Florida basketball signed two high school players in the 2023 class, both of which are making a significant impact in year one with the program. Thomas Haugh, a three-star prospect from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, ranked as the 185th player in the country, according to 247 Sports.
Haugh helped Perkiomen School to a 2023 state championship while being selection to first-team all-state at, averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds. Haugh also competed in football, volleyball and golf growing up.
The 6’9, 210-pound freshman is averaging 13.5 minutes per game and has appeared in every contest this game for the Gators in 2024. Haugh has found his spot in Florida’s rotation off the bench and is one of four big men that regularly see the court.
“It’s just whatever I need to do to help the team get the win at the end. No matter how much I play, if the end result is a W, then I’m happy,” Haugh said on his usage this season.
“Just playing hard and doing what we do in practice doing the little stuff, getting the rebounds and just I don’t know as freshmen just kind of follow what everybody is saying so we are just following what everyone is telling us to do and just doing our own thing then,” Haugh said on path to playing time as a freshman.
Haugh has noticeably improved his play on the court throughout the course of the season, which he credits to his work in the weight room and finding his shot in practice. Haugh is coming off the best game of his career, where he posted a career high 17 points on 6-9 shooting while adding seven rebounds (4 offensive) in Florida’s recent win over Georgia. Haugh added three triples on four attempts against the Bulldogs, which was 50% of his season total.
“It’s been a pretty big jump,” Haugh said on his improvements this season. “I mean, in the weight room making some of the gains in the weight I’ve gained, and then also helping to get my shot. I think just getting more consistent in practice and stuff like that, so it’s been going up so far.”
“Our strength coach, Victor Lopez, he’s been helping us so much with that stuff and when I first got here I weighed like 200 or something, now I’m around like, 215, playing weight so it’s been awesome,” Haugh added. “I know he stressed it to me in the beginning I didn’t really believe him how physical it was going to be, but it’s really physical out there so, that needed weight, that needed strength is definitely a huge thing.”
Haugh is a physical defender and rebounder, which has led Haugh to an offensive rebounding percentage of 11.4, which ranks 3rd on the Gators behind starters Tyrese Samuel and Micah Handlogten.
“Definitely, the physicality. Mississippi State was a super physical game and I know some of the games we have coming up will be really physical, so that’s probably the biggest difference from high school to college,” Haugh said on the challenge of transitioning from high school to college.
Florida and Alabama are set to play in Tuscaloosa at 7:00 PM.