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A salute to Thomas Haugh, who should be remembered as a Florida legend no matter what happens in the Final Four
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Without Thomas Haugh, we’d be done talking about Florida basketball in April. After what he did for the Gators in their thrilling comeback win in the Elite Eight, that’s undeniable.
There’s something else that’s become undeniable — Haugh is a Florida legend.
For some who have been casually watching Florida, that might sound a bit too “heat of the moment.” After all, this is Florida, AKA the program with 2 titles and 5 Final Four trips in the 21st century. How could a guy with 5 starts this season who doesn’t even average 10 points per game be considered a legend at a place like Florida?
Easy. Just watch him. You can’t miss him. He’s the guy rocking the modern mullet who’s just as likely to fly in for a pivotal offensive rebound as he is to knock down a 3-pointer in the closing minutes. It’s becoming tougher to find the things that the 6-9 sophomore can’t do as opposed to finding the things he can do.
As Texas Tech found out all too well, Haugh can set a screen to free up Walter Clayton Jr., attack the offensive glass to extend the possession, get the ball back to Clayton and then make a defense pay dearly for trapping the Florida guard. Haugh did that in a 12-second stretch that started Florida’s comeback:
The fact that Haugh drilled a 3-pointer on the next Florida possession with less airspace told you how he felt at that moment. For all the deserved talk about Clayton’s poise in late-game scenarios, Haugh’s impact down the stretch has been paramount for the Gators. You win titles because of guys like Haugh.
Hold up, though. That sounded like I was describing Haugh as some sort of glue guy. Glue guys are valuable, but they do about 1/3 of things that Haugh does. They’ll get a tap-back offensive rebound. They’ll use their length to force a turnover and get a bucket in transition. They’ll run to the inbound passer late in a game because they’re confident they can knock down clutch free throws. Haugh does all of those things and then some.
Stan Van Gundy was about ready to adopt Haugh by the end of the Texas Tech game:
Van Gundy is right. If Haugh doesn’t have the attention of NBA scouts yet, they’re not doing their job. Forget the lack of college starts or the notion that he lacks talent because he was a 3-star recruit in the 2023 class. Take him for what he is now. That is, an unselfish stretch forward who can guard opposing bigs, beat them off the dribble if they take away his outside shot and make them pay when they don’t. That’ll play at the next level.
But Haugh has some work to do at this level before his next step is decided. Florida will need every bit of Haugh in the Final Four (the Gators are +280 to win it all), especially if Alex Condon is still dealing with the ankle that he re-injured in the Sweet 16. Either way, Haugh figures to get plenty of minutes against Auburn on Saturday, just as he did when Florida went into Neville Arena and delivered a statement win against the top-ranked Tigers.
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That night, Haugh had a bit of a coming-out party. Outside of the 19 points that he scored in a November game against Southern Illinois, his 16-point showing against Auburn was his best offensive performance of the season (at the time). He also attempted a then-career-high 8 free throws (he made 7) and he played 29 minutes, which was his highest total since the season-opening win against South Florida. That wasn’t a coincidence. Haugh made Alijah Martin’s absence a distant memory for the short-handed Gators in what still could be considered the most impressive win that anybody had in the regular season.
All Haugh has done since then is look like one of the most valuable players in the country. He’s No. 1 in America with a 139.3 offensive rating, and EvanMiya.com has Haugh at No. 6 in America in Bayesian Performance Rating (BPR) index, which tracks a player’s value on both sides of the ball when he’s on the floor. For a non-starter to have a +/- ranking of No. 12 in the country at +450 is nothing short of remarkable. Simply put, good things happen when he’s in the game.
Beyond the gaudy metrics, Haugh provided something that had been lacking at Florida in the post-Billy Donovan era — the perfect combination of skill and grit. Todd Golden said in early March that Haugh and his roommate, Condon, will be remembered as the 2 guys who changed the culture at Florida (H/T Sirius XM). Both were under-recruited bigs who didn’t have a bunch of premier programs waiting on them.
At the time when Haugh committed to the Gators, he had just 4 Power Conference offers. Golden was 3 months into his tenure, and the roster was totally in flux because of the transfer portal. Go figure that a 3-star Pennsylvania recruit who had Tim Tebow posters on his wall became one of the Gators’ most important players of the last decade.
Whether Haugh’s emergence results in Florida’s first title since the 2006-07 repeat run remains to be seen. Either way, getting the program to its first Final Four of the post-Donovan era more than qualifies as “changing the culture.”
Better yet, that’s legendary stuff.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
