Tag: Norm Sloan

Florida men’s basketball all-time roster: Gator Legends

Take a look at who Gators Wire picked for the all-time men’s basketball roster, including three coaches, the starting lineup, and the reserves.

This year’s edition of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament kicks off on March 12 with the annual Selection Sunday event. However, the field of 68 schools will be missing the Florida Gators who have been a steady fixture in the Big Dance over the past few decades but are out of the picture in [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]’s first year as head coach.

The Orange and Blue’s tournament history began in 1987 when [autotag]Norm Sloan[/autotag] led a squad that featured three future NBA players: Vernon Maxwell, Dwayne Schintzius and Clifford Lett. Seven years later, during their fourth appearance, the Gators made their first deep run under coach [autotag]Lon Kruger[/autotag], whose squad was bumped out of the Final Four by a dominant Duke Blue Devils team.

In total, the Gators have made the NCAA Tournament 22 times with a combined record of 48-20, though due to sanctions, the 1987 and 1988 records have been vacated by the NCAA making their official mark 45–18.

Gators Wire chose one head coach, two assistant coaches (who are essentially the honorable mention head coaches) and 10 players split between the starters and backups that make up the University of Florida’s all-time roster. The tipoff starts with the head coach.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Dwayne Schintzius (1986-90)

Known for both his brash behavior and his signature mullet Schintzius had a colorful, but ultimately underachieving basketball career.

Dwayne Schintzius (1986-90) – Center

Let me preface this profile with a declaration of full disclosure: Dwayne Schintzius was my favorite Gators basketball player growing up. While there was also Stacey Poole and Livingston Chatman on that late-80s team — both players I also was very endeared to — Schintzius was larger-than-life during his career both on and off the court.

The 7-foot-tall Schintzius was born in Brandon, Fla., and attended Brandon High School where he made deep runs in the Class 4A state tournament his sophomore and junior years alongside prep legend Toney Mack. He averaged 21.1 points and 17 rebounds per game his senior season en route to honors from Parade magazine and a McDonald’s All-American nod, while also being listed as a finalist for Florida’s Mr. Basketball award.

With offers from various top college programs, Schintzius stayed in-state and attend the University of Florida on an athletic scholarship in 1987, where he played for four years. Under head coach Norm Sloan, he began strong in Gainesville, seizing the starting center job early on his freshman year averaging 10.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.8 blocked shots in 34 games played.

That same season the Gators earned its first-ever invite to the NCAA Tournament after winning its also first-ever regular-season SEC championship with a 12-6 record in conference play. Though the achievements were later vacated due to NCAA sanctions, Florida made it to the Sweet 16 that year behind the efforts of Schintzius, Andrew Moten and Vernon Maxwell — all names also seeded high in this bracket.

Florida made it back to the tournament the following two seasons as Schintzius continued to improve his game. During his sophomore campaign, he raised his production to the tune of 14.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.6 blocks over 35 games. However, it was this year that his disciplinary problems began to percolate to the surface, including clashes with Sloan as well as other minor incidents on and off the floor.

Schintzius took his game to the next level his final two seasons at Florida, over 30 games averaging 18 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 blocks — the lowest number for swats during his collegiate career, but elevated numbers in the other categories. However, his behavioral issues reared its ugly head once more, with the big man receiving a four-game suspension from the university for an altercation outside of a Gainesville nightclub.

The center from Brandon was included on multiple All-American lists while also earning first-team All-SEC player honors his junior year when he led the Gators in scoring, rebounding, and free-throw percentage. He set the program record for career blocked shots (272), with all three of his season totals up to this point still holding the top-three spots in school history.

Unfortunately, that would be the last full season he would play in college.

While Schintzius’ senior season was marred by coach Sloan’s forced resignation from the program due to NCAA violations, he still put up big numbers in only 11 games played, averaging 19.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.5 blocks, along with a steal per game. After Sloan left the team, between his dislike for interim head coach Don DeVoe and further disciplinary issues, Schintzius officially quit the team.

Over the course of his career in Gainesville, Schintzius is the only player in SEC history to amass more than 1,000 points, 800 rebounds, 250 assists and 250 blocks — a record that still stands. His 1,624 total points scored sits at No. 6 among Florida’s all-time scoring leaders.

The big man from Florida was taken by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 1990 NBA Draft at No. 24 overall. He suited up for 42 games in San Antonio backing up future Hall of Fame center David Robinson before a back injury derailed his rookie campaign. He was traded to the Sacramento Kings before the 1990-91 season began; it was later revealed that part of the reason for the trade was a disagreement between the rookie center and general manager Bob Bass over his haircut.

Sadly, Schintzius’ career would be continually hampered by injuries, mainly problems with his back. His first two seasons were his best, though a resurgent year in 1995-96 with the Indiana Pacers saw one last hurrah from the storied former Gator. After his last gasp with the Boston Celtics in 1998-99, he retired from professional basketball. He averaged 2.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists and 0.5 blocks over eight seasons with six different teams over the course of his NBA career.

However, he ended up coming out of retirement in 2001-2002 to play with the Mobile Revelers of the NBA’s Development League. After one season in Alabama, Schintzius took a final stab at pro ball before calling it quits for good, suiting up for Brevard Blue Ducks of the United States Basketball League in 2003.

Known for both his brash behavior and his signature mullet — which he named “The Lobster” — Schintzius had a colorful, but ultimately underachieving basketball career overall due to a mix of attitude and injury issues. Nonetheless, he left an indelible mark on Florida’s basketball program as well as the Southeastern Conference.

Schintzius passed away in 2012 after a lengthy battle with a rare form of leukemia at the age of 43. He was quoted in saying the following at a Gators basketball game a year prior to his death.

“I’m very proud to be a Gator. I feel like I helped start something. It makes me feel good to see where the program has come.”

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Vernon Maxwell (1984-88)

While he was most certainly a flawed human being who found trouble in almost every stop, “Mad Max” was unquestionably a baller on the court.

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Vernon Maxwell (1984-88) – Point/Shooting Guard

Vernon Maxwell was a very controversial person in Florida lore. While he left Gainesville as the Gators’ all-time leading scorer, his role in uncovering the program’s cash payoff scheme for athletes which resulted in harsh NCAA sanctions tarnished his legacy at UF.

Maxwell was a hometown boy, born in Gainesville and attending Buchholz High School where he was named Mr. Basketball of the state of Florida his senior year and was also an all-state defensive back in football. With an athletic scholarship in hand, he joined head coach Norm Sloan’s team in 1984.

The star guard excelled in his four years at UF, averaging 20 points a game his junior and senior season — just missing the mark his sophomore year with a 19.6 average — and still holds 15 Gators team records. During his senior season he upped his secondary game, averaging career highs in rebounds (4.2) and assists (4.3) per game while barely missing his best mark with just under two steals per game.

However, due to the aforementioned scandal in which Maxwell testified to a grand jury that he received money from Sloan, an assistant and University of Florida boosters which he used to buy cocaine, all of the points he amassed his junior and senior seasons were erased from the records. His 2,450 career points would still be the best in Gators men’s basketball history had they not been revoked.

Rescinded statistics notwithstanding, Maxwell finished his collegiate career the No. 2 scorer in Southeastern Conference history behind LSU’s Pete Maravich. However, despite his achievements on the court, he fell down into the second round of the 1988 NBA Draft, where he was selected 47th overall by the Denver Nuggets but quickly traded on draft day to the San Antonio Spurs for a second-round pick the following year.

Maxwell only played a season-and-a-half in San Antonio before he was sold to the Houston Rockets, where his game flourished alongside Hakeem Olajuwon and company. After a slow start to his NBA career his first two years, the young guard found his footing and from 1990 to 1992 he reached career highs in points per game with 17.0 and 17.2, respectively. Known for his deadly shooting from outside of the arc, he owned the NBA record for most 3-pointers made in a season from 1991 until 1993; he was also renown for his clutch shooting, sinking numerous game-winning shots throughout his career.

The former Gator earned an NBA championship ring with the Rockets for the first of their repeat titles in 1993-94; he missed out on the second ring when he quit the team after its opening first-round game loss to Utah in the 1995 playoffs in frustration due to recently acquired Clyde Drexler taking his starting spot and playing time. He would produce his third-highest career offensive output the following season with the Philadelphia 76ers before his career began to decline.

Overall, Maxwell played 13 total seasons in the NBA with eight different teams, accumulating almost 11,000 points for a career average of 12.8 per game and averaging double-digit scoring in 11 seasons while sinking 1,256 three-point shots at a 32 percent clip. “Hawk” also averaged 3.4 assists per game for his career, reaching his high-water mark of 5.1 per game in 1993-1994.

While Maxwell was most certainly a flawed human being who found trouble in almost every stop of his adult life, “Mad Max” was unquestionably a baller on the court. When considering how much he achieved when his sneakers were laced up — both with the Gators and in the pros — it is easy to place him among the greatest basketball players in UF’s program history.

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