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Big is back
Chinyelu will return to Florida for senior season, giving Gators nation's top frontcourt. Plus: Players Era released 2026 brackets, Cincinnati landed an elite local prospect, two Big East teams added shooting depth, NCAA eligibility news, and much more.
Tristan Freeman
May 22, 2026
Good morning!
A quick programming note: We’ll be off Monday, enjoying the holiday. See you on Tuesday.
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1. Florida gets its defensive anchor back
Several teams await NBA Draft decisions from star players ahead of the May 27 withdraw deadline.
Florida isn’t one of them.
The reigning SEC champs retained forwards Thomas Haugh (17.1 ppg and 6.1 rpg) and Alex Condon (15.1 ppg and 7.5 rpg) and will now be joined by their center.
Rueben Chinyelu started all 40 games for the Gators during their 2024-25 NCAA title season, then was even better as a junior. He posted career-highs of 10.9 ppg and 11.2 rpg and earned All-SEC and Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors.
With all three star bigs back, that’s four starters back(including point guard Boogie Fland) from a team that won 27 games, dominated SEC regular-season play and earned a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It’s still waiting on waiver status of Denzel Aberdeen (13.3 ppg and 3.4 apg at Kentucky), who needs the NCAA (or a court) to give him an extra year of eligibility to play in 2026-27.
If that happens, look for Florida to be the clear No. 1 team in the preseason polls. And that still may be the case even if Aberdeen isn’t back.
2. Players Era brackets set + more schedule news
The Players Era Festival will be the biggest multi-team event next season. In fact, it’s so big that it was divided into two fields: an 8-team and a 16-team bracket.
