During her senior year in , the 6-foot-3 forward became just the 10th Gator to start career games. But that same season, her first under Florida's newly hired head coach Cameron Newbauer, is also the year, Lorenzen said, that her "love for the game was abysmal.
Lorenzen, now 25 and working in Orlando as a sales representative for a construction company, told ESPN the toxic and abusive culture Newbauer created within his basketball program made her lose the passion for the sport she'd had her entire life.
I had an agent lined up. Lorenzen is one of five former Gators who played under Newbauer to tell ESPN that the former coach routinely belittled and berated them at practices. Players described a pressure-cooker environment where the slightest misstep during a practice drill or a game could spark fury from their former coach. They said he threw basketballs at players, at one point hitting a player recovering from a torn ACL in her injured leg, made racially insensitive comments and routinely reduced players to tears during profanity-laced tirades.
Lorenzen and other players first went on the record with their allegations Monday in a story published in the school's newspaper , The Independent Florida Alligator. Newbauer was introduced as the women's basketball coach in March , the first hire for Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin. Prior to arriving in Gainesville, he'd led Belmont University, a private Christian school in Nashville with an enrollment of just over 8, students, to two trips to the NCAA women's tournament. Despite having a sub-.
At the time of his resignation, the school never mentioned any reports of abusive behavior. That acknowledgement came only after allegations of the abuse appeared in the school newspaper earlier this week. Each time, additional information was sought, and these concerns were addressed directly with Cam as we required corrective actions and outlined clear expectations of behavior moving forward," the school said in a statement on Monday.
