Forward Thomas Haugh led UF in scoring (17.1 points) and minutes (33.3 per game) on the way to first-team All-SEC and second-team All-America honors during his 2025-26 junior season.
A Resounding Return Few Saw Coming
Friday, June 12, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The two moms left their downtown Tampa hotel for the short walk to Benchmark International Arena next door. It was nice to be together again, if only for a few hours.
Jennifer Haugh and Cherie Foster had basically spent the previous two college seasons by each other's side – laughing and crying; cheering and jeering; stressing and (ultimately) celebrating – while living out a magical run of Florida Gators basketball through their oldest children.
Over the previous few months, Jennifer's son, Thomas, had enjoyed a spectacular junior season in helping lead UF to a Southeastern Conference championship and garnering All-America honors. Cherie's son, 2025 NCAA Tournament hero/superstar Walter Clayton Jr., was in the middle of an up-and-down rookie NBA season, details of which she shared with her friend on that stroll to UF's opening-round '26 NCAA game in March.
A first-round pick of the Utah Jazz, Clayton bought a house in Salt Lake City and moved his family west, she said. On a Monday night in early February, Clayton had a decent game at Toronto. Two nights later, he was traded to Memphis.
The game of basketball – something that brought Clayton and his family so much joy over the years – was now a business.
"Tell Thomas to enjoy every minute of this," Cherie told Jennifer of the college experience. "The NBA is not for the faint of heart."
Thomas Haugh was borderline inconsolable after the team's second-round NCAA loss to Iowa in March.
As it turned out, neither was that weekend for the Gators. Top-seeded UF was stunned 73-72 by Iowa on a 3-pointer with less than five seconds to go. Jennifer and her husband, Ryan, were there to witness the abject devastation and heartbreaking jolt the defeat leveled on their son in what everyone associated with the program – including his parents – figured would be Haugh's final game in a Florida uniform.
It made those few moments with Clayton's mom all the more poignant. Ryan and Jennifer Haugh
"She is a tough cookie," Jennifer said. "Her words resonated with me."
That loss was March 22. On April 20, after training with NBA draft prospects and taking five days in Hawaii to clear his head, Haugh announced that he would return to Florida for his senior season. His relationship with teammates and coaches, his passion for the university he loves, a nagging sense of unfinished business and, yes, lucrative NIL opportunities led to a landmark decision – seemingly unfathomable at the time – that one day might stand alongside Tim Tebow, Haugh's boyhood idol, and his famous return for his final season.
"If we'd have made a deep [NCAA] run, we probably wouldn't have as good of a chance of getting him back. I think that's reality. That's human nature," UF coach Todd Golden said. "And I think that kind of pours into his competitiveness and the legacy that he wants to leave here at Florida."
Haugh, Alex Condon (three-time All-SEC selection), Rueben Chinyelu ('26 NCAA and SEC Defensive Player of the Year), Denzel Aberdeen (back after a year as Kentucky's starting point guard), Urban Klavzar ('26 SEC Sixth Man of the Year) are all back from UF's 2025 NCAA championship team. It's a coup of personnel retention unheard of in this day and age of college athletics.
Which means there can be just one goal.
"It's national championship or bust for this team," Haugh, the team's scoring (17.1 points) and minutes (33.3 per game) leader last season, declared Tuesday, as the Gators began summer workouts this week. "But we're mature enough, we have a really old group now, so I think we're going to be really comfortable coming in this season."
And in Haugh's case, very excited and at peace with his decision.
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'
Haugh and Condon went to California after the '25-26 season to train and work out both with current NBA players and other potential draftees. For Haugh, it was a chance to expand his game – work on his shooting, as well as drives and finishes with his left hand – and receive feedback from professional coaches and executives on where he needed to improve. It also gave Haugh time to ponder his next step.
"I knew he was still messed up about our last game," Condon said this week, referencing the Iowa loss. "But I really didn't think he was coming back [to college]"
Alex Condon (left) and Thomas Haugh (right) not only hoop together, but love fishing together.
Back in Gainesville, the Florida coaching staff and Florida Victorious had been busy working on a compensation package that could stack up against the salary of a player projected to be selected in the NBA lottery. The numbers were generous (and commensurate), making Haugh's dilemma clear.
Either start a professional career or return to the place and life he'd loved for three years for one more go.
About that time, Haugh had an enlightening call with former UF teammate Will Richard, who was coming off his NBA rookie season with the Golden State Warriors. Richard, a second-round pick who far exceeded first-year expectations, was up front with his advice.
Golden State guard (and former Gator standout) Will Richard(3) became a sounding board during Thomas Haugh's decision process. Associated Press photo / Ethan Swope
"I'm not going to lie, it was hard for me to see both sides," Richard recalled this week. "Tommy had already cemented himself at Florida, but he had a chance to go back with those guys and try to do it all over again; be part of that brotherhood again. I told him, 'It's always been your dream school, bruh, and the NBA isn't going anywhere.' Him being a year older [next season] wasn't going to matter."
To hammer home the point, Richard executed a three-way FaceTime call that brought Warriors teammate and all-star forward Draymond Green into the conversation. Draymond Green
The four-time NBA champion told Haugh he was a fan who had followed Haugh's career and basically echoed everything Richard had said, especially when it came to the bonding element of the college game. In the league, he said, teammates aren't hanging out every night. Moms and dads aren't in the arena for every game. Players play the games, then afterward do their own thing; some go home to their family, some hop in their fast cars, some head to fancy clubs.
Remember, Richard added, "Last year was the best year of all our lives."
On a trip to Hawaii with his girlfriend, Haugh had a chance to decompress and do a lot of thinking. Upon returning to California, Haugh's father pushed for a decision. It was time.
That's when Golden, along with a couple of assistants, made the trip to Los Angeles. They met Haugh at his favorite lunch spot, where he gave them the news.
Golden picked up the check.
Haugh's "I'm Back" video, courtesy of Florida Victorious, was posted on social media April 21.
"When I could, I watched almost every [Florida] game last season," said Richard, adding that he and Warriors teammate Al Horford, the UF Hall of Famer and two-time NCAA champ, would sometimes sneak a look at their phones at halftime to see how the Gators were doing. "What was hard for me was just seeing how close they were. I missed the basketball, but I really really that family feel. I missed being together with those guys."
There could have been as many as three Gators – Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu – in the 2026 NBA Draft. Instead, there will be none. All three opted for "that family feel."
RUNNIN' IT BACK
Haugh and the Gators were back in the practice facility Monday for the start of summer workouts, both on the floor and in the weight room. Haugh sat out the first couple days of pickup action, but was on the court Thursday. His team won every game, with Haugh drilling a pair of game-point 3s.
The faces he played with almost all familiar ones.
Said Haugh of having a whopping 10 players back from last season: "The last three years, it's felt like we had a new [team]. It doesn't feel like that at all now."
In (from left) Alex Condon (15.1 points per game), Boogie Fland (11.6 ppg), Rueben Chinyelu (10.9 ppg), Urban Klavzar (9.6 ppg) and Thomas Haugh (17.1 ppg), the '26-27 Gators will return five of their six top scorers from last season's team that finished 27-8, won the SEC regular-season championship and was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
If the first week of action demonstrated – more like confirmed – anything it was that the Gators will be as deep as any team in the country.
In addition to their championship-pedigree nucleus, two sophomores, small forward CJ Ingram and combo guard Alex Lloyd, appear poised to challenge for roles in the rotation. Ingram, one-time hotshot football recruit and late-bloomiing basketball prospect, is a special athlete and further along in his feel for the game, while Lloyd is playing point guard, knocking down 3s and showing a renewed commitment on the defensive end.
UF has a pair of international newcomers. Slovenian upperclassman forward Domen Petrovic is a 6-9, 230-pound shooter on the wing, who drilled eight 3s in one pickup session, while 6-10 Lithuanian freshman forward Arturas Butajevas, checked in Tuesday, was cleared Wednesday and got his first pickup action Thursday.
Both folded seamlessly into the mix.
"The boys – the ones coming back and the new ones – they just love the whole vibe we got going here," Condon said. "It's still very early in the summer time, but we have such a great culture, we love playing with each other and have a very unselfish team."
And a very motivated one, with a very happy guy in the No. 10 jersey to help lead it. Haugh moved into a house a couple blocks from the practice facility. He has his boat to get away on his fishing trips. His sister Riley, a year younger but also a UF senior, is in an apartment just off campus near her sorority. Both are scheduled to graduate next spring.
Oh, and their younger brother, Tanner, is now a freshman and living in a dorm across the street from the gym with new Tommy teammate Jones Lay, a freshman 7-footer from North Carolina.
All three Haugh children (from left: Riley, Thomas and Tanner) will be UF students this year.
Last week, just two hours from Tampa and just over two months since that enlightening walk to the arena, Jennifer Haugh came to the UF practice facility to see her son. When she entered the atrium of the Hathcock building her eyes welled up.
"I thought if I'd ever be back here again, maybe in 15 years, I'd be talking about how my boy once played here," Jennifer said. "I never thought I'd walk back in here and see him in that gym again."
