Thoughts of the Day: April 5, 2026

Is it possible that Tommy Haugh could be back for one more year (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts to jump start your Sunday morning:

What Patric Young suggested last week on Jacksonville radio station 1010XL should not only send shivers up and down the spine of every coach in the Southeastern Conference but every coach whose team might have to face the Florida Gators on the basketball court next season.

Young, formerly the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year and now a basketball analyst for the SEC Network, suggested that Todd Golden might not have to replace his entire front line after all. Tommy Haugh is projected to go somewhere between 12 and 16 in the NBA Draft. Neither Alex Condon nor Rueben Chinyelu have elbowed their way into first round talk. Additionally, Micah Handlogten continues to wait for the NCAA to rule on his waiver request that will grant him one more season of collegiate eligibility.

When asked about Florida’s front line next season, Young offered this response: “Very likely you can see all three guys come back … High chance that all three of these guys make a decision and you know I think it's obvious more likely that you see Condon and Chinyelu back. But Tommy Haugh, a great chance that he's back. I mean he loves being a Gator. He's being compensated well … I don't think he can hurt his draft stock. He's going to be a professional. He's going to be in the NBA regardless.”

Young spoke in a casual but rather matter-of-fact manner. Is he in the know or was it simply speculation or wishful thinking on his part?

It has been expected that Condon and Chinyelu might be returning. As second round selections in the NBA Draft it’s unlikely they would get multi-year contracts with guaranteed money. If they were to return to Florida to play their senior seasons, they would, in all probability, make more money than they would as a second rounder on an NBA roster or with a 2-way contract that would involve the bulk of their time playing in the G-League. At Florida Condon and Chinyelu would likely make in excess of $2 million each.

The wild card in this scenario is Haugh, who is currently projected to go in the lottery. Would he turn down life-changing money to return to Florida? That’s what it would take if he were to return to UF, but it wouldn’t be the first time future Gator lottery picks said no to the NBA for one more season in Gainesville. After the Gators won their first NCAA title back in 2006, Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer were all projected to go in the NBA Draft lottery. All three said no, returned to Florida to play one more season with Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey in the starting lineup. After winning the 2007 NCAA title, Noah, Horford and Brewer all left for the NBA and all three were taken in the lottery.

“I’m so proud of that group,” Noah said Saturday while appearing on College Game Day. “We won the first one, had an opportunity to go to the NBA and we decided to come back because we loved playing with each other and our group was so tight.”

It was a group decision to return for a chance to win a second straight NCAA title. The decision was made, Noah said, after visiting Brewer at his home in Portland, Tennessee. Noah and Horford were from families with means, but Brewer was from more modest circumstances and his father suffered long term effects of diabetes.

“When I went to Portland, Tennessee and I saw where Corey was from and when he said, ‘I’m coming back to school and I want you guys to come with me,’ and we’ve got to do this together … When I saw where he was from and for him to say no to the money, it said everything. Even our press conference (in 2007) when we declared for the draft, it was a sad day. That’s how much we loved hooping with each other … People always underestimate chemistry and loving to hoop with each other. It’s rare.”

The chemistry among Florida’s big guys is rare, too. Haugh, Condon and Handlogten have been together for three years. Haugh and Condon were rather obscure recruits coming out of high school (Haugh in Pennsylvania; Condon in Australia). Handlogten was a transfer from Marshall. Chinyelu became an indispensable member of the group a year later when he transferred in from Washington State.

If Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu left for the NBA and Handlogten’s waiver request was rejected, Todd Golden would have a massive front court rebuild on his hands. If all four return, Florida will almost certainly be in everybody’s preseason top 10 and Haugh, a second team All-America selection, would be a candidate for SEC and national player of the year. Chinyelu is the 2026 Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year and Condon will be a 3-year starter. Handlogten is working to return to the form he displayed as a sophomore when he was a starter prior to fracturing his leg in the SEC Tournament championship game with Auburn.

If only Condon and Chinyelu return, Florida will be formidable next season, but all four? If that were to happen a lot of experts would pencil Florida in as a team that could win its second NCAA title in three years.

GATORS ADVANCE TO NCAA GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

It’s off to Fort Worth for the NCAA Championships after Florida’s 3^rd-ranked gymnastics team won the Tempe Regional Saturday night with a score of 198.050, a full .300 ahead of second place Georgia (197.750). It marked the fifth consecutive meet in which the Gators have scored 198 or better, a school record.

Ensuring victory for Florida was the final three in the floor rotation. After eMjae Frazier scored a 9.925, Skye Blakely followed with a 9.95 and Selena Harris-Miranda closed things out with a 9.975, a career-best on floor. Harris-Miranda had 9.9s for both the vault and bars and a 9.925 on the balance beam leading up to her floor routine.

Harris-Miranda competed in the all-around, scoring a 39.70 while Frazier scored 39.55

It marked the 23^rd regional championship for the Gators who are seeking to win their first NCAA title since the third of the 2012-14 three-peat.

UCONN, MICHIGAN WILL PLAY FOR NCAA TITLE MONDAY NIGHT

Based on their total destruction of Arizona in the Saturday night semifinals, Michigan is already established as 7.5-point favorites to win the Big Ten’s first NCAA basketball championship since Michigan State did it back in 2000. Even with Yaxel Lendeborg limited to 14 minutes due to an ankle sprain, the Wolverines demolished Arizona, 91-74, to advance to the championship game against UConn, which advanced to the championship game by beating Illinois, 71-62.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Although the NCAA transfer portal for college basketball doesn’t open until Tuesday, already 29 Southeastern Conference players have let it be known they’re shopping for a new place to play basketball. Once the clock strikes midnight after Monday’s NCAA championship game between UConn and Michigan, all hell is going to break loose and we can anticipate a couple thousand at a bare minimum will state their willingness to participate in what is nothing more than a glorified cattle auction.

The portal stays open for 15 days but the negotiations will go on long afterward. Let’s not fool ourselves here. Sure, there are players who will transfer out in search of playing time who aren’t in it for the money. We’ll know that because they’ll be transferring to a Division I school that lacks the financial resources to fork out money to pay players.

Then you have the power conferences. Last year Kentucky spent $22 million for a roster that lost 14 games and couldn’t get past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. All that money couldn’t turn the Wildcats into contenders. Rather than re-evaluate and try to piece together a new roster with more efficient use of money, it is rumored that Kentucky will throw stacks of money into the raging fire, raising the ante by another $2-3 million … more if necessary. Not only has it been 14 years since the last Kentucky national championship, it has been since 2019 that the Wildcats made it to the Elite Eight game and 2015 since making it to the Final Four.

Kentucky’s not alone. If you’re a power conference school and you aren’t buying players out of the transfer portal then you’re in danger of falling so far behind that your school will never compete for championships. This is why you’ll see schools desperate enough to sign players who are on their third or fourth transfer. John Calipari calls them mercenaries and for all practical purposes that’s exactly what they are.

You can’t really blame the athletes. They’re taking advantage of a spineless NCAA which (a) has very few rules or guardrails in place and (b) lacks the fortitude to enforce what rules there are. Rather than come up with a set of rules that can be enforced to put an end to all this nonsense, the NCAA’s solution is to go to Congress hat in hand begging for people who can’t keep the government open and pay employees essential to our safety to put some antitrust legislation in place that will protect their billion-dollar industry.

On College Game Day Saturday, Jay Bilas said, “If we want players to stay, then sign them to long-term contracts and put buyouts in them, but the NCAA doesn't want to do that because they don't want them to be employees. They want to beg Congress for an antitrust exemption. And they're not going to get it. What other multibillion dollar industry is getting an antitrust exemption from Congress? There isn't one. What the NCAA should do is make rules that don't violate federal law. The rest of the rest of American business has to do it. They can do it, too.”

Although this is basketball’s big weekend, the same questions and circumstances ring true with football and to a lesser extent the non-revenue sports. Miami played for the college football championship with a $4 million transfer QB (Carson Beck). Are you naïve enough to think the money isn’t flowing to baseball, softball and other sports? Texas Tech softball pitcher NiJaree Canady was paid more than a million dollars to bolt Stanford for scenic Lubbock and its many thousands of rattlesnakes and scorpions. Canady got Texas Tech to its first Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City last year.  

The NCAA could put an end to this nonsense but when has it ever come up with practical solutions that are legal? The NCAA is what happens when you put academics in charge of running a business that rakes in billions. College sports are in the process of being destroyed by clueless people who have never run a business their entire lives. What have they given us?  No rules. No solutions. Just chaos, which is what is about to be unleashed once again within an hour or so of the UConn-Michigan game.