The names and faces may be the same, but the bodies and the mentality will be significantly different.
Although starting frontcourt seniors Chandler Parsons, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin are all reprising roles they assumed last year, they expect to do so with more physicality this time around.
“We’re a year older, a year better, and a year stronger,” Parsons said.
The team is holding its first practice today, but coach Billy Donovan is already noticing the difference.
“The one thing that definitely stands out right away is that I think we’re much more of a physical team,” Donovan said. “We’re a tougher team than maybe we have been the last couple of years.”
The primary reason for this shift is the arrival of freshmen Cody Larson and Patric Young, who are expected to push the starters in practice like no one could last season.
Both measure an imposing 6-foot-9 and 225 pounds, and Young is drawing comparisons to some of the most muscular big men to ever play the game.
“They call me Karl Malone, Dwight Howard,” Young said. “They tell me I need to stop lifting weights so much and start stretching more.”
Young, who says he is already the strongest player on the team after benching 300 pounds in high school, possesses much more than just impressive measurables.
“Patric Young brings a different style of game,” Macklin said. “He is one of those guys that you know you have to box out because he is coming hard every time.”
Macklin also noted that Young’s relentless physicality is present on both offense and defense, and that he’s liable to do some serious damage to anyone who’s brave enough to line up against him.
“He’s got like seven or eight elbows,” Macklin said. “Off a rebound or when he’s doing post moves, he hits you with an elbow on like every possession, but that’s a good thing.”
One Gator who might disagree with that assessment is freshman Casey Prather, who broke his nose playing against Young during a summer workout.
According to teammates, the two got tangled up on a pick-and-roll that left Prather bloodied, but otherwise all right.
“Patric’s got a little edge to him,” Larson said. “Off the court you’ll talk to him and he’s the nicest guy in the world. But on the court he’s a different person.”
Young said: “Once we get on the court it’s a battle, and I’m gonna go out there and do what I have to do to win,”
Young’s physicality is forcing everyone around him to get stronger in order to handle the punishment he dispenses during workouts.
For Macklin this is a sharp departure from last season, when an injury to Kenny Kadji left him without a comparable opponent.
“It’s better because when I go against guys in the [Southeastern Conference] it’s going to be the same thing as in practice,” Macklin said. “Last year it was me going against Alex (Tyus) or (Erik) Murphy almost every day. This year there are a lot of different guys that I can go against, a lot of different styles.”
