The window to withdraw from the NBA Draft has closed, and it could be argued that no team in college basketball came out bigger winners from the process than the Florida Gators. The Gators had Alijah Martin, Will Richard, and Walter Clayton Jr. all go through the draft process in hopes of getting drafted in June.
But all those players are seniors and were done with the Gators one way or another. It's the two other players for Florida who could have stayed in the draft that have ramped up the hype machine of defending the national title in 2026.
Florida Basketball returns two big pieces for 2026
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Yahoo! just put out a list of the biggest winners and biggest losers from the NBA Draft process, and the [Florida Gators](https://hailfloridahail.com/todd-golden-played-chess-to-upgrade-florida-s-roster-while-others-played-checkers) came out as the big winners.
Both Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu withdrew from the draft to return to Gainsville to try and defend Florida's national title. Throw in Thomas Haugh not even exploring the NBA, even though he had the potential of being selected in the 2nd round, and the frontcourt for Florida is going to once again be loaded in 2025/26.
Of Florida, [Yahoo said](https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-basketball/article/nba-draft-withdrawals-florida-is-the-big-winner-while-duke-is-on-the-losing-end-222124500.html):
_"Don't count out Florida as a potential repeat national champion. The Gators project as no worse than a preseason top-five team next fall thanks to a wildly successful offseason so far._
_It starts in the frontcourt where Florida returns all four players who were part of the rotation during last season's NCAA tournament. In late April, versatile forward Thomas Haugh opted to bypass the NBA Draft and return to school. He'll see more playing time at small forward next season with frontcourt stalwarts Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu withdrawing from the draft over the past week and reserve center Micah Handlogten also coming back._
_All four of last season's top perimeter players are moving on, but Florida went on a shopping spree via the transfer portal to help replace some of that lost firepower. Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee averaged 16.9 points and 5.5 assists last season. Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland is a former five-star recruit who might have gone in the second round of this year's NBA Draft had he not pulled his name out last week."_
For what it is worth, Houston was also declared a big winner, while North Carolina and Duke were deemed the two big losers from the process.