Before there was Mo Buckets, Oracle crowd igniter, there was Marreese Speights, University of Florida center.
Speights played for Billy Donovan’s Gators teams in 2006-07 and 2008-09. He didn’t see a lot of action in his freshman year, when Florida won a national championship. But he gained valuable experience playing against Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Chris Richard in pratice.
“Our front line was pretty extraordinary,” Donovan said. “Plyaing against those guys helped him. And then as a sophomore, moving into a more primary role, he continued to get better.