GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With 10 and a half minutes to play and his team up by 28 points Thursday, Florida coach Todd Golden sent freshman forward Arturas Butajevas into the game to replace senior Alex Condon. As it turned out, Condon was done for the night.
Condon, the 7-foot Australian, took a seat on the bench having scored 12 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and at eight assists was two shy of the program's first triple-double in nearly 10 years, and just the fifth in UF basketball history.
After the top-ranked Gators finished off an 88-57 defeat of Jacksonville in its 2026-27 home opener at the O'Connell Center, Golden admitted he thought about leaving the standout big man in the game to try and get him a couple more assists. He didn't think about it very long.
That was not what the game was about, not what this team is about.
"A big thing that we talked about going into this game was that this was all about us playing toward the standard and not worrying about individual success," Golden explained. "So, it'd be a little counter-intuitive in that moment to leave him in there to get an individual statistic when we were playing for the team and for the standard. Could've, maybe should've. But I think he'll have other opportunities this year where he might be getting close to triple-doubles."
With this group, he may not be the only one, either.
Alex Condon (21) was doing work on both ends against the Dolphins.
Senior center Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 21 points, seven rebounds and along the way volunteered his services to Condon to try and get his teammate to that coveted milestone.
"Yeah, Rueben was telling me to throw him the ball, that it's an automatic assist," Condon laughed.
Senior forward Thomas Haugh had 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists, with guards Denzel Aberdeen and Urban Klavzar adding a dozen points each to give the Gators (2-0) five players in double-figure scoring. None of the six front-line rotation guys played more than 26 minutes, which was a welcome respite after four played at least 29 (with Haugh at 38) in Monday night's big win over 14th-ranked Miami at Tampa to open the season.
UF shot 49.2 for the game, but stood at 55.1 when the benches were emptied with 7:28 to go, as the reserves combined to go 2-for-10. The Gators made 11 3s for the second time in as many games and improved on their dismal free-throw performance Monday (57%), with the main rotation guys going 15-for-19 (78.9).
The Dolphins, out of the Sun Belt Conference, were held to 33.3% for the game, including just six of 21 from the arc (28.6%) and got doubled-up on the glass 51-25 while surrendering 36 paint points. A bunch of the latter came from Chinyelu, who at 6-10, 265 was too much for the Jacksonville defense in converting seven of his nine shots from both the floor and free-throw line.
"Just going and running down the floor, beating them down there and trying to take advantage of the mismatch or the post-up," Chinyelu said of his night. "It was wide-open all the time. So just calling for the ball. If they double-team me, someone else is open. It works for us all around."
Rueben Chinyeluhad that look on his way to a career-high 21 points.
And then there was Condon, who did a lot of everything and actually was putting out triple-double vibes before halftime with seven points, eight rebounds and seven dishes. In the end, he became the first Southeastern Conference player to post a double-double (the 18th of his career) with at least seven assists and three blocks since LSU's Ben Simmons, another Australian, who did it in 2015 against North Florida.
"He was ridiculous in the first half, just the way he played," Golden said of Condon. "He was zipping the ball around floor. He had some really, really fantastic assists, both to 3-point shooters and the cutters, and was finishing, making his free throws. He's just playing really well, there's not much more to say other than that. I think he's playing very confidently and playing the right way, and good things are going to happen for him when he does that."
JU made UF work through the bulk of the first half. The Gators took the lead (for good, as it worked out) on a Klavzar 3 at the 15:03 mark to go up 11-8. The margin was 10 four minutes later, but the Dolphins cut that in half twice and trailed by just five, 31-26, after a 3-pointer by Hayden Wood (team-high 11 points) with five minutes to go in the half.
Then came a 19-2 Florida onslaught to finish the period, a run that was highlighted by two 3s from Aberdeen and another by Haugh, back-to-back buckets by Condon and a slam by Chinyelu off a dish from Condon that sent the Gators to locker room coasting at 50-28.
The Dolphins scored the first seven points of the second half, but Condon's first 3 of the season started a 10-0 run that ended with a Klavzar 3 and pushed the margin to 25. It eventually got as high as 35.
"Obviously, the last four minutes of the first half, I just think we wore them down a little bit and started making some shots, turning misses into transition opportunities, and got the lead up to 22 pretty quick," Golden said. "Played the right way in the second half, with the exception of a couple early turnovers."
The mistakes were easily overcome. Condon and friends made sure of it.
