GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The long summer months of the offseason serve their purpose. Players work on individual skills, as well as their strength and conditioning, and a couple times a week get to turn loose during pickup games organized by the coaches that often turn highly competitive. Along the way, the staff toys with rotations and combinations that may appear rock-solid at the time, but are always subject to change once the balls of fall practice are officially tossed. 
 
Well, barely two weeks into practice, here’s a Florida basketball update: Things already have changed on the Gators’ potential 2025-26 rotation. 
 
Freshman CJ Ingram has entered the chat.
 
Taurean Green, the former UF point guard of relative note and assistant charged with player development, put it this way:  

“The light came on,” Green said of Ingram, the 6-foot-6 former high school football standout.

When it comes to opportunity, especially for a collegiate rookie, sometimes players can make things more complicated than they are. That was the case for Ingram, the late-bloomer in just his second year as a full-time basketball player. He spent his first four months thinking too much on the court, trying to do too much. It took a while to correct, but Ingram’s timing was excellent. 
 
One of the best all-around athletes on the team, Ingram finally figured out that getting on the floor was simple as – like his coaches had been telling him all along – playing defense, knowing where to be, making good decisions, and, frankly, sometimes just getting the hell out of the way. 
 

“As a freshman, whatever you do, you want to play. That was my whole thing going in,” Ingram said Tuesday. “I didn’t really come in thinking I was going to be a scorer right away, but once I really locked in on the small details – like rebounding, crashing, defending hard on every play – that’s when I realized what I can do to help the team and that’s the position I’ll be in this season.”
 
The reigning national champion Gators are in their third week of official practice. The start to the ’25-26 season – Nov. 3 against Arizona at Las Vegas – is less than four weeks away. The best front line in the country (Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Micah Handlogten) is set. So is the starting backcourt (transfers Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee). His coaching track record suggests Todd Golden likely will lean into an eight- or nine-man rotation that will get squeezed as the schedule moves deeper into the rugged Southeastern Conference slate and inches toward March. 
 
It’s early October, but junior guard Urban Klavzar has played himself into the first guard off the bench, while Ingram, the 6-foot-6 late-bloomer and former football standout, has caught the eye of the entire staff with his improvement in just the last few weeks. 
 
“I thought he’d make a huge jump by January,” said UF associate head coach Korey McCray, who tutors the backcourt. “He’s made that jump already.”
 
Ingram has become a regular on the “blue” team – home to the starters and front-line rotational players (versus the white team of mostly backups still fighting for minutes) – during full-go scrimmages and earned reps on that side by allowing himself to be coached. 
 
“We have guys who are pretty much going to the NBA. They can score the ball. They can do everything. That’s why they are the starters. That’s why they are good at what they do,” Ingram said. “So, I’m just trying to be a glue guy; to do the small things that help us win. Be a rebounder, diving on loose balls, being a defender.”
 
If it sounds simple, well, it’s because it usually is. Especially for a freshman. 
 
Take Tuesday, for example. UF was scrimmaging (with NCAA officials) in the empty Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center. The Blue team got a stop and took off in transition. Fland threw ahead to Ingram who was set up in the right corner. Ingram ball-faked, then drove into the paint, where was immediately walled up by a defender. Instead of forcing a shot, Ingram made the simple pass to Haugh trailing at the top of the key. Haugh then whipped the ball to the left corner, where Klavzar was parked for an open 3-pointer. Swish. 
 
In basketball vernacular, it was a so-called “hockey assist” for Ingram, but in the bigger picture it the simple and correct play. 
 
“Whatever I got to do to help the team win,” Ingram said. 
 
He reported to UF in May as the wide-eyed, raw and wildly athletic prospect the Gators knew he was. Ingram was an outstanding high school quarterback for his father, former UF tight end Cornelius Ingram, and led Hawthorne (Fla.) High to consecutive state championships. His heart, however, was on the hardwood. 
 
After a breakout summer on the club circuit, Ingram quit football before his 2024-25 senior season and transferred to play his final prep year at prestigious Montverde (Fla.) Academy to further develop his game and dive into better daily competition. In addition to sending Ingram to Florida, the Montverde ’24-25 squad also had players who signed with Cincinnati, Creighton, Indiana and Miami. Ingram fit right in and rocketed up the national recruiting charts to top-25 status.

Golden isn’t shy about saying he prefers building his roster with proven transfers versus recruiting high school players – given his mastery of the portal (guys named Clayton, Richard and Martin come to mind), can you blame him? – but he’s also shown to be open-minded to playing freshmen if they prove trustworthy. Ask Condon and Haugh. 
 
Ingram’s fellow freshman, roommate and new best friend has watched the transition unfold. 
 
“He’s just figuring out what he has to do, and getting good at it … getting really good at it,” guard Alex Lloyd said of Ingram. “I feel like he’s going to continue to improve.”
 
That’s the plan for the new guy.

It’s early in the process, but Ingram has shown he just might a freshman that “gets it,” as they saying goes. 
 
“He’s doing a great job of letting the game come to him,” Golden said. “He’s focused on the things that we emphasize – defending, rebounding, taking care of the ball. He’s been a great team player, taking the right shots and making the right plays. In a role where you’re not going to be the highest-usage guy, I think he’s done a nice job of balancing when to be aggressive and when to not be. He’s been impressive over the last two weeks.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu Find his story archives here.