How Florida Men’s Basketball Can Look with Transfer Portal
On Monday night, the Michigan Wolverines won the NCAA men’s basketball championship with five starting transfer players. So, for a Gators team coming off a disappointing elimination, can a similar transfer portal approach help it get back on top?
Coach Todd Golden will first have to see who he can retain from this past season’s team. Some players have real NBA aspirations, but could still come back and play for Florida.
Guard Xaivian Lee and big man Micah Handlogten won’t be returning. Lee is out of eligibility, while Handlogten chose to enter the transfer portal himself, trying to gain another year of eligibility.
Forward Thomas Haugh is highly likely to enter the NBA draft with his status as a consensus first-round pick. This will be a major loss for the Gators as Haugh led the team in scoring at 17.1 points per game.
What remains to be seen is whether rising seniors Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu will return for another year.
Condon entered the NBA draft after the 2024-25 season, but returned to Florida after the NBA draft combine. This year, Condon saw a major drop in his shooting, hitting only 17% of 3-pointers. Condon previously said he’s 50-50 on returning to Florida.
Chinyelu, on the other hand, is coming off a season that showed major all-around improvement, including a win of Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.
Both Condon and Chinyelu are projected as second-round picks according to ESPN’s recent mock draft. They are both still deciding whether or not to come back for another year. The Gators’ main strength for much of this past season was their elite front court, and losing these two would make the team unrecognizable.
At the very least, Florida has an open spot in their backcourt and at forward that needs to be addressed. Perhaps one of Urban Klavzar or Isaiah Brown can take that next step into the starting lineup, but it seems that incoming transfers are coming.
Based on Golden’s past recruiting, there isn’t any hesitation in recruiting from other Florida schools or SEC rivals, as seen in Alijah Martin’s transfer from Florida Atlantic or Boogie Fland’s transfer from Arkansas. With NIL now as a factor, anything could be on the table.
Guards
Florida will have to look for guards that can play well next to Boogie Fland. One of the top guards expected in the transfer portal is rising senior John Blackwell from Wisconsin. Blackwell averaged 19.1 points and shot 39% on seven 3s per game, the sort of shooting talent that Florida needs.
Another top player expected to transfer is rising junior Juke Harris from Wake Forest. Harris is 6 feet 7 inches with the ability to shoot, score inside, and defend. He’d be a perfect fit to replace Haugh at one of the forward spots if the price is right.
Rising sophomore Stefan Vaaks is expected to transfer from Providence, a 6-foot-7 shooter who would help relieve the Gators’ problems from 3. Vaaks shot 35% on over 8 attempts from behind the arc this past season.
Front court
Florida will also have to look at frontcourt players in the event of losing Condon or Chinyelu. The Gators could try getting rising junior Aiden Sherrell from Alabama, a 6-foot-10 big man who can score inside, shoot, and defend the rim, averaging more than two blocks this past season.
Rising junior Flory Bidunga from Kansas is the top-ranked transfer according to 247Sports, an energetic big man who can score inside and defend the rim. He could be a good fit at Florida, but like all of these players, he will cost a lot via NIL.
Rising junior Somto Cyril is expected to transfer out of Georgia. Cyril is a 6-foot-11 big who proved to be a force inside for the Bulldogs on offense and defense, shooting 76% on 2-pointers while blocking over two shots per game.
The Gators have questions to answer this offseason. After seeing which players stay and which decide to go, the transfer portal will be pivotal in deciding what the team will look like next season.
Category: Basketball, College Basketball, Gators Men's Basketball, SEC
