The Man Florida Basketball’s Rueben Chinyelu is Chasing Five Decades Later
The 6-foot-10 Nigerian frontcourt force picked up the pen, opened the book of Gators records, and wrote his name right next to an NBA and college basketball legend, Al Horford.
Yep, Rueben Chinyelu earned his 16th double-double with 15 points and 17 rebounds against South Carolina on Tuesday night. The O’Connell Center roared as “Big Freaky” tied Al Horford’s 16 double-double season from 2007. The O’Dome in-house announcer yelled that Chinyelu marked Florida’s single-season record, but with one caveat. Horford only holds the record for this century.
One Gator tops the two legendary bigs, that being Bob Smyth from the 1975-76 season. A two-time All-SEC member, Smyth only stood at 6-foot-8 but managed to average 12.7 rebounds per game that year to acquire 18 double-doubles.
Chinyelu, averaging 12 rebounds through 26 games, still has five games left in the regular season.
Smyth’s record isn’t safe.
And to be fair, Smyth accomplished the record in only 26 games, but basketball in the ‘70s was almost a different sport compared to 2026. Players his height were a luxury back then.
Nowadays, things have changed, yet the Gators still feature an all-time dominant force in the frontcourt, who’s also never been hotter. Five of Chinyelu’s double-doubles have come in his last six games, so on his current trajectory, he’ll surely break the record by the end of the season, before he even takes the court in the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
As it currently stands, the Gators only play one ranked team, No. 20 Arkansas, in their next five, so Chinyelu’s dominance is, in a way, expected. Of those five teams left, the best rebounder is Texas’ Dailyn Swain, who only averages 7.4 boards per game. Woof.
Chinyelu would also be the first Gator since Smyth to average more than 10 rebounds per game. Horford only averaged 9.5. Looking back to that championship roster from 2006-07, one would think the frontcourt of Joakim Noah and Horford would be the best in Florida’s history. However, the two combined for 25.2 points and 17.9 rebounds per game.
Florida’s current frontcourt of Chinyelu and Alex Condon is averaging 25.4 and 20.1 rebounds per game. Coach Todd Golden somehow found a way to dethrone a frontcourt of two NBA legends with an under-recruited three-star guy from Australia and a Nigerian transfer, Mr. Chinyelu, from Washington State.
Chinyelu and the Gators head to Ole Miss on Saturday at 12 as, simply, the best rebounding team in the country.
Category: Basketball, Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball
