Florida Star Named Favorite to Win Prestigious College Basketball Award

Right now, all the talk is about how Florida’s football program will play in SEC competition, with the Gators taking on Auburn on Saturday in what’s expected to be one of the better games of the week in college football.

But in just a couple of weeks, we’ll all be focused on this basketball program. Florida has shown over the past couple of years that it might have the best basketball team in America, and this season is expected to be no different. In fact, looking at college basketball rosters, one can make a strong argument that Florida is by far the best team in America on paper.

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We can go down a long list of guys who are expected to be major contributors on both sides of the basketball for the Gators, but at the top of that list is Thomas Haugh.

Haugh, undoubtedly one of the best players in all of college basketball, even has an argument for being the best.

That’s not to say that he’s going to be the first pick in next year’s NBA Draft, but there’s a strong argument to be made that he’s going to have a bigger impact than any other player in college basketball. That’s why he was recently rated as the favorite to win the Wooden Award.

“After helping Florida win a national title as a sophomore, Haugh took a major leap last season, averaging 17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists. His surprising decision to stay in college vaulted the Gators to No. 2 on Hoops HQ’s Never-Too-Early Top 25. The do-it-all forward has made significant improvements every year of his career, and there’s no reason to believe he won’t reach another level this season.

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“The biggest X-factor in his pursuit of the Wooden Award? Efficiency, particularly from behind the arc. Haugh connected on just 32.6 percent of his 5.2 three-point attempts per game in 2025-26,” Aaron Cohen wrote.

I think there’s a real argument to be made that Haugh can win this award, mainly because of how good the Gators are going to be on both sides of the basketball.

If Florida ends up winning a ton of games,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/florida-star-named-favorite-win-120042700.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-19 12:00:00

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