Florida basketball recruiting: Australian center Alex Condon commits to Gators

Basketball

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Image Credit: Tim Casey/UAA

It has been a priority since head coach Todd Golden took over the Florida Gators for the program to expand its recruiting internationally. Thursday night — or Friday morning down under — that effort bore its latest fruit as Australian-born center Alex Condon committed to the Gators.

Condon (6-foot-11, 230 pounds) officially visited Florida on Jan. 13 and decided to join the program just over two weeks later. He informed the staff of his decision Wednesday, according to 247Sports’ Travis Branham, before the team went out and beat No. 2 Tennessee for the signature win of Year 1 under Golden.

Currently participating in the NBA Global Academy in Australia’s capital of Canberra, Condon is not draft-eligible until 2026 giving him at least three years with the Gators once he enrolls ahead of the 2023-24 season.

He is presently unrated as a prospect both due to lack of exposure and because he is still a high-level developmental talent. Condon was a burgeoning Australian Rules Football player who chose to shift his talents to basketball as he pursues a professional athletic future.

Given the conditioning and physicality necessary for that game, Condon should have no problem moving up and down the court and standing tough in the post. If he develops as Golden expects, he may well become a star player for Florida in short order as someone who can play at least some role stepping in for redshirt senior forward Colin Castleton, who is in the midst of his final season.

Condon joins three-star forward Thomas Haugh (Pennsburg, PA) as the lone members of the Gators’ forthcoming Class of 2023. Florida will have at least one additional scholarship available after the season but likely a number more with Golden expected to will in his remaining roster gaps via the transfer portal, as he did in his first season.

Golden sees the portal as an equal, if not perhaps more important tool than high school recruiting when it comes to roster building — especially early in his tenure given the number of departures the Gators saw last offseason.