The return of rising junior forward Alex Condon was huge for Florida basketball, who’s looking to maintain success after claiming the programs third National Championship last season. Condon’s return also means his teammate and best friend, Thomas Haugh, will start at the three next season, a switch head coach Todd Golden has been echoing in the offseason.
“We’re going to play Tommy at the three,” Golden said in an interview with local media. “Definitely start him there and see how it goes, and he’s going to be on the floor a ton, as you can imagine.”
Haugh broke out during his sophomore season, averaging 9.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 24.5 minutes per game off the Gators’ bench. Haugh ranked as the second most impactful 6th man in the country, trailing only Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford, according to Evan Miyakawa. It doesn’t take elite basketball knowledge to realize Haugh should / needs to be starting in 2025-26.
One of the most intriguing parts of Haugh’s game last year was watching his confidence grow as Florida progressed through the season. Haugh made 34.0% of his three-point attempts last season, but in the final 17 games Haugh connected on 37.5% while attempting more. Haugh recorded 15 double digit point games since the start of SEC play after logging just three in non-conference play. He simply became a much more aggressive player.
With nearly every front court player back from last season, Haugh starting at the three makes a lot of sense given his sheer athleticism. Standing at 6’9, 215 pounds, Haugh provides the length you just don’t see out of many threes in college basketball.
“That’ll give us some great opportunities to take advantage of his size and athleticism at the three,” Golden said on Haugh playing the three.
Florida played with primarily three guards in 2024-25, so the Gators’ style might look at a little bit different as they try to simply overpower opponents right out of the gate with Condon at the four and either Chinyelu or Handlogten at the five.
“I think big picture we’ll pretty much the same, but we’ll make some tweaks,” Golden said on Florida’s playing style next season. “I was talking to a couple of our coaches yesterday as we were coming back, like, we’ll be very similar offensively, but, you know, we’ll change 10 to 20% of what we do, to adjust and equate for the different pieces we have.”
The last two projected starters are guards Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee, two explosive play makers that are good with the ball in their hands.
“And now we have two guys that are outstanding playing out of the ball-screen, so I think we’ll be able to do some unique things that way,” Golden said. “But that’s kind of the fun thing about the summer, you know, we’ll get to work with these guys for six to seven weeks and really get a good feel and understanding of how we want to play next year, and so I have some ideas and some intentions on what we want to do, but we’ll use the summer to see if it’s any good or not.”
Haugh won’t strictly play the three, either. He’ll split time at the four when Alex Condon needs a breather or Florida wants to play ‘small’. Haugh can guard pretty much every position on the court, which makes him an extremely valuable asset to the Gators’ roster.