Todd Golden has been on a hot streak since UF cut down the nets

Todd Golden is living large these days (Photo by Chris Spears)

Todd Golden is living large these days. The hot streak that carried the Gators to 12 straight wins culminating with the NCAA championship back on April 8 when Florida beat Houston, 65-63, shows no signs of cooling off. In the 45 days since he cut down the nets in San Antonio, Golden has thrown out the first pitch at Wrigley Field, signed a 6-year contract extension worth more than $40 million, replaced the most dynamic backcourt in all of college basketball with one that potentially could carry the Gators back to the Final Four, and hobnobbed with the President of the United States in the Oval Office.

Life is certainly very good for Florida’s 39-year-old basketball coach and it will get much, much better in the next few days if Alex Condon decides to withdraw from the NBA Draft and return for at least one more year as a Gator. Because Golden has successfully dipped into the portal to bring in three dynamic transfers, the Gators should be able to replace the firepower lost with Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard graduating and moving on to the NBA. Should Condon come back, Florida’s 4-man rotation of big guys will return intact and nobody will have more talent or returning experience in the paint.

The Gators will be very good even if Condon elects to go pro, but if he returns the Gators might be the odds on favorites to repeat as NCAA champs. Thursday, Golden said he is “cautiously optimistic” that Condon will choose to rejoin Rueben Chinyelu, Tommy Haugh and Micah Handlogten on the UF front line.

“I will never speak for Alex, but based on some of the conversations we've had as a staff about what he feels like he would need to stay in the draft, we are cautiously optimistic,” Golden said. “I'm not saying he can't get [a guarantee] but you just never know and it's just early. The NBA Draft, I think, is June 26th or 25th or something like that. So there's a lot of time between when these guys have to decide and when the NBA Draft is and a lot can change. So, that's why I say that, but it would be a blow, for sure. We have some contingency plans, but we want Alex back."

While Condon is considered an intriguing prospect because he’s a mobile 6-11 with decent shooting range and outstanding defensive anticipation, there is no doubt that he needs to put on some muscle and could benefit from another year of college basketball. ESPN and a couple other mock drafts seem to believe Condon will be an outstanding fit for the San Antonio Spurs, who have the No. 38 selection overall (second round). Second round contracts don’t have the guaranteed money of first rounders and that could impact Condon’s decision.  

"We've had good conversations with Alex," Golden said. "We've been really respectful of his process, and he's been great in terms of communicating with us, in terms of where everything's at. I'm cautiously optimistic, but we're going to, again, be very mindful of his process. He's getting great workouts of teams. He's looked good in different combine events. I think we'll find out, my hope is on the 27th - the day before the deadline - and I'm hoping for good news for the Gators, but I love Condo regardless, and he obviously was really impactful in his winning national championship. So we're grateful for him.”

If Condon returns, Golden can proceed forward with his plan to play Tommy Haugh on the perimeter, thus creating a big Florida lineup that will be a matchup nightmare for other teams. At 6-9, Haugh can score and defend on the inside, but as he proved in Florida’s run to the NCAA title, he has the outside shot that can stretch a defense. In Florida’s comeback win over Texas Tech in the Elite Eight game, Haugh nailed a pair of critical 3-pointers in the final five minutes when the Gators overcame a 10-point deficit to win, 84-79.

During Florida’s 12-game winning streak to close out the season, Haugh averaged 11.75 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He was 13-36 (36.1 percent) from the 3-point line during that stretch.

With Haugh playing on the perimeter, Golden said it “would allow us not only to keep him on the floor but also to get Micah, Rueben, and Condo out there more if we're fortunate enough to have [Alex] back. He's a huge leader, too, and we need him to be a leader for this team. He does that through example, but we want him to be more vocal that way this year, too."

Last week Chinyelu withdrew from the draft process. There was never much doubt that he would stay in the draft. He was testing the waters and trying to get a handle on the things he needs to do to improve his draft stock for next year. This is similar to what Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard did a year ago when they went through the pre-draft workouts only to return to Florida.

During his pre-draft workouts, Chinyelu was a very physical presence.

“We were recruiting one guy that was in a workout with him at Portland, and they said he [Chinyelu] was just a monster, just the most physical beast out there,” Golden said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, we saw that for 40 games last year’, but I think it was a great experience for him, you know, and he's going to be as hungry as ever to continue to get better.”

Obviously, the best news of the week was the commitment of Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland. A former 5-star recruit who averaged 13.2 points per game, Fland combined with Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee and Ohio University transfer AJ Brown should enable Golden to overcome the 46 points per game lost that Clayton, Martin and Richard provided.

Fland and Lee are natural point guards. Golden believes their skills can mesh to make Florida’s offense explosive.

“I see it working really, really well,” Golden said. “I'm excited about it, to have two guys that can play so well with the ball in their hands. They make plays for themselves but also for others really, really well. They both have great assist rates. They both take care of the ball really well. When you have two point guards that are out there making plays, I think it makes your offense really dynamic, so we’re excited. I think you can have both those guys start the offense. They're both going to have the ball in their hands a ton, being able to play out of the ball screen, being able to push in transition, weapons that teams are going to have to account for.”

In addition to scoring in double figures, Martin and Richard were elite defenders who could lock down an opponent. Richard defended perimeter guys and often handled guys 3-4 inches taller. Martin was an extremely physical defender. So, replacing their defense will be every bit as important as replacing their scoring.

When Golden wanted an evaluation of Fland’s defensive skills, he went to Clayton, who was matched up with Fland when the Gators played Arkansas.

“I think he's outstanding defender,” Golden said. “When I was talking to Walt about him, one of the things that Walt said was he thought Boogie was one of the better defenders he went up against last year, and that says a lot as he was a freshman last year. Once Boogie kind of felt like college was something that he was kind of looking more towards doing than staying in the draft, he became a guy that we focused on, and thought he'd be a great fit with Xaivian and the rest of the pieces in our program, so it fit really well. The best part was he thought the same about us, and when we kind of had that agreement, it being a good match, it was kind of downhill from there in a good way. We're excited to get him here a couple weeks.”

Golden indicated that the Gators are likely to add one more player to the roster during the summer months. Because minutes on the court will be difficult to come by next season, Golden will be looking to add someone who needs a year or two of development.

“We have one more [scholarship] open,” Golden said. “We're not going to rush. I think we have a great group right now, and my hope is with this last spot, we'll be able to find more of a developmental type player, a guy that'll come in and be happy to learn behind some guys. So we're not going to rush, but if that turns out to be a European player, I'd be very happy with that as well.”