{"id":181517,"date":"2026-03-07T00:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181517\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T00:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:48:14","slug":"i-started-focusing-on-other-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181517\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I started focusing on other things’"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEXINGTON, Ky.\u00a0\u2014 On the morning of Jan. 26, Alex Condon<\/a> walked into the second-floor office of Florida associate head coach Carlin Hartman<\/a>. The Gators’ forward and his front court mentor had had nearly two days for the sting of a humbling home loss against Auburn to subside. The pain was particularly sharp for Condon after failing to score a field goal for the only time during the 2025-26 season and finishing with one point and four turnovers.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n\"\"
\nCarlin Hartman<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nThe normal routine would be to review tape and break Condon’s individual game down, but Hartman never even bothered to open his laptop.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nInstead, the two just talked.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThey talked about Condon’s path from Australia, his Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team season and how his relentless motor and developing skill set had caught the attention of NBA scouts during the Gators’ pulsating run to the 2025 NCAA championship. They talked about some personal things, family things, that were on Condon’s mind and, yes, addressed his 15% shooting from the 3-point line and inability to hit wide-open ones through 20 games.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“When he got some things off his chest I was able to look at him and remind him about who he was as a freshman and how he made us have to play him because he was an absolute ass-kicker and one of the hardest-playing dudes anywhere,” Hartman said. “It was because of those things, those traits, that NBA teams were talking about using draft capital on him. It had nothing to do with shooting the ball. It was the ass-kicking stuff. I told him to get back to being\u00a0that\u00a0guy. Get back to being that winning player on both ends of the floor.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAlex Condon (21), with his fabulous footwork and skills on the block,\u00a0has been a problem in the post for SEC opponents this season. <\/p>\n

There’s a reason the Florida “bigs” \u2014 the finest front court collection in college basketball \u2014 refer to Hartman as “OG” (as in “Original Gangster”). He loves them and they know it. He cares about them and they know it. More than that, he knows them and they know it.
\n\u00a0
\n“After we talked, I started focusing on other things,” Condon said.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThis is not to lay everything about Florida’s current 10-game winning streak at Condon’s feet (and remarkable low-post footwork), but the tear the 6-foot-11, 236-pounder has been on of late is high on a lengthy list of reasons the fifth-ranked Gators (24-6, 15-2) will wrap their regular season Saturday against Kentucky (19-11, 10-7) at sold-out Rupp Arena as the 2026 SEC champions.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThe UF buzz saw run since that Auburn buzzkill has been stunning in its destruction, with UF shooting 52.7% as a team, including 37% from the 3-point line, defending opponents at 38.4%, smashing them on the glass by plus-13.5 rebounds per outing, while scoring 93.2 points a game with an average victory margin of 23.2 points.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n[Ready senior writer Chris Harry<\/a>‘s “Pregame Stuff” setup here<\/a>]
\n\u00a0
\nThe numbers put up by the guy they call “Condo” have been a microcosm of his team’s, though he’s hardly been the lone standout along the way. Nonetheless, Condon is at 17.5 points on 59.8% shooting from the floor (while taking just eight 3s, making a pair), 7.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Over the last five games, he’s at 22.0 points per game on 76.7% overall.
\n\u00a0
\nIn Tuesday night’s 108-74 wipeout of Mississippi State, with scoring leader Thomas Haugh<\/a> sidelined by an injury, Condon poured in a season-high 26 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished three assists without a turnover in 26 minutes.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“He was fantastic,” UF coach Todd Golden<\/a> said after watching Condon make 12 of his 19 field-goal attempts and help the Gators to a 61-point second half. “We knew without Tommy being out there that we needed to lean on Condo to keep us organized and to make sure our competitive spirit was in the right place. He got into some foul trouble and he was able to play through that and not let it affect different parts of his game. His offense is elite. He just put the ball in and no turnovers, very poised. Over the last few weeks, he’s played like a first-team All American.”
\n\u00a0
\nWorth noting: Back in October,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0put Condon on its preseason first-team All-America squad.
\n\u00a0
\nNow, he’s living up to the billing by getting back to the intangibles the Gators saw in him in the first place. The timing could not be better.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nGEM FROM DOWN UNDER
\n\u00a0
\nIn the summer of 2022, mere months after arriving at Florida by way of the University of San Francisco, UF’s coaches went to a tournament in Las Vegas to scout prospects. The field was loaded with international players, including a Nigerian named Rueben Chinyelu<\/a>, who barely got off the bench in a game against a team from, yes, Australia.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n\"\"
\nYoung Alex <\/p>\n

\nJonathan Safir<\/a>, then UF’s director of analytics, was in the bleachers that day. Impressed, he called Golden immediately.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“There’s this other guy,” Safir said.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThe Gators instantly went into background-checking mode and loved the intel.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nCondon grew up in an athletic family in Perth, Australia. His father was a football star Down Under and mother a swimmer for the national team. Alex had blossomed into a standout football and cricket player and was well into his teens before turning his attention to basketball as he got taller.
\n\u00a0
\n“He always loved the contact in football,” recalled father Damien Condon. “His first year in tackle [football] we talked about it. I told him the harder you go in, the less you get hurt. Now, his mom didn’t like that, but Alex did. And I think he still thinks like that. I don’t know that he’s ever known another way. He just stuck his head in there.”
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThat’s not a rebound former Aussie rules football star Alex Condon<\/a> (28)\u00a0is chasing.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

There were plenty of bruises and bloody noses along the way (Aussie football is played without pads), but young Alex not only was undeterred by the contact, he excelled at it \u2013 and loved it. Had he remained on the football track, without question, a professional career was there for the taking, but basketball was growing on Alex the same time he was growing (literally and figuratively) into the one of the top prospects in the country.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“Basketball just had a higher ceiling for me,” Condon said.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nSaint Mary’s, Utah and SMU aggressively chased, but when the Gators got in the picture and Condon took an official visit to Gainesville in December of ’22 \u2014 hosted by All-SEC forward Colin Castleton \u2014 he was sold.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“We liked the bigger program and idea of playing in the SEC, with the competition being so great. We liked the Florida weather too, being a lot like Australia,” Damien Condon gushed of the Gators, despite the campus being a half-day away (as in 12 time zones) from home. “Todd was very plain with his vision for Alex. He’d played at Saint Mary’s with some Australian players and knew the language, so of speak. And we loved Carlin. We knew he’d have a lot to do with Alex.”
\n\u00a0
\nWhen Condon and Haugh, his freshman classmate-turned-bestie, arrived the following spring, the Gators were coming off a 16-17 season that marked just the program’s second losing record in 25 years. Hartman got with both players and went to work on their individual skills, with the staff pleasantly surprised not only at the work ethic of the two but their potential.
\n\u00a0
\nSome longtime UF basketball watchers in the program even likened the raw and rookie Condon to a young Joakim Noah.
\n\u00a0
\nAs a freshman, Condon played in all 36 games, with one start, and averaged 7.7 points and was third on the team in rebounding at 6.4 per game, despite playing just 20 minutes per game. The Gators won 24 games, but lost starting center Micah Handlogten<\/a> to a season-ending broken leg in the SEC Tournament title game. Condon’s lone start came in the NCAA Tournament five days later. He had six points and seven rebounds in a crushing 102-100 buzzer-beating loss against Colorado in the first round.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nA year later, after a sophomore campaign when he scored 10.6 points, grabbed 7.5 rebounds, blocked 49 shots and earned third-team All-SEC honors, the ’24-25 season famously ended with Condon diving across the Alamodome floor to cradle a loose ball as the final horn sounded in Florida’s pulsating 65-63 victory over Houston in the NCAA championship game.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nHe stuck his head in there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CHARTING THE GATORS: Poster Program Guy

\nJunior forward Alex Condon’s<\/a> numbers have increased with each season from his freshman year, as he’s grown in the UF basketball program.\u00a0
\n \n<\/p>\n


\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tSeason
\n\t\t\tGames \/ Starts
\n\t\t\tMinutes per game
\n\t\t\tPoints pg
\n\t\t\tField goal %
\n\t\t\tRebounds pg
\n\t\t\tAssists pg
\n\t\t
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t2023-24
\n\t\t\t36 \/ 1
\n\t\t\t20.3
\n\t\t\t7.7
\n\t\t\t.462
\n\t\t\t6.4
\n\t\t\t1.2
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t2024-25
\n\t\t\t37 \/ 35
\n\t\t\t25.1
\n\t\t\t10.6
\n\t\t\t.493
\n\t\t\t7.5
\n\t\t\t2.2
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t2025-26
\n\t\t\t32 \/ 32
\n\t\t\t29.8
\n\t\t\t15.2
\n\t\t\t.548
\n\t\t\t7.9
\n\t\t\t3.3
\n\t\t
\n\t <\/p>\n

\nCondon entered the NBA evaluation process last spring, but opted to return for his junior season. Things got off to a rocky start in 2025-26 \u2014 the Gators, with an all-new backcourt, were 5-4 in December, then 9-5 in early January after losing the SEC opener at Missouri \u2014 but the coaches and players figured things out on the fly, relative to roles and chemistry on the floor. A case can be made that no team in the country was better during the month of February.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nJust in time for March.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nDamien Condon (right) and his oldest son at a football game in Australia. <\/p>\n

“As a father, you want to help your children make the right decision and he obviously did. He came to a great college, with great coaching and was surrounded by people like Walt [Clayton Jr.], Alijah [Martin], Will [Richard], Tommy and all their great families,” said Damien Condon, adding he sometimes cries just thinking about that epic night in San Antonio. “Alex could have left, but he chose to come back and wants to do it all again. He loves being a Gator. It’s in his DNA now. So is the winning.”<\/p>\n

So, about that winning …\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0

\nJUST ONE OF “THE LADS”

\n\u00a0

\nA week after the Auburn loss, the Gators were back at Exactech Arena\/O’Connell Center against 23rd-ranked Alabama in a game with high SEC stakes. The Gators played remarkably. So did Condon, who went for 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists without a turnover, making controversial (and temporary) Crimson Tide big man Charles Bediako look like a career G-Leaguer.\u00a0

\n\u00a0

\nHartman beamed over the stat-stuffing performance, but also raved about elements of Condon’s game fans may not see. That’s because, at his best, Condon is so much more than just a savvy low-post scorer and relentless defender. Hartman, in fact, looks at him like a second point guard. More specifically, a high-post playmaker that can reset the offense. \n<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAlex Condon’s current numbers show\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“He has this ability to keep us in the offense, even when things might be breaking down. He knows when to come high and when to play a certain way on the floor to get a guy a shot,” Hartman said. “These are things, even for coaches, that are hard to teach. He got good at it last year and look at him now.”\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nCondon’s 68 assists rank third on the team. He’s had six games of at least six assists, including two with a career-high eight.
\n\u00a0
\nHe’s also had a handful of turnover-plagued games; six in the season-opening loss against Arizona; six more in home wins against Florida State and South Carolina; a career-worst seven in a victory at Georgia.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nIn each instance, however, Condon refused to allow his mistakes on offense to affect his play on defense. That’s the end of the floor where the Gators are at their best and use their elite defense to create offense. That kind of short-memory requires a certain toughness and unselfishness that is unique.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“When something doesn’t go perfect for him, he’s not pouting or blaming others. He’s just competing his ass off on the defensive end and doing everything he can to prevent the other team from scoring,” Golden said. “Condo is one of those guys that people want to poke and prod at, but the guy is on the right side of winning most every night. He deserves a lot of credit for that.”
\n\u00a0
\nBut isn’t looking for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nApril 7, 2025 in San Antonio: Alex Condon<\/a>\u00a0dives for and secures the most famous loose ball in UF basketball history. <\/p>\n

“I feel like I’m just having fun,” Condon said. “We’re very lucky to come out here and play basketball as college athletes, so I’m just grateful for the opportunity and having fun with it. We’re in a fun time of our lives.”<\/p>\n

Added Golden:\u00a0“I think he was just kind of the last one [on the team] to get to the point where it was like, ‘You know, F it! I’m not going to worry about anything except playing as hard as I can and making sure we’re winning. After the Auburn game, I thought we kind of hit that inflection point and he’s been remarkable since.”<\/p>\n

Like his team. Ten in a row is the program’s longest win streak in SEC play since 2014. All but one, a 94-85 defeat of Kentucky at the O’Dome on Feb. 14, have come by double digits.\u00a0

\n\u00a0

\nIn that victory over the\u00a0Wildcats, Condon posted one of his seven double doubles of the season, tallying 14 points and 11 rebounds. The win was the fifth since the Auburn defeat and Condon was asked his thoughts about the way he’d seemingly put some distance between his on-court struggles.

\n\u00a0

\nHis answer had nothing to do with him.

\n\u00a0

\n“Yeah, I think it’s just more a team resolve,” Condon said. “I’m really happy about the total effort from the lads.”

\n\u00a0

\nAnd five games later, “the lads,” including their invigorated ass-kicker, remain on a roll.

\n\u00a0

\nEmail senior writer\u00a0Chris Harry<\/a> at\u00a0chrish@gators.ufl.edu<\/a>. Find his story archives\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON, Ky.\u00a0\u2014 On the morning of Jan. 26, Alex Condon walked into the second-floor office of Florida associate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-181517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}