Florida embraces championship expectations that come with Chinyelu, Condon and Haugh back

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Todd Golden insists his team is ready for everything that comes with being the overwhelming favorite to win a second national championship.

Pressure? No problem. Getting everyone’s best shot? Bring it. Needing to stay on edge for five months? That should be relatively easy given the way last season ended .

“I don’t feel as stressed going into the season,” Golden said Thursday. “Last year, carrying the torch of the national championship into the season was a lot, and we had a new team. We had some returners, but we had a new team.”

It showed. The Gators started 5-4, fell out of the AP Top 25 College Basketball Poll and then dropped their Southeastern Conference opener. They struggled to make shots from 3-point range and didn’t find their identity and hit their stride until early January.

None of it should have been that surprising given the Gators lost arguably the best backcourt in school history, the trio of Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard.

Now, though, no one should be shocked if they are favored in every game.

“We know we’re going to have a lot of expectations,” Golden said. “But we’re not as worried about it this year. I think we’ll collectively, myself included, be more prepared and better ready to handle that earlier in the year.”

Florida (27-8, 14-2 SEC), which lost to ninth-seeded Iowa in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Tampa, returns four starters and is counting on guard Denzel Aberdeen to get a fifth year of eligibility through the judicial system. He has a court date scheduled for Tuesday in Alachua County, with hopes of landing a temporary injunction against the NCAA.

Aberdeen's petition for a fifth season was denied before the NCAA adopted the “5-for-5 rule."

“I think Denzel has the best case, individually, of any guy that’s kind of in this situation of dealing with the NCAA’s confusing, operative system that they’re employing right now,” said Golden, pointing to Aberdeen playing just 40 minutes as a freshman.

Aberdeen, who averaged 13.5 points and 3.4 assists at Kentucky last season, was an integral part of Florida’s 2025 national title run as a junior. Florida hopes he can team with point guard Boogie Fland to upgrade the backcourt.

“A deadly combination, for sure,” Fland said. "I feel like it goes on the court the way it goes off the court, you know what I mean? The brotherhood you have off the court, it trickles into the court.”

More importantly, All-SEC big men Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh are back for their senior seasons along with seven bench players.

“We’re going to be the preseason No. 1 team,” Fland said. “It means you’ll get everybody’s best shot.”

Golden didn’t anticipate having such a loaded roster until after the season ended — and partly because of how and when it ended. The Gators had their sights set on back-to-back titles and came up short.

“Going out that way wasn’t something that we wanted to have or reminisce about,” Chinyelu said. “So it’s just going out there, taking every game out there and hunting down the games we have this year.”

Getting most everyone back started with Haugh and Condon, best friends who passed up NBA riches for another NCAA run. Chinyelu and others followed suit. Golden ended up with 81.8% of his team’s scoring back from last season’s SEC championship team, including six of eight primary rotation players and 11 guys in total.

Florida begins the season back where it ended — in Tampa – against Miami. The Gators also play Notre Dame, probably Houston, Duke and Georgia Tech in nonconference play.

The real expectations begin in March.

“Pressure is good,” Chinyelu said. “It just shows that you are in the right spot, you are doing something good.”

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