GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Barely 12 hours after returning from the team’s up-and-back championship-honoring trip to Washington, Florida coach Todd Golden checked in Thursday morning with his first offseason media opportunity since the Gators were honored at halftime of Orange & Blue Game on April 12 

A lot of has happened over the last six weeks, much of it celebratory in nature, but in between all the banquets and accolades — the Winged Foot Award at the New York Athletic Club; throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field; the tour of the White House, complete with meet-and-greet with President Trump in the Oval Office — Golden and his staff have been busy rebuilding a roster that lost its three leading scorers in senior guards Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard, and is waiting word on whether it’ll lose its fourth in NBA prospect Alex Condon. 

Along the way, the Gators added a trio of transfer guards, the last of which, point guard Boogie Fland, officially entered the fold with the arrival of his enrollment paperwork Tuesday. Fland, a sophomore by way of Arkansas (the first McDonald’s All American to join the team in six years), is expected to pair up alongside Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee to give the Gators two box-score stuffing offensive threats in the backcourt. 

Junior center Rueben Chinyelu (6.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg), the only UF player to start every game during the ’24-25 season, made his return to the team official earlier in the week. Junior forward Thomas Haugh (9.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg in all but five games off the bench) is back and ticketed to move into the starting lineup at the wing (or “3”) spot occupied the last two seasons by Richard. 

Offseason workouts — and the start of chemistry-building, as well as the introduction of some concepts rolled into the offense — are scheduled to begin June 9.

Among the topics du jour for the UF coach Thursday: 

* On having two ball-dominant guards in Fland, who averaged 13.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists during an injury-plagued freshman season of 21 games, and Lee (16.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 5.5 pg, 36.6 from 3): “To have two guys that can play so well with the ball in their hands, they make plays for themselves, but also for others really, really well. They both have great assist rates. They both take care of the ball really well. When you have two point guards that are out there making plays, I think it makes your offense really dynamic. So we’re excited. I think you can have both those guys start the offense. They’re both going to have the ball in their hands a ton, being able to play out of the ball screen, being able to push in transition, weapons that teams are going to have to account for.”

* On Condon, who averaged 10.6 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds, and the chances of the 6-foot-11, 230-pound forward, potentially returning for his junior season (the deadline to pull out of the NBA draft is May 28): “We’ve had good conversations with Alex. We’ve been really respectful of his process, and he’s been great in terms of communicating with us, in terms of where everything’s at. I’m cautiously optimistic, but we’re going to — again — be very mindful of his process. He’s getting great workouts [with] teams. He’s looked good in different combine events. I think we’ll find out, my hope is on the 27th, the day before the deadline, and I’m hoping for good news for the Gators. But I love Condo regardless, and he obviously was really impactful in us winning the national championship. So we’re grateful for him.”

* On the signing of Ohio U transfer guard AJ Brown, who underwent shoulder surgery after his ’24-25 sophomore season with the Bobcats when he scored 13.2 points per game, shot 47% from the floor and nearly 39 from distance (Brown is the older brother of UF sophomore guard Isaiah Brown): “AJ’s a guy that’s kind of flown under the radar a little bit in terms of bringing him in, kind of dealing with the shoulder injury he had surgery on before we signed him. He’s just really an efficient scorer. A guy that can finish from 2, really shot the ball well from 3 last year. And a guy, as we’re kind of putting the pieces to this puzzle together, will provide a scoring punch for us and a guy that can make shots. I think that’s something that we needed with the frontcourt that we play and kind of adding some other new guys to the perimeter. Just an efficient, effective scorer, a guy that’s done it for a couple years and a guy that really wanted to be here. As you guys know, that’s really important to me.”

* On including out-going transfers Denzel Aberdeen (Kentucky) and Sam Alexis (Indiana) on the trip to the White House: “We wanted them to be part of it. They were part of our team. Both guys gave us great impact in terms of winning the national championship. We’re not petty. We appreciate everything they’ve done for us, and we wanted them to be part of it, and their teammates wanted them there. It was kind of the cherry on top for that group, and for them to be back together one last time, so I thought it was really special. College is changing. That’s just the bottom line. It’s a lot different now. So again, for us, we were just proud that we could provide that opportunity for them, and that they took us up on it. I know they had a great time with their former teammates, and we’re still going to try to kick Kentucky’s ass next year, but those guys deserve it.”

* On new assistant coach Dave Klatsky, by way of Division II New York University, the most recent of the two replacements to the staff — following the exits of Kevin Hovde (Columbia) and John Andrzejek (Campbell) for head-coaching spots — along with the promotion of Jonathan Safir from director of basketball strategy and analytics to full-time assistant. Klatsky went 68-16 and won two University Athletic Association titles in three seasons at NYU: “I’ve known Dave for a long time. I’m sure you guys know the relationship between Coach Hovde — Dave’s sister and Coach Hovde are married — so a little bit of a family affair there. My father and Dave’s father actually went to law school together back in the ’70s at Emory. We’ve known each other for a long time. He had great success at Colgate with Matt Langel, and obviously just crushed it at NYU. Again, we want to bring in some of our guys that have a good understanding of how we like to operate. He knows our program well. Obviously, he wasn’t with us, but he’s known kind of how we’ve gone about building it. So we feel like it’s going to be a seamless transition that way.. A guy that had great success as a head coach. I think he will be a very good replacement for Kevin and John.”

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu