Florida top scorer Thomas Haugh to return, pass on NBA draft

Florida ahead Thomas Haugh will return to the Gators for his senior season, he instructed ESPN on Tuesday, delaying a chance as a possible lottery choose and certain cementing Florida because the preseason No. 1 workforce in males’s faculty basketball.

Haugh, the No. 13 prospect in ESPN’s Top 100 for the 2026 draft, turns into the highest-ranked prospect to announce his return to faculty. He is the primary participant since Michigan State’s Miles Bridges in 2017 to go for one other 12 months of faculty whereas projected as an NBA lottery choose.

The 6-foot-9 Pennsylvania native’s choice to return follows the same announcement last week from frontcourt mate Alex Condonwhereas beginning middle Rueben Chinyelu introduced Monday he is testing the NBA draft waters however he’ll preserve his faculty 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 instructed 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 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 on the finish of Florida’s 73-72 second-round loss to 8-seed Iowa, Golden fearful that this might need been the final time his nationwide championship-winning frontcourt would play collectively. Haugh had eyes on the NBA, and Condon and Chinyelu had been additionally weighing NBA choices. With the character of the switch portal, it was unclear who can be again.

Haugh earned third-team All-American honors and first-team All-SEC honors this previous season, averaging 17.1 factors and 6.1 rebounds per sport, and was monitoring comfortably for the mid first-round. There was no expectation that he’d return.

“I think that lit a fire underneath me,” Haugh mentioned of the NCAA event loss. “YO [didn’t] I want my last memory of Florida basketball to be that.”

“The hardest part was the initial week,” Golden instructed 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 assembly, Golden and Haugh joked about him having one other 12 months of eligibility. But the concept of ​​Haugh returning for his senior season did not seem to have any momentum till Haugh’s household, and agent Aaron Klevan of THE·TEAM, approached Golden and requested what a possible return would appear to be when it comes to scenario and compensation.

“They really didn’t need to sell much,” Haugh mentioned. “Coach Golden and the staff did a great job, not pressing me. They’re my guys. They’re gonna 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 only issue, Haugh will probably be among the many highest-paid gamers in faculty basketball subsequent season. He will earn income share compensation comparable to what mid-first-round picks are assured, as well as to profitable true NIL and endorsement offers.

The first-round rookie contract scale is tied to a given 12 months’s wage cap, with assured cash tied to every slot 1-30 in descending order of worth. In 2025-26, the common Year 1 wage for an NBA rookie picked within the 11-15 vary, the place Haugh was projected, was $4,309,660 — a quantity he initiatives to simply clear this season.

“The unique angle that we were able to drive home to Tommy’s family and Aaron Klevan, this guy has real bottom-line NIL value,” Golden mentioned. “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 10-20x 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 modified for all NBA prospects, with faculty packages now able to competing in opposition to multi-year rookie contracts within the quick time period. Those market forces, coupled with what NBA executives view as a a lot thinner draft in 2027, have induced a flood of faculty gamers to keep at school with out testing the draft waters.

Haugh instructed ESPN he plans to proceed focusing on his 3-point capturing and enhancing his consolation degree taking part in small ahead. There is room for him to enhance his present standing with one other robust season, notably with the NBA’s uncertainty across the power of subsequent 12 months’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 mentioned. “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.”