GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It was the biggest mystery surrounding the Florida basketball this season, why wasn't Jalen Hudson performing?
"The guy was preseason National Player of the Year candidate," Gators head coach Mike White told the media on Friday. "I can't imagine the things that were going through his head, the things that he was struggling with."
After considering the NBA draft, Hudson decided to return to Florida for another season. There were a lot of expectations surrounding the veteran guard. He was a preseason second-team All-SEC player after leading his team with 15.5 points per game last year. This was meant to be his team. His season.
Fast forward to November and he was fighting for minutes. He only averaged 6.8 points per game through the first 25 games of the season.
"He continued to remain positive and continued fighting, and here he is, you know, with a chance potentially to continue to advance, you know, in the NCAA Tournament," said White.
Hudson's fight paid off.
"It was very important to him late in the year," said White. "He became pretty vocal, communicated with myself and our staff and our team that he really wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. That was very important to him. So I'm happy for him."
Then came the turning point.
According to White, Hudson was coming off two of his best practices of the year, and the staff was planning to play him more. Then in Florida's road game against Alabama something just sparked.
"It was midway through the conference season. He earned more minutes and in that game he played really hard and he played with a renewed level of intensity and urgency," recounted White "Then it was either the following game, one of the next couple of games where he broke through a little bit offensively."
Hudson did break through after that. Since that Alabama game, Hudson has averaged 15.3 points and 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per contest. He also was instrumental in Florida's win over Nevada in the first round of the tournament, scoring 15 points.
"From that point on he brought it in practice every day and you could hear his voice more in practice and in film sessions," said White. "He took more ownership, started trying to help [Kevarrius] Hayes lead a little bit. He's locked in, day in and day out and leading where he was vocal on the court in the practice we just concluded."
Hudson fought his way back just in time for postseason play.
"So just a different side to him about halfway through the conference season. He's been very good since. He's playing well.
"It's a really unique situation," said White. "It's a story of perseverance, the adversity that Jalen Hudson had early in this season is very unique."
