UF forward Alex Condon in disbelief after the Gators' season ended Sunday night at the NCAA Tournament in Tampa.
"Tough way to go out"
Monday, March 23, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The right side of the Hugh Hathcock Basketball Complex was bustling with activity and anticipation Monday, with players and staff of the Florida women's team called to an afternoon meeting to be introduced to their new coach.
The left side of the building, home to the men, was in a different mode.
Barely eight hours after returning home from Tampa, site of the top-seeded Gators' heartbreaking 73-72 loss to Iowa in second-round play of the NCAA Tournament Southeast Region, the coaches were in the office early Monday morning processing what happened the night before against the Hawkeyes and, if only briefly, to begin talking about next season.
"Just a tough way to go out," Golden said from the post-game podium Sunday night.
On the opposite of the platform sat star forward Thomas Haugh, a devastated and disheveled version of himself. Haugh endured the question-and-answer session mostly with his face in his hands. When asked if the time would come when he could look back on the 2025-26 season and appreciate what the team had accomplished – going 27-8, winning the Southeastern Conference championship for the first time in 12 years and a run of some of the most dominant blowout wins in the country – the first-team all-league performer could barely muster words.
"Yeah, I mean, I don't know," he said.
March is the greatest but with due respect to TS Eliot, it is also the cruelest month.
Few Gators ever have been as impactful and won as much as Thomas Haugh. You won't find many better humans, either.
In the moment, as well as ensuing moments, hours, weeks and probably months, everyone in the program (and their fans) will look back to one or two moments or decisions late in this crushing defeat that could have made a difference in the final outcome. Iowa's final possession, most notably.
With a 72-70 lead and eight seconds remaining, the Gators opted to full-court pressure the Hawkeyes, with the intent to foul and give up pressure-packed free throws rather than a shot that could win the game. Iowa beat the press and got a wide-open 3-pointer that forward Alvaro Folgueiras sank with 4.5 seconds that proved the game-winner.
On Florida's final possession, guard Xaivian Lee sprinted the length of the court and, rather than get a shot up (and maybe draw a foul), tried to dump off a pass that was knocked away as the horn sounded.
Cue the Monday morning point guards on TV and social media.
"As I told the team, it was a 67-possession game and a lot is going to be made out of the last possession, as it should in a game like this," Golden said. "But there were a lot of things that we did not do in the other 66 possessions that allowed the game to be in that type of situation where they could hit a 3 to walk us off. That possession is going to be talked about a lot, but I think when we watch the tape, especially in the first half, we didn't finish well enough around the rim and did not prevent them from finishing well enough around the rim."
All of which was true and somewhat surprising, given the makeup of the '25-26 Gators, the best rebounding team in the nation and a top-10 defensive team all season.
The dominant pregram storyline focused on which team – the taller, longer and faster-tempo Gators or the disciplined, methodical half-court Hawkeyes – would be able to impose its will and dictate pace. As it turned, the game was played almost entirely on Iowa's terms, with UF aiding the opponent's cause with, as Golden referenced, uncharacteristic missed shots around the rim and (even more uncharacteristically) being outplayed in the paint by a smaller foe.
UF's 37% overall shooting in the first half and Iowa's 78.6% from the 2-point area set the tenor for the game.
"We've been one of the best 2-point field-goal defenses in America," Golden said Sunday. "We just didn't do it tonight."
Credit the Gators for erasing a 10-point deficit in the first half, a 12-point deficit in the second and taking a four-point lead, 65-61, with less than six minutes to go. But credit more the Hawkeyes with maintaining poise in a virtual road environment and making the plays down the stretch to oust the reigning national champions.
"It's a tough one. I'm going to remember this feeling for a while," UF junior forward Alex Condon said. "We're going to use it as a positive to make us better players in our careers."
Now, for the big question: Where will those careers be next season?
Haugh, the team's leading scorer at 17.1 points per game to go with 6.1 rebounds, is a projected NBA first-round draft pick, with some mocks putting him in the lottery. He is all but certain to forgo his senior season.
Condon, who was second on the team in scoring (15.1 ppg) and rebounding (7.5 pg), has a decision to make. Scouts place him as a borderline late-first or early second-round selection. SEC Defensive Player of the Year and league-leading rebounder Rueben Chinyelu struggled Sunday like in no game this season (1 point, no rebounds) and was overcome with emotion in the locker room afterward. Chinyelu (10.9 ppg, 11.1 rpg) is being mentioned as a late-second round prospect, at best.
The NBA rarely guarantees contracts for second-round selections, which makes the collegiate NIL system a real option for players to return. Condon and Chinyelu may fall in that bucket, but they have a couple months to decide.
UF will graduate senior guard Xavian Lee (11.6 ppg, 4.2 apg) and is awaiting word on a medical-redshirt appeal for 7-foot-1 senior center Micah Handlogten (4.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg). That leaves starting point guard Boogie Fland (11.6 ppg, 3.4 apg), as well as reserve guards Urban Klavzar (11.6 ppg, 40.2% from 3), the junior and SEC Sixth Man of the Year, and sophomore Isaiah Brown (5.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg) as the most likely guaranteed returnees.
Down the bench, seldom-used wing CJ Ingram and guard Alex Lloyd are very much in the '25-26 plans, with fourth-year junior guard AJ Brown, who sat out the season as a redshirt after transferring from Ohio, also in the wings. Sophomore guard Alex Kovatchev and sophomore forward Viktor Mikic round out the current roster, with the transfer portal, of course, being a wild card that can change everything (See Aberdeen, Denzel).
Florida has signed one incoming freshman, but 7-foot center Jones Lay is a three-star project out of Tabor City, North Carolina, so the coming weeks figure to bring news both in the basketball building, on the transfer portal wire and recruiting front (especially internationally), where the Gators could be looking to fortify in both the front and back courts.
In the interim, however, there will be a lot of wondering about what might have been.
"In the NCAA Tournament, games can come down to a couple possessions," UF associated head coach Carlin Hartman said. "If you let that happen, this can happen."
