A 'nameless' player earns White's praise

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- There was only 25 seconds left on the clock.

The Florida basketball team was in the driver's seat and was about to secure a big win over No. 4 Auburn - thats when Mike White turned to his bench.

He had no name on the back of his jersey but No. 34 was the most popular guy on the court.

Christopher Sutherland was making his Florida debut, and he had quite the journey to that moment.

"There will be a bunch of Rowdies I'm sure that go to the rec center today and put themselves through workouts," a smiling Mike White told reporters after the win over Auburn.

Sutherland started off as a Rowdy Reptile, but he has been around the Florida basketball programs since 2015.

He started as a a practice player for the women's team.

"Our first year he was a practice player for the women's team," White explained. "He was a Rowdy first, then he won a competition to play against our staff. And this was maybe three years ago.

"So the first time I met him he was blocking my shots with his elbows, taking my basketball and talking trash to me. I said, 'Man, this guy, he'd actually be a very good walk-on.' But then we didn't want to go there because he was with a different program and he was helping the women."

But things changed when Sutherland approached White wanting to be a manager for the team. He then helped White and the staff during several clinics. According to White, he even had to fight off a few coaches away from his manager.

"We actually had a coaching clinic here a summer or two ago," White said. "He was one of the demonstrators, we use our managers. And sometimes it can be pretty ugly. We had a couple high-level coaches actually address us about that, the (iffy) talent level of our managers as they're trying to execute offense and stuff.

"Chris had a couple, went through a couple speakers where we had some low Division I and NAIA and Division II coaches saying, 'Who is that guy? Can we get him to transfer and help us?'"

One day before Florida faced off against Auburn at home, White had a surprise for Sutherland.

He was officially going to be a Florida walk-on.

"He actually had to jump through a bunch of hoops," White said. "For him to become cleared by the NCAA he had to do a lot of stuff. He had to backtrack and make a lot of personal sacrifice just to be able to wear the jersey."

Although his name was not stitched on the back of his black jersey on Saturday, Christopher Sutherland is far from a nameless face amongst the crowd. He is someone that means a lot to the Gators program.

"He's done a really good job for a couple years now," White said. "He brings as much positive energy as any player or manager I've been around. It is unbelievable, as soon as you walk into here with him. It's crazy."