Rueben Chinyelu is running it back one more time and the Florida Gators super team is complete.
Chinyelu, the 2025-26 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, decided to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and will return to Gainesville for his senior season. The return of Chinyelu, an elite rebounder and double-double machine, means the entire Gators starting front court will be back after Thomas Haugh withdrew from the draft a couple of weeks ago and Alex Condon announced he was staying back in mid-April.
the wait is over 🗣️🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/ooRLlaCU3T
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) May 21, 2026
Chinyelu's return caps off an amazing offseason for Todd Golden, who not only retained his top three players, but has loaded up the front court with plenty of size with the addition of Lithuanian big man Arturas Butajevas and Slovenia forward Domen Petrovic, a 22-year-old stretch with national team experience. Golden recently talked with the Field of 68 about the return of Haugh and said that the group is focused solely on winning a national championship after last season's disappointing loss to Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Rueben Chinyelu will return to Florida for his senior year
Both Haugh and Condon are likely to project as first-round picks for the 2027 Draft. Chinyelu's NBA path is less certain, which is likely why the 6-foot-10, 260-pound big man decided to do his due diligence and stay in the draft pool through last week's NBA Draft Combine. What Chinyelu brings to the table as a rim protector and a defensive presence in the paint is important, but his offensive game is limited, which is what will likely put a ceiling on his draft stock.
So it truly came down to a decision to go into the draft and likely be selected between the 40th and 50th picks or come back to school with a very good NIL package and try to get another national title before being a second-round pick in the 2027 NBA Draft. The Nigerian-born Chinyelu's value in the college game is undisputed. He set a Gators single-season record last season with 19 double-doubles and his 137 offensive rebounds were also a school record. He fell just short of 400 total rebounds last season, grabbing 393 boards.
Florida is ready to take on all comers
Even before Chinyelu made his decision, the Gators were going to enter next season as the No. 1 team in the country. Now Florida is going to put a team on the court that can only be rivaled by the 2006-07 team that won the second of its back-to-back titles with Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Taurean Green, Chris Richard and Lee Humphrey. That team won 35 games, rolled through the SEC tournament, winning the three games by a plus-58 margin and won each game of the NCAA tournament by at least seven points. I expect this Gators team to have a similar business-like approach to the season.
It's a day for celebration for Gators basketball. The whole crew is coming back, and they are looking to run over everyone that stands in their way.
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