With Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu back expectations are stratospheric for UF
At some point the discussion always gets around to Tommy Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon, the nation’s best front court a year ago, the three of them back and all with the same purpose in mind – win a second national championship in three years.
Todd Golden has built a Florida roster that may be as talented from top to bottom as any in college basketball since the 1996 Rick Pitino-coached Kentucky national championship team that eventually sent 11 of its 13 players on to the NBA. That Kentucky team didn’t repeat as national champs in 1997 but got its second national title in three years in 1998, this time coached by Tubby Smith.
Golden has a deep, talented 15-man roster that includes four starters from last season – Haugh, Chinyelu, Condon and Boogie Fland – enhanced by the return to Florida of prodigal son Denzel Aberdeen, who spent a year in exile at Kentucky after providing vital minutes off the bench during the Gators’ 2025 run to the NCAA title, the third in school history. As if a starting five with that kind of experience and talent isn’t enough, Golden has a 10-deep bench of seven returnees and three newbies. The college game is 40 minutes, so adjusting to find the right rotations and solid minutes might be the most difficult task for Golden who has created a basketball culture at Florida in which players who could leave for the NBA choose to return for another bite of the apple.
“Obviously, the basketball has been really good here for a couple years,” Golden said Thursday morning as the Gators officially began practice for the 2026-27 season in which they will begin as the preseason No. 1 team. “Great academic school. There's just not a lot of better options out there than what we have here and we take care of our guys, and our guys take care of us. So, I think we've created a community that way. That people understand it's good and the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I think we're trying to enjoy what we have for as long as we can.”
The three big guys are the face of the program. This will be Golden’s fifth season as head coach at Florida (103-41 record, one NCAA title, one SEC championship, two No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament), his ninth overall (160-77 career record that includes three seasons at San Francisco). Haugh and Condon were practically unknown recruits in 2023. Condon got a few starts as a freshman and has been a fixture in the starting lineup ever since. Condon has made All-SEC each of the last two seasons. Haugh played sparingly as a freshman, was a key reserve off the bench during the national championship run and made second team All-America last year. Chinyelu spent his freshman year at Washington State then transferred to Florida where he will be a third-year starter at center this year. He was the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year in 2026, the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the nation’s second leading rebounder.
Haugh (17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists last year; 1,111 career points) would have been a lottery pick had he gone the NBA route. Both Chinyelu (10.9 points, 11.2 rebounds; 785 career points, 829 rebounds) and Condon (15.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists; 1,181 career points, 782 rebounds) figured to be late first or early second round picks. Instead, they’re back at Florida where expectations for the upcoming season are stratospheric.
“All three of those guys could and should be, you know, preseason All-Americans, right?” Golden said. “And now they're going from guys that were on … all three of them by the end of the mock season were first round guys. Like Rueben crept into 25-26 and so my lesson, my message that I have to continue to deliver to them is, like, what they have already proven is good enough, and getting better and better in those areas will continue to help them raise their stock. And, understanding that we have a lot of great players right now in our program, and every night it's going to be somebody else, and just making sure we focus on winning and just being really good at the things we're good at and not focusing on scoring or things that, you know, might catch us up in focusing on things that don't equate to it. And all three of them have done a great job that way.
“I think they all understand that they have the individual goals of becoming NBA players, which all three of them will in due time, but the sacrifice individually will help us win the national championship this year, and that's our goal. That's why all three of them came back.”
A season ago, Haugh became a hybrid perimeter guy, a 6-9 mismatch who could post up, shoot the three and still have a role in the big man rotation whenever Chinyelu or Condon spent some time on the bench. Condon was a preseason All-America last year but struggled the first two months. Once the SEC portion of the season began the 6-11 Australian adjusted his game and became one of the top players in the country per the kenpom.com analytics. Chinyelu, an imposing 6-10, 260-pound specimen, expanded his game from stickbacks on offensive rebounds into a legitimate scoring presence in the paint.
All three worked hard in the offseason to work on individual phases of their games that will make them more effective this year.
“I don't think any of them need drastic improvements in any specific way,” Golden said. “Like they have individual characteristics that makes them who they are, that make them NBA prospects and make them the guys that really help our team. I think a lot of it's going to be mental this year.
“Rueben is already an NBA defender. He's already an NBA rebounder right? This is something that's not news to anybody. NBA teams already know that about him. He became a low post scorer last year. The back half of the year he was unstoppable down there. Just being elite in those areas. If you can be elite in those areas then his stock will continue to rise. Same thing for Condo. Once he stopped stressing about the three-point shot and being the hardest playing dude on the floor, he got back to being a KenPom MVP in a lot of games. Tommy, same thing. Everybody knows Tommy gave up being a top 15 level draft pick to come back to college. Having the maturity to comeback and continue to be a great hustle, glue guy that makes open threes, straight line drives, plays to win. That's what going to take him into becoming a top 10 pick potentially. So it's just getting a little bit sharper. A little bit more mature and as I said before, understanding that every night is going to be different for us – and as long as we win.”
Fland (11.6 points, 3.5 assists) shared point duties with Xaivian Lee last year. He was an exceptional defender whose offensive game was inconsistent. Lee graduated but used the 5-for-5 NCAA rule to transfer to Gonzaga, leaving Fland as the sole proprietor at the point where he figures to show marked improvement. He will be joined in the backcourt by Aberdeen (13.5 points, 3.4 assists), who is seeking an injunction against the NCAA that will give him a fifth year. Aberdeen, the lone survivor from the first recruiting class at Florida for Golden, played only 41 minutes in 12 games in the 2022-23 season. Aberdeen has gone to court against the NCAA where he seems likely to win.
Paired together, Fland and Aberdeen are a formidable duo. Reports are that Fland has regained his shooting touch while Aberdeen was a consistent offensive presence as a full-time starter at Kentucky last year. Defensively, they might constitute the best guard duo in the SEC.
Golden has a starting five equal or better than any in the country, but he also has size, experience and depth to back them up. Florida’s 15-man roster includes seven big guys, all of them 6-9 or taller, and eight on the perimeter. Up front 6-11 Viktor Mikic returns, joined by internationals Domen Petrovic (6-9, from Slovenia) and Arturas Butjevas (6-10, from Lithuania) and 6-11 freshman Jones Lay. On the perimeter last year’s SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavzar (9.6 points, 40.6 percent from three) and explosive Isaiah Brown (5.5 points) are likely to be the first two off the bench but last year’s freshmen, CJ Ingram and Alex Lloyd, will factor in the rotation. AJ Brown, who missed last year rehabbing his shoulder, and Alex Kovatchev, were both starters at their previous schools. Brown averaged 13.2 per game in 2025 at Ohio U, while Kovatchev was a part-time starter two seasons at Sacramento State before transferring to UF.
So much talent, so much size, so much experience. So high the expectations. After winning the 2025 national championship, Golden had to deal with the pressure and expectations a year ago. Although the season ended abruptly in the NCAA second round, the Gators won the SEC championship outright and were the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Because of the roster he has assembled, Golden knows there is no escaping the expectation to win it all, but he is in a good place when it comes to managing all that is being heaped upon himself and his team.
“Let's be honest, right, after you win a national championship … it’s pretty high, the level of expectation you know what’s coming. And we knew we lost three NBA players in the back court, so it takes a little bit to kind of adjust and get new guys comfortable and involved. So, early last year was difficult, but I think we did a good job coming out the other side of it. And this year, I think we're more prepared to kind of hit the ground running that way."
THE FLORIDA BASKETBALL ROSTER
Big guys: Tommy Haugh (6-9, 215, SR); Alex Condon (6-11, 236, SR); Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 265, SR); Viktor Mikic (6-11, 260, JR); Domen Petrovic (6-9, 230, JR); Arturas Butajevas (6-10, 235, FR); Jones Lay (6-11, 240, FR)
Perimeter: Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 190, 5th); Urban Klavzar (6-1, 185, SR); AJ Brown (6-4, 210, RJR); Alex Kovatchev (6-5, 195, RJR); Boogie Fland (6-3, 185, JR); Isaiah Brown (6-4, 210, JR); Alex Lloyd (6-3, 185, SO); CJ Ingram (6-6, 205, SO)
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