A chance run-in and exception to a rule: How Florida prepared its title defense

GAINESVILLE, FLA. -- THIS OFFSEASON, months before the Florida Gators could focus on its pursuit of back-to-back national titles, a feat the program had previously achieved in 2006 and 2007, head coach Todd Golden first needed another championship roster.

He had known the best backcourt in America would graduate and push for spots on NBA rosters, but he couldn't predict Denzel Aberdeen receiving NIL offers that would turn Florida's new potential leader into what Golden called a "cap casualty," ultimately departing for Kentucky. At that point, he didn't know whether Alex Condon would remain in the 2025 NBA draft or return to Gainesville.

Through that draft process, though, not only did Condon decide to return, but he crossed paths with former Arkansas star Boogie Fland and tipped the scales of Florida's title defense.

"I was like, 'Come to the Gators. We might have to all run it back,'" Condon told ESPN of their conversation at a Brooklyn Nets workout. "So I don't know if that swung his decision at all, but seeing him [commit to Florida] really helped me out with my decision."

Fland clarified: "For sure, it added to my decision, especially when I knew everybody was coming back."

That fortuitous meeting between Condon and Fland wasn't the only stroke of luck Golden's Gators benefited from as they prepared to chase another ring. To have a realistic chance at etching their names next to the John Wooden-era UCLA Bruins as only the second school to achieve a two-peat more than once, Florida needed more dominoes to fall. A chance connection to an Ivy League star and a watch party at Golden's house were the next foundational pieces in the Gators becoming only the second reigning champion in the past decade to earn a top-three ranking in the following year's preseason AP Top 25 -- expectations that they are collectively embracing.

"I think we need to lean into [the pressure] a little bit because this team at some point is going to fail," Golden said. "That's just the bottom line. And I would love to be able to say, we're going to go 31-0 before the NCAA tournament. That's not going to happen. I think for us to be the best we can be, we need to, at some point, deal with that -- the frustration, the vulnerability, the disappointment -- to really grow.

"If we try to protect our guys from that pressure, I'm not sure we're ever going to be able to experience that."

THREE DAYS BEFORE Princeton's season finale, Xaivian Lee was mesmerized, watching Florida flirt with a 100-point game against Alabama from a dorm room in New Jersey.

The two-time All-Ivy League guard couldn't believe what he was witnessing. There was a Walter Clayton Jr. to Will Richard to Condon whip-around that ended with a dunk. An Alijah Martin slam on a fast break. Thomas Haugh got a finish in transition, too. And Clayton stood out as the maestro of a furious attack.

That's when Lee began to envision himself in a blue and orange jersey.

"I just remember they were playing really fast and Condon was getting a billion lobs and I thought that it was good offense," Lee said about watching that game. "It was fun. It was fast-paced, flowing. And everything was open and they were getting up and down the court."

After the Gators punched their ticket to the Final Four a few weeks later, Lee received a text from someone new. Golden had broken his own rule of not recruiting during the NCAA tournament -- he didn't want potential reports to distract his team -- to capitalize on the fact that Lee and Haugh, teammates during prep school, had kept tabs on each other through a group chat, including Lee's decision to enter the transfer portal.

A week after the confetti fell at the Alamodome, Lee committed to Florida.

Golden's decision to limit recruiting during the postseason put Florida in a tough spot. By the time his team had cut down the nets after a come-from-behind win over Houston in the title game, he had an inkling that Lee would join the squad, but he still had more work to do. While the frontcourt seemed to be intact after a flurry of NBA-related decisions -- with Condon, Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu opting to return -- the backcourt still had more questions than answers after Aberdeen's surprising departure.

Fortunately for the Gators, another elite guard was having second thoughts about his future.

Fland was a five-star prospect who entered the 2024-25 campaign as a projected lottery pick before a thumb injury interrupted his season and, with it, his shot to prove that he could excel at the next level. It didn't help that NBA teams questioned the measurements of the 6-foot-2 guard. A return to college -- and maybe Florida, after his convo with Condon -- began to feel like his best move.

"To be honest, I didn't have a plan of coming back to college basketball," Fland said. "I was going to tough it out and see what the draft experience was like and see what the scouts were saying. And then when I was in New York doing my predraft workout, I had a private meeting -- that became public -- with Coach Golden and the staff and the proposal was fantastic ... it made me think and self-evaluate about the last year and things that I wasn't able to accomplish and the things I need to work on."

The phone kept ringing after Golden and Fland connected, with either Condon or Fland wanting to know whether the other had committed.

"As soon as [Fland] goes in the portal, I'm like, 'Dude, this is a picture-perfect situation for both sides,'" Golden said. "It just really is. We need a point guard and another ball handler with [Lee]. We needed one more really talented guy and we had what I thought were all the other pieces really in place. We had the whole frontcourt back and for [Fland], I'm like, 'This guy is going to be so much better this year just from last year's experience."

AS HE LOOKED at his roster over the summer and thought about its chance to make history, Golden had to remind himself that most of his players might not understand the past.

"Some of them hadn't been born yet," he said about the program's 2006 and 2007 national title runs, a stretch led by Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah, a trio of future lottery picks and NBA standouts.

He aimed to solidify the magnitude of the moment by inviting the team to his house to watch "SEC Storied: Repeat after Us," an ESPN documentary about the program's two-peat, once practice began in August.

"I wanted them to understand how tight that team really was and about their relationships and that it was about more than making money in the NBA," Golden said. "They loved each other, man. That was why they were really, really good. I wanted to show them the documentary because the second year was really hard for those guys. It was tough."

At the Final Four, Condon got in touch with Horford and visited Noah's house later that summer. Connecting with them helped Condon understand where this team could cement itself in the annals of Florida men's basketball history if they can accomplish what Horford and Noah's Gators did almost 20 years ago.

"I think creating a legacy is something we want to do," Condon said.

Emulating the bond that the 2005-07 rosters had is why the 2025-26 Florida Gators have all been intentional about building their chemistry this offseason. There have been frequent trips to Dragonfly, a local sushi joint, but some members of the team prefer a nearby hibachi restaurant with unlimited portions. The team also went snorkeling with turtles in a den on a recent Sunday, a first-time experience for many of them.

"[Lee] and [Fland] have done a good job of hanging out with us off the court and starting to build those connections," added Condon. Scattered around Golden's office are trinkets the bond of last year's group yielded.

There is a framed key to the city that was presented to the team by Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward when the Gators returned with their new hardware. In another frame, there is a proclamation from the U.S. Senate that commemorates the day they won the program's third national title, and a signed letter from President Donald Trump that Golden picked up on the customary trip to the White House.

But it's the sea of shoes that have arrived in droves -- 32 pairs, to be exact -- that align his office and highlight the role Florida now plays in the Jordan Brand hierarchy, also stamping the benefits of a national title run.

"I don't know a ton about shoes," Golden said. "But the kids love that s---."

When he was the head coach at San Francisco, Golden said he had just four pairs of shoes in his office. That fortune, though, also comes with a pressure that is magnified with his entire frontcourt back -- 7-foot-1 center Micah Handlogten (2.6 PPG) should play a bigger role this season -- and a new pair of elite guards.

Lee and Fland both thrive with the ball in their hands, but they'll have to share the load this season and find the same synergy that anchored last year's backcourt. The frontcourt will also demand a few tweaks. Haugh will have to showcase a perimeter game and versatility he mostly demonstrated in spurts a year ago. Chinyelu and Handlogten will play more significant roles for a deep frontcourt, too. Are they ready for that? Condon was never the same after he suffered a midseason ankle injury last year, though he's doing extra workouts on a stationary bike after every practice to increase his durability.

At this time last year, Florida had not yet been viewed as a real contender. The fanfare came later. That's the difference between the two iterations of these teams: The expectations for 2025-26 were set at a high level before the season even tipped.

Golden knows the Gators can either run from them, or -- like the 2007 and 2008 national title teams -- use those great expectations to make history.

"We flew under the radar for a long time last season," Golden said. "This year ... we're going to be preseason top-five most places, so we're not going to have the ability to do that. And I want the guys that are back to feel the pressure and the pride of trying to repeat."