Zach Hodskins The 1 Handed Hoops Player Scores His First Points At UF
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AND ONE
Ok that was ridiculous handle and a savage spin move. In case anyone was wondering if Zach Hodskins was some charity case that everyone had to lay down to let score like he was a Make A Wish kid scoring a touchdown – dude can ball.
Source – Florida Gators head basketball coach Billy Donovan has made a career of recruiting the right players for his program, making the most out of underrated talent and turning top prospects into lottery picks in the NBA Draft. He may have another opportunity to smooth out yet another diamond in the rough if 2014 guard Zach Hodskins (Alpharetta, GA), a one-handed phenom, accepts Donovan’s preferred walk-on offer to join the Florida basketball team. Hodskins was born without the bottom half of his left arm, which is cut off at the elbow and therefore missing a hand and forearm, yet is an incredibly skilled shooter (hitting 60 percent of his three-pointers) and passer despite only having one hand. According to David Boyd, Hodskins’s former basketball coach, Gators assistant coach John Pelphrey presented the preferred walk-on offer, which would guarantee Hodskins a spot on the team for the 2014-15 season, though not a full scholarship.
“I know that people who don’t know me sleep on me when I walk on the court,” he told USA Today back in December. “They don’t think I can play or they don’t know what to think, but it’s when I hit those first few shots or when I go by them is when they wake up. That’s when they start playing me hard. That’s what I love. I know I’ve just earned their respect. That’s all I want.”
Also, heads up Mike White, my coaching tip still stands from the 2013 blog I did about this kid.
Everybody is gonna underestimate the kid on the court. He should be Florida’s last shot guy – nobody and I mean NOBODY expects you to inbound it to the one armed kid with 5 seconds left. Can’t have lower expectations than to be in a D1 college hoops game while literally missing a limb that is a pretty crucial limb for the sport of basketball. Then he does a little shimmy-sham step back and snipes a shot from 3-point land to win the game. Diabolical.
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