In today’s college basketball world, the media gravitates toward the teams stacked with five-star recruits. Programs like Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina have found their success over the years with one-and-done talents who enter the NBA after short-lived collegiate careers.
The 2025 Florida Gators showed why this narrative doesn’t always have to be the case. UF won a national championship without a single top-100 high school recruit on its roster, becoming the first program to do so since the modern era began in 1985.
While many blue-blood sports programs bring in highly touted talent year after year and pump out NBA lottery picks each season, the same can't be said for UF head coach Todd Golden’s group. Florida’s 2024 recruiting class was ranked 61st in the country, and its transfer ranking was No. 35, per 247 Sports.
Out of the Gators’ primary eight-man rotation, just one contributor was a four-star recruit, four were three-stars and three were unranked coming out of high school, according to 247.
Talented transfer trio
All three players in UF’s backcourt trio who stole the show in March (and early April) transferred to Florida from mid-major programs, and only one was ranked heading into college. Senior Walter Clayton Jr. headlined the pack this season.
Clayton attended Lake Wales High School in Lake Wales, Florida, for his freshman and sophomore years, where he was a two-sport athlete as a basketball guard and a wide receiver and defensive back in football. He received football offers from multiple schools, including UF and national powerhouses like Georgia and Notre Dame.
He turned down the opportunity to continue his career on the gridiron and transferred to Bartow High School for his final two years, focusing his attention on the hardwood. Although he helped Bartow win back-to-back state championships, Clayton had just three Division I offers. The one he decided to accept was with Rick Pitino-led Iona.
He played his first two collegiate seasons with the Gaels before joining the Gators in 2023 when he earned second-team All-SEC honors. In his final year, though, Clayton became a national star, becoming the first player in UF history to earn a first-team All-American selection. He scored a program record 713 points, including an NCAA Tournament record 134 points. Clayton now projects to be a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, according to Bleacher Report.
Like Clayton, senior Alijah Martin was also unranked as a basketball recruit going into college but had offers to play D-I football. Martin was a three-star quarterback prospect out of North Pike High School in Mississippi and had offers from football programs like Tulane and Southern Mississippi.
He rejected those to pursue a collegiate basketball career at one of the few D-I offers he received, Florida Atlantic University. Martin spent four years there, leading the Owls to a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2023. He transferred to UF this season after graduating from FAU.
He had an instant impact with the Gators and played an integral part in the team’s success down the line. In Florida’s victory over Auburn in the national semifinal, Martin scored 17 points and became the first player to ever start in a Final Four game for two different teams.
The third cog in UF’s starting backcourt machine was senior Will Richard. Unlike Clayton and Martin, Richard was a three-star recruit from Woodward Academy in Georgia. He was a part of Woodward’s state championship team during his junior year. Richard averaged 24 points per game and earned a GHSAA first-team All-State selection as a senior.
Among the few mid-major offers Richard received, he picked Belmont. This is where he spent his freshman season before transferring to UF in 2022, becoming Golden’s first commitment in the portal as Florida’s head coach.
Richard has shined since arriving in Gainesville, making the most 3-pointers as a transfer in program history (201). In UF’s triumph over Houston in the national title game, he led the Gators with 18 points, including four made threes.
Frontcourt sophomore connection
While Florida’s backcourt stole most of the headlines during its incredible run, the original overlooked frontcourt tandem of sophomores Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh were no slouches either.
Condon, who is from Perth, Australia, did not grow up playing basketball. He began his athletic career as an Australian Rules Football player, where he impressed Australian Football League teams. He signed a contract with the Collingwood Magpies of the AFL last year, which allows him to be paid until he reaches the NBA and join the Aussie team if he doesn’t.
The 6-foot-11 forward had a 6-inch growth spurt between his junior and senior years of high school, which directed him to focus on basketball. He received only three offers, including one from Florida. Condon impressed in his first season in Gainesville in 2024, earning SEC All-Freshman honors.
This year, Condon’s role took a big step up, as he became the centerpiece on defense and was asked to man the middle on the offensive end as well. He averaged over 10 points, seven rebounds and one block per game in 2025, earning him a third-team All-SEC selection.
Condon’s freshman-year roommate, Thomas Haugh, was huge in Florida’s success this season. Haugh hails from New Oxford, Pennsylvania, where he attended his hometown high school before enrolling at Perkiomen School to help gain more attention from D-1 schools. He had several offers from mid-major programs after his senior year but nothing from the Power Four.
After graduating, Haugh played on the Under Armour circuit along with high-level, college-ready talent. He impressed there, earning offers from Maryland, Illinois, Northwestern and, eventually, Florida. Growing up a Gator fan, there was no question where Haugh would end up.
Last year, as a freshman, Haugh scored just under four points per game in 36 appearances. While he started only five contests this season, his game took a huge leap forward. He averaged 9.8 points and over six rebounds while shooting 34% from beyond the arc. After an impressive year, Haugh is projected to go early in the second round of the NBA Draft, per Bleacher Report.
While Florida didn’t have the same blue-chip talent that many other top-ranked teams had this year, the coaching, underdog mentality and togetherness of the Gators showed you don’t need a squad full of five-star recruits to rise to the top of the college basketball world.
Contact Hugh Green at hgreen@alligator.org. Follow him on X @HGreen_15.
Hugh is the Spring 2025 baseball beat reporter for The Alligator. He is a fourth-year journalism sports and media major. In his free time, Hugh enjoys watching all kinds of sports with his friends.
