Florida earns three preseason All-SEC honors, picked to win conference

Florida basketball’s star forward Thomas Haugh was named preseason SEC Player of the Year, as decided by a panel of SEC and national media.

Additionally, the Gators were tabbed as the conference’s preseason favorites, marking the second straight season they were the media’s early selection to win the SEC title. Last year, Todd Golden’s gang justified the prediction, finishing with a 16-2 record in league play to win the conference by a three-game margin.

Haugh was also named first-team All-SEC along with center Rueben Chinyelu, while forward Alex Condon earned a second-team selection. All three Gators took home the exact same honors following the 2025-26 campaign, with Haugh and Chinyelu on the first team and Condon on the second team.

Condon — along with Billy Richmond III (Arkansas) and Tyler Tanner (Vanderbilt) — also received votes in the Player of the Year voting.

Florida is the only school with three players named to this year’s preseason All-SEC teams, while Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas have two players each. In all, 10 teams are represented among the 15 selected players.

The Orange and Blue opens things up this month with a pair of exhibition games against Baylor on Oct. 18 in Jacksonville and Stetson on Oct. 27 in Gainesville. Florida then tips off the regular season on Nov. 2 against the Miami Hurricanes in the Orion180 Tip-Off Classic at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida earns three preseason All-SEC honors, picked to win conference