{"id":715569,"date":"2026-04-22T03:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715569\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T03:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:38:55","slug":"thomas-haughs-unprecedented-return-gives-florida-hopes-of-national-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715569\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Haugh&#8217;s Unprecedented Return Gives Florida Hopes of National Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">Retaining talent in college basketball is so difficult for so many reasons but Florida has found the formula. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">Not only did the Gators keep its frontcourt of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, and Rueben Chinyelu away from the transfer portal but it\u2019s likely that all three will return to Gainesville after Haugh\u2019s announcement on Tuesday that he is withdrawing from the NBA Draft. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">Condon announced last week that he was removing his name from the draft while Chinyelu is still going through the draft process, he is expected to return to the Gators. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Haugh was considered to be a lottery pick in June\u2019s NBA Draft, projected to be picked as high as No. 10 overall by some outlets. He was named as a First Team All-SEC selection this season as well as a consensus Second Team All-American after averaging a career-high 17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">&#8220;Most guys in my position in the draft, it would be a no-brainer to go to the NBA,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/48550569\/florida-top-scorer-thomas-haugh-return-pass-nba-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ESPN<\/a> about his decision. &#8220;It&#8217;s not just the NIL. It&#8217;s a chance to play with my boys. To play for coach Golden. To go to the school I love to play for. It was definitely a tougher decision than last year, but it was best for my career and future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">His return puts Florida firmly in the mix to be the No. 1 team in the preseason poll next fall after earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this season before its upset loss to Iowa in the Round of 32. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">I [didn&#8217;t] want my last memory of Florida basketball to be that,\u201d he continued to ESPN. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">It\u2019s another example why players getting paid is a major win for college basketball as Thomas Haugh remains in the sport for another season and will try and leave his mark as an all-time Gator legend. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retaining talent in college basketball is so difficult for so many reasons but Florida has found the formula.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-715569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116446282986699791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}