The factors possibly behind Condon's Gators return

• Australian big man Alex Condon decided to withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to the Florida Gators
• He averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season for Florida
• Condon started on a Gators side which won the NCAA National Championship

On Wednesday, Alex Condon made the decision to opt out of the 2025 NBA Draft and return to the Florida Gators for his junior year.

Why did this happen, and what does the future hold for the big man?

After a breakout sophomore season, in which Condon averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, the Perth-native's name exploded into NBA Draft conversations, compounded by the immense success of the Florida Gators.

Reports out of the NBA Combine and wider pre-draft process so far indicated that the Gators big was impressing teams, and after winning the 2025 NCAA National Championship, all signs pointed towards Condon striking while the iron was hot and committing to the draft process.

While Condon was broadly predicted to go around the late first to early second round across mainstream mock drafts, it may be reasonable to believe that the first-hand feedback that Condon and his representatives received did not indicate any promises or strong confidence that Condon would get a selection in the first round. With less long-term security and player-leverage associated with second-round contracts, returning to college in hopes of boosting his stock in the process next year has clear upside — if he can indeed increase his stock.

There’s no doubt an NIL payday, presumably in the seven-figure range based on the market, would help soften the blow of delaying his NBA dreams, too.

While Condon is undoubtedly a key feature of Florida’s roster at this point, his second-year breakout was in part aided due to opportunity opened up through the injury of 7’1" centre Micah Handlogten — a player who is now healthy and returning to the program, along with the majority of their frontcourt. Condon will be competing with even greater frontcourt depth for minutes next season.

Rumours have swirled around Ben Henshall's potential to join the program for the 2025-2026 season also, which would reunite the WA players for the first time since they shared the floor at the Under 20 Australian Junior Championship in 2023. Henshall has also seemingly teased such a move today with both an ominous 'side-eye emoji' tweet, shortly followed by a clip of Condon screening Henshall into a poster dunk at the aforementioned Australian Junior Championship competition.

With the team adding top guard transfers Xavian Lee and Boogie Fland into the mix over recent weeks, it appears that ship has sailed, but Henshall's online activity has us continuing to guess.

In spite of Florida’s depth, Condon should remain a priority in the rotation. Having reached the pinnacle of team success last season, his focus in year three will be taking the opportunity to expand his personal success, particularly on the offensive end. While Condon won over fans with his gritty defence and physicality, his offensive skill set was full of promising, if not dominant, skills as a sophomore.

Through the pre-draft process, Condon referenced Alperen Sengun and Isaiah Hartenstein as players he studied and is continuing to model his game after, and there are certainly parallels to be drawn. Expanding his scoring load, evolving his outside shot, further utilising his promising passing and refining his post-game will all be on the agenda — and as the mystique of youth and potential dissipate, tangible development in these areas next season will be key to him maintaining, and ideally building his draft stock in the next 12 months.

"I learned a lot about myself," Condon shared with ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

"Isolating my game and getting with trainers every day, learning how to be consistent. My jumper has improved immensely with how much work I've put into that. My overall offensive package will be on display more at Florida next season."

Returning to college is a bet that could go either way, and he’ll have to continue making concrete progress to maintain, let alone improve his draft stock next season. But as we’ve seen year after year from Condon so far, his work ethic has belied constant development, and playing under Todd Golden at the Gators has proven to be a fantastic environment for his evolution.

It’ll be incredibly exciting to see what Alex Condon is able to achieve in year three.

About the Author

Michael Houben is an Australian basketball writer and scout based in Melbourne, Victoria. As well as covering the game as a journalist, Michael supports US colleges to identify and recruit Australian talent as the owner of Airtime Scouting, and supports grassroots athletes through Airtime Basketball.