received a three-year, $46 million offer from Dallas, the Rockets didn’t match. Parsons made his debut with the Mavericks that fall, starting every game he played in again. But injuries limited him to just 66 appearances, and despite averaging 15.7 points, he was sidelined again in the first round of the playoffs against his former team, this time causing him to miss the remainder of the season.

He averaged just 13.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 2015-16, both the lowest since his rookie season, and once again struggled with injuries, as a torn meniscus in late March cost him the rest of the year.

Still one of the top free agents in the 2016 cycle, Memphis eventually signed him to a four-year, $94 million deal that offseason.

He didn’t live up to the Grizzlies’ expectations, however. He averaged career lows in points (6.2) and rebounds (2.5). He started all 34 games he played in, but once again he saw his season cut short due to injuries.

Injury became a recurring theme for Parsons in Memphis. He only played in 51 games over the next two seasons and started just 11. He was kept under a double-figure scoring average both seasons.

With his relationship with the Grizzlies stagnating and a pricey deal not working out, Parsons was traded to Atlanta on July 6, 2019. He appeared in five games with the Hawks, averaging 2.8 points, before he was hit by a drunk driver in his car on Jan. 15, 2020. According to his attorney, he suffered a traumatic brain injury, disc herniation and a torn labrum, and his injuries could be career-ending. While rehabilitating, he was waived by the Hawks on Feb. 5.

Parsons was one of the greatest players of the post-national title era of Gators basketball. A four-year contributor who hit multiple legendary game-winning shots, Parsons overachieved in the NBA based upon his draft position. Though the final few seasons of his NBA career saw stagnation and his career is currently in danger of ending under tragic circumstances, Parsons’ legacy as a Gator leaves him as one of the best to wear the orange and blue in recent memory.

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All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Tony Miller (1970-73)

Tony Miller’s tenure at UF came just after Neal Walk had left in 1969 and the center from Indiana filled those massive shoes admirably.

Tony Miller (1970-73) – Guard

Tony Miller is a mostly unknown name among the greats of Florida men’s basketball. Hailing from a much different era along with the fact that he never played pro ball has rendered him a distant memory in the psyche of the Gator Nation. That said, he was not exactly chopped liver, either.

Miller’s tenure at Florida came just after legendary Neal Walk had left Gainesville in 1969 and the guard from Indiana filled those massive shoes admirably, leading the Gators in scoring all three years he played.

The 6-foot-one Miller also led the SEC with an average of 26.7 points per game during the 1971–72 season, a year that included his program-record 54 points in a single game that came against Chicago State at Florida Gym. Miller also holds the current best mark for points in a road match, scoring 39 against Auburn that same season — mind you, all coming in an era before the shot clock and the three-point line.

Miller achieved many accolades as a Gator, including a first-team All-SEC selection, serving as senior team captain, earning Academic All-American honors and receiving an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. He is also a member of the Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Legends of SEC Basketball in 1999.

Despite some promising prospects at the professional level, Miller decided to forgo the NBA Draft in 1973 to attend medical school at the University of Illinois-Chicago, taking a keen interest in orthopedic medicine due to a broken hand he suffered just before he set his scoring record the year prior. He returned to Indiana to practice as a foot surgeon outside of Indianapolis, where he still works full-time to this day.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Neal Walk (1966-69)

Neal Walk is probably the greatest Gators athlete that most Florida fans have never heard of who set numerous records in his time at UF.

Neal Walk (1966-69) – Center

Neal Walk is probably the greatest Gators athlete that most Florida fans have never heard of.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Miami Beach, Fla., Walk did not start a high school game until his senior year when his team made it to the state semifinals. He attended the University of Florida on an academic scholarship, where he played center for three seasons under coach Tommy Bartlett.

During his time in Gainesville from 1966-69, Walk set multitudes of team records that still stand, including career rebounds (1,181), points per game (20.8), and rebounds in a single game (31), while also leaving school as the all-time leading scorer — a distinction he no longer holds. His No. 41 jersey remains the only number retired by UF’s basketball program.

Walk was taken at No. 2 in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Phoneix Suns — the highest of any Florida basketball player ever — just behind legendary Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Adul Jabbar) after the Suns lost a coin toss with the Milwaukee Bucks for the top pick.

The best years of Walk’s professional career came early on in Phoenix, where he hit his high-water mark during the 1972–73 season, averaging a career-best 20.2 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. The double-double machine was traded to the New Orleans Jazz in 1974 where his career completely came apart, falling from a front line starter to a benchwarmer with the Jazz and also shortly after with the New York Knicks until 1977.

Walk finished his career professional career in Italy, retiring in 1978. Complications from spinal cord surgery to remove a benign growth in 1987 left him without the use of his legs, rendering him wheelchair-bound for the remainder of his life. The Gator great passed away in 2015 after a long bout with poor health.