Haugh returning to Florida; NCAA loss 'lit a fire'

Florida forward Thomas Haugh will return to the Gators for his senior season, he told ESPN on Tuesday, delaying an opportunity as a potential lottery pick and likely cementing Florida as the preseason No. 1 team in men's college basketball.

Haugh, the No. 13 prospect in ESPN's Top 100 for the 2026 draft, becomes the highest-ranked prospect to announce his return to college. He is the first player since Michigan State's Miles Bridges in 2017 to opt for another year of school while projected as an NBA lottery pick.

The 6-foot-9 Pennsylvania native's decision to return follows the same announcement last week from frontcourt mate Alex Condon, while starting center Rueben Chinyelu announced Monday he's testing the NBA draft waters but will maintain his college eligibility to return to Florida if he withdraws from the draft.

"Most guys in my position in the draft, it would be a no-brainer to go to the NBA," Haugh told ESPN. "It's not just the NIL. It's a chance to play with my boys. To play for coach [Todd] Golden. To go to the school I love to play for. It was definitely a tougher decision than last year, but it was best for my career and future."

When the buzzer sounded in Tampa at the end of Florida's 73-72 second-round loss to 8-seed Iowa, Golden worried that this might have been the last time his national championship-winning frontcourt would play together. Haugh had eyes on the NBA, and Condon and Chinyelu were also weighing NBA options. With the nature of the transfer portal, it was unclear who would be back.

Haugh earned third-team All-America honors and first-team All-SEC honors this past season, averaging 17.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, and was tracking comfortably for the middle of the first round. There was no expectation that he'd return.

"I think that lit a fire underneath me," Haugh said of the NCAA tournament loss. "I [didn't] want my last memory of Florida basketball to be that."

"The hardest part was the initial week," Golden told ESPN. "His mind had been made up, he was going. When the season ended the way it did for us, it was a little bit of a punch in the stomach. Allowed a little more to reflect. Not only on that game, but how the season ended and where we are. That moment allowed for this to happen."

At their end-of-season meeting, Golden and Haugh joked about him having another year of eligibility. But the idea of Haugh returning for his senior season didn't appear to have any momentum until Haugh's family, and agent Aaron Klevan of THE·TEAM, approached Golden and asked what a potential return would look like in terms of situation and compensation.

"They really didn't need to sell much," Haugh said. "Coach Golden and the staff did a great job, not pressuring me. They're my guys. They're going to text me and call me regardless. They didn't do much recruiting. I grew up a Florida fan. Tim Tebow. The back-to-back national championships. The 2014 team, I remember. They didn't really have to sell me."

While NIL wasn't the sole factor, Haugh will be among the highest-paid players in college basketball next season. He will earn revenue share compensation similar to what mid-first-round picks are guaranteed, in addition to lucrative true NIL and endorsement deals.

The first-round rookie contract scale is tied to a given year's salary cap, with guaranteed money tied to each slot 1-30 in descending order of value. In 2025-26, the average Year 1 salary for an NBA rookie picked in the 11-15 range, where Haugh was projected, was $4,309,660 -- a number he projects to clear easily this season.

"The unique angle that we were able to drive home to Tommy's family and Aaron Klevan, this dude has real bottom-line NIL value," Golden said. "That's an area right now where elite college athletes have an advantage over mid-tier pros. Tommy Haugh's legitimate NIL value at Florida is 10-20 times what his NIL value would be on an NBA team next year. Because of the brand awareness at Florida, he will have been here for four years, all of those things along with him returning, our supporters really appreciate the loyalty."

Financial incentives have broadly changed for all NBA prospects, with college programs now capable of competing against multiyear rookie contracts in the short term. Those market forces, coupled with what NBA executives view as a much thinner draft in 2027, have caused a flood of college players to stay in school without testing the draft waters.

Haugh told ESPN he plans to continue focusing on his 3-point shooting and improving his comfort level playing small forward. There is room for him to improve his current standing with another strong season, particularly with the NBA's uncertainty around the strength of next year's incoming freshman class.

"Getting this group of guys back together for one last run, they're going to have a lot of attention and notoriety, a lot of it deserved," Golden said. "We're going to have a ton of pressure, a ton of eyeballs on us this year. But it's a privilege. Use it to fuel us the right way. Can't allow it to splinter us. But we'd much rather be the hunted than the hunters. We just have to accept there's a lot of pressure that comes with that."