SAN ANTONIO – The bodies inside the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Complex barely had time to decompress. Florida was just a day removed from winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament, the program’s first championship of any kind in 11 years. The players were off, but the coaches and support staff were knee-deep in preparation for the NCAA Tournament trip to Raleigh, N.C. 

Corey Reynolds, UF’s head manager, was busy getting tournament stuff organized when his cell phone buzzed. Fifth-year guard Alijah Martin was calling with a request. No, Martin didn’t want any shoes or gear or an extra workout. His ask was a little more complicated. 

And it was going to take some time and effort. 

Reynolds only had a couple dozen items on his to-do list, and yet, “I didn’t think twice about it,” he said. 

In a matter of hours, Reynolds had created a montage of UF’s players and coaches, mostly vintage shots from the years they were elsewhere and very much under the radar. Martin at Florida Atlantic. Will Richard at Belmont. Thomas Haugh at his Pennsylvania prep school. Denzel Aberdeen at Orlando Dr. Phillips High. Head Coach Todd Golden behind his desk at San Francisco. Associate head coach Carlin Hartman on the bench at Rice. Assistant Kevin Hovde as a walk-on in his oversized Richmond jersey. Etc. Etc. 

At the top of the image, appeared a message: “NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM.”

In the run-up to their NCAA opener, Martin blasted it out on the Gators’ team text chain, adding, “Stay humble, stay hungry.”

Here’s a sampling of some of the replies:

This in incredible. Great work.

Real s—t

LFG

Ridiculous

🤗

So dope!

Let’s work

Members only

One game at a time, let’s get it 

Martin’s message was a call to arms that in the three weeks since has morphed into a rallying cry. 

“Sometimes, you can experience so much success, and so many people tell you how good you are, that you can forget the grind. It can change your character,” Martin said. “But if you can always remember to stay grounded, stay humble and remain that same guy, you can continue to have success.” 

Look where they came from. Now look where they are. 

On Thursday, the Gators (34-4), winners of 10 straight and 16 of the previous 17, filed into the Alamodome, site of this weekend’s 2025 Final Four, where they’ll face Southeastern Conference rival Auburn (32-5) in Saturday night’s NCAA Tournament semifinal, with the winner advancing to play in Monday night’s national-championship game. 

Their roots and underdog mentality have been part of an ongoing theme since they gathered together for the first time last summer. The term “misfits” was even tossed around, given the journeys of everyone from the head coach on down. 

 

practice & press pic.twitter.com/gLFzctgVKy

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) April 3, 2025

Golden, the former walk-on point guard at Saint Mary’s, was the leader of a staff whose assistants had bounced around the profession without getting their shot behind the big desk. The incomparable guard triumvirate of Walter Clayton Jr., Richard and Martin went un-recruited in their own home states, while the super sophomores, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh, were nowhere to be found in their signing class’s top-150 prospects. Exactly no one in the college hoops prognostication business picked this kind of season for the Gators. Sixth-best in the Southeastern Conference, the preseason polls said. 

So getting a visual, nostalgic reminder of it all – there in the palm of their hands – was an ideal prompt heading into the tournament. 

“I know what it meant to us coaches, especially to me and Korey” said Jordan Talley, assistant director of player of development, speaking also on behalf of Associate Head Coach Korey McCray, both of whom got their professional starts in the junior-college ranks. “We took the road less traveled. We’re all dogs. We were all hungry.”

The timing of the message was perfect and engendered some memories. 

 

Junior center Micah Handlogten, a 7-foot-1 center from the Charlotte area, got zero offers from schools in North Carolina. He went to Marshall, earned 2023 Freshman of the Year honors in the Sun Belt Conference and had dozens of suitors, including just about every SEC school, after hitting the transfer portal. 

“I came here because of the coaches, especially Coach Hartman,” Handlogten said. “He told me he was going to coach me harder than I’d ever been coached in my life. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear, exactly what I needed.”

It was Hartman who leaned hard into the underdog theme with an impassioned, impromptu conversation during a practice on Jan. 16, two days after the Gators lost on their home floor to Missouri. Hartman told the players – and coaches – they’d gotten away from the mentality that carried them to 15 wins through the first 16 games and had to get it back. His deliver heart-felt delivery had them mesmerized. 

Florida has gone 19-2 since, with nine wins over Top 25 opponents, including five over teams ranked in the top 10 and the first victory in program history over a No. 1 team on the road. 

That No. 1 team, of course, was Auburn.

“A lot of variables go into coaching. There’s a lot of mentorship and relationship stuff, then there’s some of it that … can you strike a nerve? Can you touch someone?” Hartman said. “We are a team that needs to remember who we are, where we came from and how we got here.”

That it was Martin providing the latest jolt (or “strike,” per Hartman) seemed fitting. He was a force at FAU two years in helping guide the Owls on their magical Cinderella run to the Final Four. Since joining the Gators for his graduate season, his voice, leadership and calling-card defense have been a constant. UF is not here without him. 

On Saturday night, Martin will be the first player in NCAA Tournament history to start in two Final Fours for two different programs. 

On Thursday, though, he found joy in watching the gob-smacked faces of his cell-videoing teammates as they walked into the cavernous, 65,000-seat Alamodome in preparation to play in college basketball’s grandest spectacle. 

 

The only guy to start for two different programs in the Final 4.

Alijah Martin.

Did it two years ago with FAU and now back with Florida. pic.twitter.com/ff7WaRfwOk

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 3, 2025

Martin recalled being in awe when he did it for the first time two years ago in Houston. He kept those memories to himself this week. He wanted his teammates to soak it all in on their own. 

Turned out, Martin was in awe all over again this time. 

Remembering where he came from got him back again. Martin brought the Gators along for the ride.

“I’m having the same feelings, actually, but now I can watch my guys smile like little kids in a candy factory,” Martin said. “They’re lives have changed forever and they really don’t know it yet.”

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu