SAN FRANCISCO ― The NCAA men's basketball transfer is already open, and for Florida basketball, it means trying to find the balance of preparing its team for the Final Four and building for its future.
The Florida Gators (34-4) will definitely lose all three of its starting guards ― All-American Walter Clayton Jr., senior Will Richard and senior Alijah Martin, at season's end. UF could also lose sophomore starting forward Alex Condon, who may declare for the NBA Draft. The 6-foot-11, 230-pound Condon, a second-team, All-SEC forward, is viewed as an intriguing NBA Draft prospect because of his combination of size and athleticism.
Sophomore forward Thomas Haugh and junior guard Denzel Aberdeen will likely step into more prominent roles next season, which is why UF is focusing more in the backcourt. According to On3's Joe Tipton. UF is targeting UNLV guard Dedan Thomas Jr. and ETSU guard Quimari Peterson, who are both currently in the portal.
A four-star guard recruit, the 6-1 Thomas was recruited heavily by UF but chose UNLV. He entered the portal after UNLV fired its coach, Kevin Kruger. A scoring point guard, Thomas averaged 15.6 points and 4.7 assists for the Running Rebels last season. He's considered the top point guard available in the 2025 portal class.
Peterson, also at 6-1, is coming off a junior year in which he earned SoCon Player of the Year honors at ETSU, averaging 19.5 points while shooting 42.2% from 3-point range.
Golden was asked UF's approach in monitoring the portal before UF's Elite Eight matchup with Texas Tech on Saturday.
"We haven't been very active at all right now for this year, trying to give our guys that have bought into our program that are with our team right now all the attention," Golden said. "And we'll worry about that when the season's over and we might miss on a couple of kids because of that. I've seen kids already committing, which is kind of crazy because there's teams still playing ball right now."
Playing in its sixth Final Four in school history, Florida will face Auburn on Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas (6:09 p.m., CBS).
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun's Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida basketball focusing more on present, not future, during Final Four run
