The Florida Gators basketball program got some big news on Thursday afternoon, both literally and figuratively.
The 2026 regular season SEC champs announced that their 6-foot-10 starting center, Rueben Chinyelu, would be forgoing the NBA Draft in favor of returning to Gainesville for his final season of eligibility.
Chinyelu, who won SEC and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year honors this past season and was a second-team All-SEC selection, was projected to go anywhere from the tail end of the first round to the middle of the second in the upcoming NBA Draft.
The Florida Gators celebrate after defeating the Texas Tech Red Raiders to advance to the Final Four in the Elite Eight round of the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on March 29, 2025. (Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
The Nigerian native reportedly turned some heads at the NBA scouting combine earlier this month with his measurables and improved shooting ability, and while the general consensus around campus was that Chinyelu would be returning for the 2026-27 season, the news coming out of the combine might have planted some seeds of doubt both in the heads of Gator fans and Chinyelu himself.
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Chinyelu will rejoin both Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh in Gainesville, the latter of whom was projected to be a fringe lottery pick, as the Gators their entire frontcourt from a team that went 16-2 in the SEC last season and were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament back in March.
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Florida Gators celebrate on the bench during the second half against the Maryland Terrapins in the West Regional Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on March 27, 2025. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The return of Chinyelu all but cements Florida’s status as the nation’s preseason No. 1 team heading into next year, and will certainly give the Gators the firepower they need to avenge an ugly second-round loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes that sent them home from the tournament earlier than expected.
It may also explain coach Todd Golden shutting down any and all rumors regarding his eyes being set on the NBA.
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Head coach Todd Golden of the Florida Gators reacts during the second half of a game against the Auburn Tigers at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla., on Feb. 10, 2024. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
It’s no secret Golden will one day want to test the waters of professional basketball, but with all the talent returning to Florida this next season, it makes no sense for him to want to be anywhere other than north-central Florida in 2026.
The Gators and Golden will have their eyes set on Detroit, the site of next year’s Final Four, and with the core that is returning to campus, anything less than that will be a colossal disappointment.
Austin Perry is a writer for OutKick.
