Associate head coach Carlin Hartman (far right) and assistant Jonathan Safir (seated on floor) huddle with the talented and deep UF front court following a practice earlier this week.
Youth Served, as Deep Gators Break for Summer
Friday, July 17, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the conclusion of each practice, Todd Golden calls his Florida basketball team to halfcourt for a post-practice postmortem. The subject matter is always succinct, unfiltered and well-intentioned.
Over the course of June and July workouts, a healthy portion of the conversations were directed at the Gators' freshmen front court trio of forwards Domen Petrovic and Arturas Butajevas, plus center Jones Lay. The topics often were follow-ups from sequences coaches addressed in real time between the lines during scrimmages. Missed box-outs or switches on defense. Poor shot selection. A need for more physicality, more speed. A plea (make that demand) for more competitiveness from the jump.
The bar, the coaches tell them, has been set in this championship program – and it is a high one. The young guys need to know that and play to it now.
In making his often-colorful points earlier this week, UF associate head coach Carlin Hartman motioned to a couple other players in the huddle, forwards Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon, and recalled how just three years ago they were flailing freshmen going through an identical indoctrination.
Now, it the new crop's turn.
Carlin Hartman
"Yes, I'm tough on them, but we recruited these guys because we liked them as players and people, and they came here knowing they're going to get coached very hard," said UF associate head coach Carlin Hartman, who is charged with tutoring the Gators' bigs. "The only way they're going to get better is to make them as detail-oriented as possible and to push them outside their comfort zone. That's where Jones, Arturas and Domen are right now. They're still trying to understand how hard it is and the daily grind that we are going to ask of them. We wouldn't do it if we didn't think they could do it."
So, how are the newbies handling it?
"I love it. It's great to see the progression that 'Condo' and Tommy have done and the standard that those guys have set," said Petrovic, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound wing from Slovenia. "I understand that not every step in the process is going to be how I envisioned it, but trusting the process and the coaching is going to get me where I want to be."
And that's exactly where the Gators, the new and the old, left things Friday when they officially closed out summer workouts. The team will have the next four weeks off, with players due back before the start of fall semester on Aug. 20, when they'll tip off the next phase of workouts that eventually will give way to full-blown preseason practices on Sept. 21.
Assistant coach Dave Klasky (left) tutors first-year forward Domen Petrovic during practice earlier in the week.
Friday's farewell session consisted of a mile run on Percy Beard Track across the street, followed by a spirited game of dodge ball in the gym, after which Golden closed ranks for another chat; one his players needed to heed.
The message: Come back in the same shape you left in, if not better.
Make no mistake, the 2026-27 Gators will be remarkably deep, with one or two of the freshmen possibly having a chance to get in the mix for the rotation. For that to happen, either they'll make huge strides or others above them in the pecking order will come back to the pack. But such is life in the new NCAA formula. Starting this season, teams can carry 15 scholarship players – up from 13 – and the Gators are deep enough to trot out a second team that is fairly competitive, with a couple guys left over.
Some might even suggest they have too many players, thus putting the coaches in a difficult spot relative to managing the roster.
"Too many? No such thing," Golden said.
Everyone knows the expectations for Haugh, Condon, center Rueben Chinyelu, point guard Boogie Fland and super sixth man Urban Klavzar. Ditto, transfer guard Denzel Aberdeen, assuming his case for a fifth season of eligibility goes through. There's the presumptive first six.
After that half-dozen, junior Isaiah Brown, who carved out a pivotal reserve role and had some huge moments last season, and seldom-used sophomore CJ Ingram are battling for minutes at the wing and off-guard spots. Sophomore Alex Lloyd, who also saw very few minutes last season, has mirrored Ingram in making significant strides as far as ability, strength and confidence. He's getting reps at both guard positions and making a case.
Fifth-year AJ Brown, the Ohio transfer who sat out last season as a red-shirt, and Alex Kovatchev, both guards, plus junior forward Viktor Mikic are also back.
Then come the rookies.
They've had their indoctrination, albeit for only a month. Given what they've been through, that should be enough. They've banged bodies with and been tomahawked on (unfortunately) by Chinyelu. They've made impressive plays, as well as mistakes, When they come back, they'll know the challenge and be expected to throw themselves into the fray.
"It's been very competitive," said the 6-10, 230-pound Butajevas, by way of Lithuania. "When you play against these guys every practice, just try to get better every day I am out on the court."
Added Lay, who goes 6-11, 240 and hails from North Carolina: "I just want to do whatever I can to help the team win … whatever that is. If they need me here, I'll be here. If they need me over there, I'll be over there."
That's the ideal outlook to have. But it's not like anything more was promised them, beyond a chance to come into an elite program and make their mark.
Freshmen Arturas Butajevas (left) and Jones Lay (right) during Friday's mile-run send-off conditioning session.
"On the front end, we talk about roles. We obviously are selling these guys on the style of play and why they would be good fits here, but we're also very transparent with them, as far as what their role might look like and we never want to give anyone any type of false hope," Hartman said. "But even if they're going to be a limited-minute role, a short-minute role or no-minute role, there is still an expectation level of competing on a daily basis."
The expectation for Tuesday's final pickup session of the summer, relative to attitude and work ethic, was no different than what it will be when the Gators, very likely the No. 1 team in the nation, open the season Nov. 2 against Miami in Tampa.
With lots of hard coaching and tough love along the way.
Any advice?
"I would tell them to take it all," Haugh said. "Look how it turned out for us."
