GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Their recognition was a long time in coming. Decades, in fact.
But now that the high-scoring "M&M Boys" basketball duo is finally getting its due, it only made sense that Andrew Moten and Vernon Maxwell would go all in when it came to immersing themselves in their legacy moment.
It was only after one of the greatest backcourts in UF history agreed to team up again for a tandem turn as honorary "Mr. Two Bits" that Moten thought back to the energy and dexterity required to execute George Edmundson's iconic pregame cheer.
"I may have bit off more than I can chew," laughed Moten, who might be a half an "M&M Boy" over his playing weight from his days as an All-Southeastern Conference point guard during the mid-1980s. "I forgot about how 'Mr. Two Bits' used to run around all over the place."
That won't be required. This time, the 60-year-old Moten and Maxwell, who at 61 still looks like he could put 20 and 10 in the box score, will only have to do the cheer. After that, they'll turn matters over to the 15th-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1), who will be out for a bounce-back performance when they take on South Carolina (2-3, 0-3) in the annual homecoming game at Spurrier/Florida Field.
By that time, Moten and "Mad Max" – with their 4,380 career points – will have been immortalized as members of the Class of '26 UF Athletic Hall of Fame. Induction ceremonies are Friday night.
"I believe in timing," Moten said. "The timing for this was right."
Maxwell and Moten were the catalyst players behind UF's basketball rise from Southeastern Conference also-ran to league contenders. Moten arrived by way of Quincy, Florida, in 1983, with the program coming off five consecutive losing seasons. The Gators went 16-13 and Moten was named SEC Freshman of the Year his first season. The next fall, Maxwell showed up, a local kid out of Buchholz High and one of the most sought-after prospects in the south.
Things took off from there.
"Vernon and I are joined at the hip," Moten said.
Fact.
From left (at UF 2025 basketball reunion): Vernon Maxwell, Kenny McCraney (assistant coach), Andrew Moten, Monte Towe (assistant coach)and Clifford Lett.
In 1987, the Gators not only reached the first NCAA Tournament in program history, but won a pair of games and advanced to the Sweet 16. That was Moten's senior season. UF went back to the tournament the following year, Maxwell's last, and in 1989, won the program's first SEC title on the foundation they helped build.
In 1990, the NCAA came calling; investigators, not the tournament. UF was placed on a year's probation for violations related to Maxwell, with then Athletic Director Bill Arnsparger taking the extra step of erasing two seasons of Maxwell's statistics from the record books, an arbitrary institutionally imposed penalty virtually unseen elsewhere. That decision, for years, was bemoaned by longtime UF fans who knew what Maxwell meant to the Gators' hardwood history.
It wasn't until September 2025 – more than 35 years later – that the University Athletic Association restored Maxwell's stats (starting with nearly 1,400 points), which returned him to his rightful spot as the No. 1 scorer in Florida basketball history -- No. 3 in SEC history, in fact, behind only "Pistol" Pete Maravich (LSU) and Allan Houston (Tennessee) -- with 2,450 career points, three spots ahead of Moten at No. 4 with 1,930.
Maxwell played 16 years in the NBA and won a pair of championships with the Houston Rockets. Moten played 15 seasons overseas before returning stateside to finish his degree online and coach high school basketball in his hometown. In 2017, he led Greensboro West Gadsden High to the Class 1A state title.
Two UF hoops seasons ago, Moten was brought back to campus as part of a new tradition to honor a distinguished alumni during each home game. Last year, the M&Ms came back for an all-eras Florida basketball reunion, with Maxwell returning a few months after that for distinguished alumni duties and a warm wave to a sold-out O'Connell Center crowd during the '25-26 season.
Come Saturday, they'll be together again – this time as Hall-of-Famers.
And no will take it away.
"I'm proud to be a Gator, always have been," Moten said. "I'll say that all day long."
They'll do their Two Bits-ing for the Gators, but plenty of the 90,000 in the house Saturday will return the favor and cheer for the "M&M Boys."
Like they did during the '80s.
"I have six screws in my ankle now," Moten said. "I'll let Vernon do the jumping-around parts."
